Encoding.com Opens Vid.ly – A Single URL For Videos You Can Watch Anywhere

Video encoding service provider Encoding.com this morning announced that it is opening the beta version of its Vid.ly video URL service to the public.

In a world littered with an enormous variety of smartphones, tablet computers and browsers, it’s not easy for publishers to put up a video online that can be watched by anyone, anywhere.

After all, different devices and web browsers require different video codecs and screen sizes, which means videos need to be converted into many different formats and sizes as well.

With vid.ly, Encoding.com aims to alleviate that problem by enabling publishers to create what it refers to as a ‘universal video URL’, designed to play videos everywhere.

If you want to try it out, check out the company’s own demo video.

Since it was released in private beta at the end of January 2011, the company says several thousand beta users generated over 10,000 Vid.ly URLs by uploading their source videos via the dedicated website, where anyone can now sign up.

Watch Erick Schonfeld’s earlier interview with Encoding.com president Jeff Malkin here: