Vimeo, You Mock Me

By leelefever on July 29, 2007 - 2:30pm.

• Categories:
• Online Usability
• privacy
• video
• videoservice
• vimeo
• Comments: 2

Let me start by saying I like Vimeo. The video host has great features (like the thumbnail chooser), a personal attitude and slick interface. For our purposes, we like Vimeo because they focus on controlling privacy - you can share a video with just one person. We use it to share rough cuts of videos with clients. Vimeo does a lot of things well.

That is why I'm both perplexed and disappointed by an experience lately. We tested the privacy system to see what happens when we share video with someone who is not a member.

Sachi is a member and added me (using an old email address) to her list of people with access to a video. I received this email:

Sachi wants to share! Yaay!

I then clicked the link and saw this page:

Whaaa? Boooo!

It's great that the privacy works, but how about a little more information about the remedy? What do I need to do to see the video that has been shared with me?

How about adding this tiny bit of information:

"You must become a member (or be a logged-in member) of Vimeo to view a protected video. You can do that here."

That would help a lot. Thanks!