Streaming Videos are Cancer to the Internet

The truth of the matter.

• Streaming video is space-inefficient.

  There are 8,192 kilobytes in 8 megabytes, which is the amount of space needed for about 3 minutes of video footage. In contrast, a news article containing mostly text (and a few images) runs from 15 to 20 kilobytes. Which brings me to...

• It's a waste of bandwidth.

  I can't speak for the rest of the internet, but about 20% of the people who visit my website are on a dial-up internet connection. 20 KB of text takes 5 seconds to load on their computers; you can imagine how several megabytes translates into frustration for those unfortunate bastards.

  On top of that, the server hosting the video is unnecessarily consuming precious bandwidth-- one of the largest expenses for big-name websites.

• FLV quality is piss-poor.

  Love it or hate it, FLV format sucks. Sure, it prevents people from saving the videos to their computers and redistributing them without you getting your precious advertising money, but is it really worth making everything you produce look like utter shit? CNN seems to think so.

  Competent news publications don't broadcast their videos through YouTube for a reason, assholes!

• The potential for unavoidable advertisements is aggravating.

  As you can tell from the screenshot above, I use Adblock Plus so I don't have to deal with the bullshit that marketing agencies try to force into my throat. Most streaming videos are set up so you have to watch a short, unavoidable 5-second advertisement before you get to the video you wanted to see.

  To put it metaphorically, this is commercial rape.

• Streaming videos are a waste of time.

  Since I'm not too lazy to read on a regular basis, I can read fast enough to blast through several news articles in the time it takes one video to play; I'm not alone in this. Since time is our most precious commodity, I shouldn't have to waste it unnecessarily on something that isn't fun.

  The fact that CNN is leaning more towards streaming videos indicates that because the overwhelming majority of Americans are stupid and lazy, those of us who have a sense of integrity (or-- failing that-- a functioning brain) have to suffer because the media is too busy catering to complete fucktards to realize that their approach to the news is stupid.

In short, FUCK CNN VIDEO!