liv.tv – video sharing for your cellphone

Liv.tv is a brand new mobile service that allows you to share and view videos on your cellphone. Think of it as Youtube for your mobile phone.

I have been playing around with liv.tv for a week or so and I think they are on to a killer idea, it just seems so far that it has been poorly executed. Liv.tv has been out as a beta since July 2007, and currently works across all network operators, so that’s at least good start. From a technology point of view, I have a number of issues with Liv.tv.

The Liv.tv website

Liv.tv consists out of 4 parts. The website, mobile site, blog and java application. Lets start by having a look at the website – www.liv.tv. The entire product is being developed in Java, which isn’t a bad thing, but when it is being executed in the way Liv.tv is, it looks like a half baked solution developed by inexperienced developers, or developers not very fluent in all things Web 2.0. Here are the following reasons why:

1. URL’s should be all be lowercase. No excuses.
2. The main site should be sitting on www.liv.tv, not www.liv.tv/LivTV/. I know (from my days as a Java developer) the latter has got to do with the way Java is run on the Tomcat server, but that can be fixed. Subdirectories are there to be used as sub domains / pages of the main site.
3. Make use of proper URL rewriting. You do not run websites with .jsp, .php extensions anymore. That was Web 1.0.
4. Did I mention that using uppercase URL’s are the first signs cancer? Better check your LIVer, liv.tv.
5. Table-based layouts. You kidding me? I know you used Dreamweaver to create the design, but even Dreamweaver can create div and CSS based layouts easily.
6. The use of frames. Seriously? This also means that SEO is almost non-existent on the site.
7. Naked links (Can’t remember the exact terminology) – none of the links have any hover states. It makes navigating the site extremely difficult
8. Not all pages correctly link the Terms & Conditions and User Manual. Also, why is the one an html page, and the other a PDF?

This is a pretty long list of things I have found wrong with the site, but I think its necessary for liv.tv to realise that in order for them to actually produce a high quality service, they are really going to have to up their game from the technology side of things.

From the mobile side of things, the site seems to function well, although I would like to see wap.liv.tv redirect to m.liv.tv, just as www.liv.tv/wap does.

Improvements needed by Liv.tv

• The java application needs to be somewhat sexier. Take a feather from MXit’s hat and develop not only a sexy loading sequence, but also a sexy interface. This alone gets people coming back for more.
• Include a % complete status when downloading content. Currently there is no indication whether a download is working or not.
• The entire copy of the website needs to be changed to better reflect the young, hip and vibrant brand that Liv.tv is targeting. Just reading the about page will make you want to yawn.
• Along with the website that seriously needs a redesign, the entire UI of the site needs a makeover. Absolutely nothing is featured on the homepage. It all looks like one big sloppy mess.
• Having top video’s is a novel idea, but the same video’s are always going to stay top. A decent algorithm needs to be built to better feature new and upcoming content. Just take Youtube as an example.
• If you going to run a Liv.tv forum, don’t host it on some free forum service like this – http://livtvforums.dnsalias.org/

One thing they seem to be getting right is offline interaction. Have a look at the liv.tv presenter search video that was put together by 9mm Films (the guys that also helped out 1st Project). There definitely is a real buzz about Liv.tv. It’s just a pity they have yet to carry that enthusiasm onto the web.