The video sharing website, Vimeo, recently turned seven years old, and although in some peoples eyes it may sit in the shadow of Google’s YouTube, its rise to importance on the world wide web has been dramatic. The website was founded in late 2004 by two partners and was intended to be a place solely for the uploading of user made videos. The name ‘Vimeo’ is said to reflect this with it being a combination of the words ‘video’ and ‘me’.
The site was founded by video makers, who had a vision of creating a portal to not only share their work, but to also share moments of their own life which were personal to them. As with most creations which fill a gap in a market place, people were attracted to the site and ended up forming a solid community consisting of people all over the world with varied passions and interests. Vimeo still holds true to its original ethos of allowing only user created videos to be uploaded to the site, with things such as gaming videos, music videos or any type of por*ography not allowed onto the site.
With a member base of over 900,000 people, who upload a massive 16,000 videos a day, 10% of which are in high definition it makes sense that the company had previously made their service available through an iOS application, similar in functionality to the YouTube applications which comes as stock on iOS devices. The people in charge have now decided that the time has come to enhance the mobile experience for the Vimeo community, by introducing a new suite of mobile applications available for Android devices, the Kindle Fire and handsets running Windows Phone operating system.
This release is sure to delight the community members and regular viewers who own a mobile device which did not previously have a native application, but even more likely to delight is that fact that the applications allow the full Vimeo experience from the device. The features include everything you have to expect, such as searching for content, playback of videos, sharing of the links, commenting and providing feedback.
The current iOS application is to received quite a hefty update in the coming weeks with a new iPad optimized version being released. At present we are unsure if this will be a universal application, or if current iOS version will received an updated iPhone release along with a stand alone iPad app. The user interface will be changed and improved, opting for a grid like view which will be consistent with the new Android applications UI. The Android application will be a free of charge download from the Marketplace and will be compatible with Gingerbread and above. The applications do not require users to have a registered account, however, logging in to Vimeo through the application will launch all of the Vimeo features and provide a much more powerful browsing experience.
The Windows Phone release of the Vimeo application features a classic metro style that we have come to expect from such applications. The application adopts a slightly different approach, and allows users to seamlessly swipe between different views to explore content. One of the more engaging and visual features is the changing of size of the tiles, allowing you immediately recognize where you are in the current hierarchy. All of the applications will also allow registered users to shoot video and upload directly to their account.
If you are a Vimeo user, account holder or keen to explore what these applications can bring then they should be available for download to your device today.
Download Vimeo for Android
Download Vimeo for Windows Phone from Zune Marketplace
Download Vimeo for Kindle Fire from Amazon App Store For Android
(Screenshot Credit: TheVerge)
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