SuTree Takes Discovery Seriously
by Aner Ravon

Scott Karp wrote a great post last week about video needing discovery more than distribution. In case you’re lazy, here’s the bottom line:

“Whoever figures out a scalable, networked, distributed, Web 2.0-compliant solution to the online video discovery problem may find themselves in the rare position to compete with Google.”

No more, no less. And I totally agree.

SuTree seems to agree with well. Their video based, end user e-learning service is based on discovery. While many video sharing verticals (Aniboom, 5Min.com) create their own stock and while YouTube and MetaCafe manage huge horizontal repositories, SuTree takes a different approach - it searches, filters and aggregates instructional content from across the big web. This way, they believe, true vertical value can be provided to the user without compromising the content itself.

I tried it and it works.  The results are rich, diversified and fetch content from good sources that I would never have known about otherwise. I ended up discovering not only content but great websites (check out VideoJug). it is clear the SuTree team are onto a good formula and that they build a good blend of technology, editorial work and collaborative filtering. I was very impressed with the depth of content I found. Quite a few categories and subcategories filled with plenty of high quality content. I also liked the “random lesson” which is offered on almost every page an that is very sticky in this case.

It’s not the service is free of flaws. The categories are too “serious” for my taste for example. I would appreciate some lightening up with more fun categories, such that would get me to both explore and contribute more often. I also found the site way too crowded with advertising. Finally, I found the free search very limited at this point. The service needs a lot more time and depth before the “long tail” can be effectively addressed with free search.

in the long run, one is tempted to ask the “why not YouTube?” inevitable question. I am a big believer in verticals and this is no exception. Yes, YouTube can ‘do it tomorrow’ but users will not look to e-learn on YouTube. The bigger challenge would come from the independent e-learning repositories which can expand to search. SuTree may develop a unique position of an ultimate search partner when that happens.

Aner Ravon
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