As the co-founder of an upcoming startup that deals closely with this, a passionate objective of mine is to make the web a more awesome place to share stuff. And after coming across Brooklyn, New York-based startup Mux — self-titled a “Happy Hungry Videobot,” — I believe this problem has been solved for video.
Mux deals with three basic issues in the video space: coverting, sharing, and mobilizing. More specifically, it can convert videos from URLs that you give to be ready to download to your PC, it makes it easy for you to share videos privately with friends and family, and lasty, send videos to your cell phone. Here’s how each individual feature works:
Converting
I gave it the URL to a YouTube video, in an instant it gave me a selection of three formats (iPhone/iPod, Windows Media, & DivX) or multiple codecs, and within seconds I was downloading the video in my selected format. Dead simple. Ingenius. And best of all, it has the makings of a product that always works and you don’t have to think much about.
Sharing
This couldn’t get any simpler. I specified a video from my desktop, it uploaded it, and gave me three simple boxes to specify my name, e-mail, and a place where I could list the e-mail addresses of friends and family whom I wanted to send it to. And it worked.
Mobilizing
A major problem these days is getting videos to work with mobile phones. And again, Mux shines. I specified the URL of a video (or alternatively, you can upload too), and it had options ready for me to select — including the format, size, mobile number, and carried (from across the world!). And yes, you guessed it, it worked.
Mux to me seems like what video sharing, or sharing stuff in general, should be on the web these days. Dead simple, fast, beautiful, easy, elegant, and something that always works. They’ve clearly spotted three equally important and un-served niches, and serve to them brilliantly. A well made product, and it’s usefulness is unquestioned.
