YouTube is a great resource to get video online, but even it doesn't always have the clip you are looking for. That's where Redlasso comes in. I just so happened to blog about Redlasso signing up with the Fox TV group exactly one year ago! Wild. But the site lets you edit your own clip from Fox and a bunch of other programming too. Then you can put that video on a blog or a social networking account. Redlasso's Gabriela Herbas talked to me about the potential she sees the site offering bloggers and other web users.
Mike McGuff: What is Redlasso and which media does it partner with?
Gabriela Herbas: Lets say you are watching FOX Chicago (as an example) covering Obama's speech on Health Care and there's this one portion where he talks about "federal subsidies" that you wish you could add to your blog. You can search the actual spoken word of the raw broadcast content on Redlasso, clip the specific portion you want, and add it to your blog (we provide you with the embed code, the link, shortcuts to add to twitter/facebook, etc) It's so easy, and even better yet... it's completely FREE! You can also search our clip library, but if you can’t find what you need, you can clip it yourself, moments after it airs on TV. We have licensed local news content from many of the Top 50 US major cities, some radio stations, and clip content from Wendy Williams, Lou Dobbs Radio, Governor Mike Huckabee and more.
MM: Why did the site go away for a while?
GH: As some may know, we did a Beta about two years ago and the story was very interesting. We were really trying to demonstrate our technology and provide a solution for broadcasters to better monetize their content, while giving web editors and consumers a better way to share broadcast content, all at the same time. For that purpose the Beta was very successful, and it was done in a very open way with all of the broadcasters. However, sometimes the right hand doesn’t always talk to the left hand very well. Our legal issues were resolved very quickly, and we secured our first licensing agreement for Television content with the entire Fox Stations Group. This was and remains amazing, and truly validates our platform and our mission. We spent a considerable amount of time redesigning the site, and even while we were preparing for a re-launch, more stations have partnered with us. We now have license to over 115 TV and Radio sources, many already available, some are still being integrated as we speak. We re-launched the platform officially in October of 2009, and things are growing every day.
MM: What features are on the site now?
GH: I’m glad you asked this because our core features are so different from anything else out there in the video space, sometimes… it’s just hard for people to visualize what we have. I like to describe it as being like: your DVR, meets search engine, meets YouTube. We are NOT just a clip site for video clips. You can actually MAKE the clips on the site. There is no uploading process. We actually store up to two weeks of the RAW and nearly LIVE television news-cast content. We have facilities all over the country that are indexing this content by the spoken word. So when you go to the “Make A Clip” tab at the top of the page, you can select a source or city, narrow in your time frame, put in your search terms, and the player actually delivers you to where that content was said in broadcast… with video. Like if you could search your DVR by the spoken word. Then, you can actually “clip” the part you want to share. Set the “in” and “out” points, hit save… and you’ve now got an embeddable and linkable clip to share. It’s pretty amazing actually… and fun!
Once you have the clip, the player menu provides you with the embed code of your clip, the link, an e-mail option, and shortcuts to social networking sites such as facebook and twitter.
MM: And you can make your own RSS feed?
GH: Yes, in a pretty unique way too. So, the top half of the site layout is really centered around the experience of making a clip. The lower half of the site is really the clips that are created and being shared by the other users. You can execute any search for clips, and add any filters by Category or even city… and once you get your results, click the RSS logo, and it will generate an RSS feed on the fly for that result set. If you want a politics feed, then just click “Politics”, then click the RSS icon… done.
There is another RSS icon at the top of the site, that allows you to enter some custom fields, then “generate” a feed that way too.
MM: Who is your target user?
GH: Even in the YouTube world, there are uploaders and viewers… those who want to consume, and those that want to be the “editors”. We tend to gravitate to Bloggers, Columnists, Newspapers, News, Politics and Entertainment sites, however… anyone can use the site. We recognize that by simply having a Facebook account, you have the power to be your own “editor” of your space. You have the power to share and comment on broadcast news content. Redlasso gives you the ability to not just consume clips, but to create the clip that interests you most, in the way you want to share. If I want my clip 5 seconds shorter than yours, to streamline the message in a new way… I can do that on Redlasso.
I think our demo video is helpful too. You can read about what we do, but to see it is even better. http://www.redlasso.com/player.htm?id=e6643c3d-b952-49fd-928b-e1437c2f9cc9
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