Adobe is seriously getting into the blogging and video podcasting software market.Last month, Adobe introduced Adobe Captivate 2 with closed captioning that can make audio podcasts more acessible plus you can distribute the same podcast with subtitles in differents languages so that it appeals to a wider set of audiences globally.
Then came Adobe Contribute 4 which Adobe is promoting as a blog editing tool for corporates and organizations offering tight integration with frequently used Microsoft Office programs.
Today Adobe announced that it has acquired Serious Magic, developers of VlogIt and Visual Communicator, which are hugely popular among video bloggers for creating vidcasts and even corporate presentations.
While the video editing capabilities offered by Serious Magic tools are not so advanced as Adobe Premiere Pro, they do offer extra features like scrolling transcripts, transitions and support for video blogging formats that makes the entire process of creating and publishing video blogs very fast and simple even for non-technical users.I think Adobe would take the extra vlogging features of Vlot It! and integrate it with their Adobe Premiere Element software which is a scaled down version of Adobe Premiere Pro. Better still, if they also release a separate video blogging add-on for Premiere.
Other than the blogging advantage, Adobe also gets the popular Chroma Key technology of Serious Magic [ULTRA Vector Keying] which can pefectly replace green screen with any custom background video scene even when the greenscreen is not properly lighted. ULTRA is already compatible with Premiere Pro, Adobe After Effects, and Flash Professional.
It is hard to guess Adobe's plan for Ovation, which is another popular add-on for PowerPoint to make the animations more jazzy and real. Maybe, they could integrate them with Adobe Presenter.
Overall, this is a significant development and we could see more innovations in the video podcasting area emerging from the Adobe Headquarters.
Adobe Employee Reactions:
John Dowdell - "what I can tell from internal buzz, you might want to keep your eye on the longterm significance."
Steve Kilisky - "The thing that stands out most for me about Ultra is that it gets great results in less than ideal lighting situations and you don't have to fiddle with a lot of knobs and sliders to get acceptable results."
Techsmith also just launched Camtasia Studio 4 which allows you to create, edit, and publish screencasts as well as audio/video podcasts.
Video blogging could be the next big thing after text blogging. Do check out some excellent video podcasts at Podtech.net especially the Scoble Show. [Disclaimer: I work with Podtech]
