I first heard of Rocket Boom when I was preparing the lecture about blogging for the RTV. I did not know anything about it, just that it suppose to be this great famous video blog. Fine, I thought, as video blogs were of no interest to me at the time, which was more due to the fact that I am usually having problems viewing streaming video, either cause of my or theirs stupidity (codecs and stuff).

Time passed by and Tilen sent me an email, informing me about another supposedly good video blog. Mobuzz TV. I thought it was going to be another troublesome operation in which I will try to enable the proper codec, but the thing played all by itself. Go flash!

After Mobuzz TV which I still frequent (very frequently), I decided to check out the Rocket boom as well. And found it an utter and complete bullshit. Here is a short comparison test. In it, I highlighted some of the key ingredients that a video blog should have in order to stay on MY blogroll (For testing purposes, I am watching the english version of the Mobuzz TV. There is also a spanish version which I do not watch, because it is…you know…in spanish).

The host

Both of the hosts are female.

Karina Stenquist, the host of Mobuzz TV is a delight. Although her pierced tounge presented some difficulty when trying to speak withouth the slurping sound, she is fluent and has a way with the camera. Her personal remarks on the news are short and to the point and she even has a reasonably well developed funny bone. The presentation is decent to good and the shows are a joy to watch.

Amanda Congdon, the host of Rockeboom is a clutz. Seriously, she does not know how to perform in front of the camera. Her gestures are clumsy, her speech is horrifying (too many ups and downs and her pronounciation is the weirdest up to date.) and it sometimes feels like she is being forced to do the show. Really bad acting. Plus, her body is all tight up in a knot. Can we get some gin for that girl?

Point: Mobuzz TV

The show

Both shows are clocked at around 5 minutes, usually a little les.

The information that is presented on the show is followed by the URL below the “screen” and both of the shows have equally (dis)interesting pieces of information.

The Mobuzz TV show on 8th of February featured stories about BMW breaks the Google rules and feels the Google wrath, CoComment – a way to keep track of all the little brainless fools you’ve put in their places on various blogs, Ricky Gervais is the podcasting champ while Rocketboom went on with space suit transmissions (mp3), prius hybrid home power plant, large font luecke forest with google sightseeing, rb psp file and psp rss feed, falling sand game, camel wrestling, sutro swimming 1897, its jerry time – jerry strikes back!, sleepwalking bags and rocketboom ebay auction.

The Rocketboom has more content which is probably due to the large viewing audience, since most of the stories are fan-submitted.

Point: Rocketboom

Overall feeling:

As said in the beginning, the Mobuzz crew seems more capable and in tune with their show. The hosting is better, the performance is better and eventhough the news itself is sometimes trivial the presentation makes it all worthwhile. Amanda just plain scares me with her sudden moves and gestures, almost if she was being guided from behind by someone with a remote-electrified-control.

In my opinion, the Rocket boom is just another way of selling image without content while Mobuzz TV is something worth watching. Even if you just waiting for the somewhat sarcastic remarks by Karina.

Point: Mobuzz TV

Set and match: Mobuzz TV