Microsoft is revamping the user interface for its video service websites: Next.Video.MSN.com and MSN Soapbox. They both have similar looks, but the difference is that Soapbox focuses more on the social aspect of videos.
Videos on Soapbox can be commented on, added to favorites, and can be embedded on any website whereas MSN Videos don’t have those features. Soapbox also allows users to upload videos, but MSN Video does not.
MSN Video Beta is an aggregation website that collects some of the popular clips from around the web. For example, Will Smith Singing in Hindi was pulled from IFILM, What We Call The News was pulled from JibJab, Penguin Safari was pulled from National Geographic.
Both MSN Video Beta and Soapbox has a clean look and is very organized. You can browse all the clips without even having to move to another page. This means you can browse and watch videos at the same time which is a feature that YouTube, Google Video, Revver, and DailyMotion lacks.
However, one thing I see as a problem is that every video doesn’t seem to have its own unique URL displayed in the browser address bar. I like seeing the unique URLs because it makes it easy to send YouTube/Google Video/etc. clips to friends on messenger programs.
From what I read on LiveSide, Soapbox is more scalable, has improved fullscreen, and has playlist functionality.
