By Jeff Roberts
Scour is interesting to me because I've seen it as two distinct points
in
time, at which it has exhibited two completely different forms. I
can
remember the good old days when I didn't have Napster; to find MP3
music
files on the internet, I used something called the Scour Media Agent
(downloaded from the site www.scour.net). It was a little slow, often
unreliable, but the best we had at the time. And I don't remember
using
Scour.net for anything else. After I discovered Napster, Scour.net
became
like the kid you would stop playing with after meeting someone with
a bigger
jungle gym. Now, after a couple of years, I've rediscovered Scour
(this
time as Scour.com), and I'm quite surprised at how it has changed.
First of all, Scour seems to have recognized that its major strength
is no
longer in MP3 downloads. There are still downloads available, of course,
and it still functions as a searchable resource for music and other
media
content. However, the prominent feature is now streaming video: music
videos, movie trailers, short films. Since I don't get MTV where I
live
right now, Scour can be quite useful for me to catch up on popular
music
videos. It has movie trailers for a large number of titles. It also
has a
number of interesting short films. The strange thing is, at least
in terms
of music videos and trailers, the videos seem to be a little out of
date,
that is, the "most recent" ones seem to be from around the
summer of 2000.
The major change, I think, is that Scour has moved away from being
centered
around a single application and has instead become a broader resource
for
web media in general. It points me to where I can download just about
any
music- or video-based applications on the web. It directs me to some
of the
major web radio stations as well as providing me information on how
to
create my own web radio site. It also links to other related sites,
such as
music news sites, from which I learned about the new Queen musical
in the works.
It appears that what Scour has tried to do is establish a position
as
"one-stop shopping" for web media. It is not important for
its own content,
or for any unique service it performs itself, but by being a resource
for
finding all the media applications and content one might possibly
want. It
also appears that Scour may not be doing too well in keeping up with
what's
current. Why is this? Is it possible that the idea of a media "organizer",
something which tries to link up media content on the web, really
isn't
viable with so much content out there? It seems like a good idea;
one of
the fears about the future of media on the internet is that there
will soon
be so much of it that it will be impossible to find anything worthwhile.
Scour finds what is most popular (usually stuff that is taken directly
from
TV or the screen) and points to it, saying, "this is the good
stuff." Now,
it isn't all Britney Spears (though she is prominently featured) and
X-MEN
(ditto), it does include some content which is popular only in particular
niches. And perhaps this is Scour's problem. If someone wants to listen
to
bluegrass music, there are sites for that. If someone wants to see
the
trailer for THE MATRIX, there are plenty of places to see that, too.
"One-stop shopping" doesn't work when the consumers can
go to whatever
specialty store they want almost instantaneously.
So Scour, by trying to position itself somewhere near the center
of the web,
has lost sight of what its place actually is. I like Scour, and commend
it
for trying to organize the tangled mess that is web media. I also
commend
it for trying to adapt to changes in the times, and perhaps, after
actually
finding its place on the web, it will adapt again.