Ok Go has released their latest album today, and they're continuing their experiments with music. This video was produced in partnership with Google, and it was built using HTML5.
Unfortunately, I cannot embed it here. You see, it's blocked for all browsers besides Chrome. And since I don't have Chrome installed I can't even watch it. (And I'm not getting Chrome, not after getting it spammed onto my laptop 3 times by Real Networks).
There's a certain irony in this situation. Here we have a band that has apologized for their label blocking Youtube video embeds (it had to do with license fees). Now OK Go have made a video and they didn't just block embedding the video; they blocked 85% of the browser market. Smart.
via allisnotlo.st
It doesn’t even work in Chrome as far as I can see!
As part of my site testing I use various browsers, and randomly browse on all of them. So occasionally I get across a site that tells me they don’t support IE (9) and it never seizes to amaze me that you would be cutting away 25% of your potential customers.
I know IE is a pain and the latest version doesn’t fully support HTML5 (don’t want to go into a browser debate here), but cutting it all together seems like a really bad business move.
I mean there are a couple of devices out there that I would rather not support because I don’t like the hassle or I honestly hate the company behind them. But I am still trying to create a company here so I have to look past my own bias and look at what is best for my startup.
Anyway rant is over, so to all others that didn’t see the video; it is a nice enough video with multiple screens/angles at the same time. The gimmick though (you enter a text and they will display it during the video) is not new and has been done before. Still glad to see experiments with HTML5.
[…] this is actually the second time that Google arranged an exclusive. Back in July OK Go released a new music video that could only be viewed via Chrome. I remarked at the time that […]