(* Source: eMarketer *)

Video entertainment to rival sleep time.

Posted by brian tiong at 01:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

(* Source: Jonathan Richards *) 

Eric Schmidt, the search giant's chief executive, said it "seemed obvious" that Google should be able to generate "significant amounts of money" from YouTube, on which hundreds of millions of videos are watched every day, but that as yet it hadn't figured out how to go about it.

In an interview with The New Yorker writer Ken Auletta, Mr Schmidt was cautious about how profitable YouTube might be, but said he believed the site could lead to "the creation of a whole new industry." He said his optimism was based on two facts: "We know people are watching it" and "We have the luxury of time to invest."

Google sees YouTube as a key plank in the strategy to grow its revenues beyond those it derives from the small text adverts that appear alongside search queries. The company is hoping it can use the site - which is visited by 129 million people each month - to expand into other types of web-based ads, including those which exploit the burgeoning popularity of internet video.

Last month Google said it would soon roll out a new type of video-based advertising on YouTube that would be different to the 'pre and post roll' adverts - shown before and after video clips - with which it has experimented to date, but declined to give details.

The company has also trialled so-called 'in video' ads on the site, which it bought for $1.65 billion two years ago, where a banner appears across the top of the screen while a video is played and test adverts are shown across the bottom, but the reaction has been mixed.

More here 

Posted by brian tiong at 10:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

(* Source: Compete *)

The song remains the same at the top of the Video rankings in March: YouTube continues to outpace the market, growing 7.8% while the video viewing sessions across the web grew only 2.3%.

Meanwhile Veoh narrowly maintained its spot in the Top 10, with phenomenal 23.8% monthly growth, edging out CBS Interactive by a very thin margin. The CBS Interactive division includes Sportsline.com, which scored a 154% gain as the prime spot for watching live streaming March Madness games.

Meanwhile Joost, which is backed by CBS, presented the games as a live streaming “experiment.” While Joost works via client, the March Madness offering did not bring much in the way of new visitors to the site to download the player.

Advertisers placed $545 million on TV for the 2008 NCAA Tournament, according to TNS, but just a tiny fraction of that followed online. With 8.5 million consumers watching next-day tournament highlights and interacting with NCAA Basketball content on the web, there was a huge opportunity to reach March Madness fans and perhaps to do it with more efficient media buys.

We used Compete’s BehaviorMatch, which can be customized for any demographic or behavioral segment, to call out the top video sites for March Madness fans.

While Sportsline came out on top in terms of Composition, predictably, some unexpected sports video sites like Runners World and The Golf Channel also scored high. Meanwhile, the largest sites like YouTube and MySpace aggregated the most eyeballs but had the worst Composition scores.

Posted by brian tiong at 08:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

(* Source: PSFK *)

Colin Nagy says...

Today, online music hub Pitchfork Media announced the upcoming launch of their new music-oriented online TV channel, Pitchfork.tv, set to go live on April 7.  Pitchfork has already established itself as a respected source for independent music news, reporting and commentary across several genres, and now they’re branching out with some compelling video content — on their terms.

As stated by Pitchfork:

As a visual extension of the music coverage Pitchfork has provided for more than a decade, and a means of updating and advancing the music television format, the online channel will bring you closer to the artists you love, through original mini-documentaries, secret rooftop and basement sessions, full concerts, exclusive interviews, and the most carefully curated selection of music videos online. In addition, Pitchfork.tv will become the first online video channel to screen full-length feature films, vintage concerts, and music DVDs free of charge. From the Pixies’ 2004 reunion tour film LoudQuietLoud and Todd Phillips’ notorious GG Allin documentaryHated, to Jimmy Joe Roche & Dan Deacon’s acid-drenched visual art piece Ultimate Reality, Pitchfork.tv will highlight a different film each week in its entirety.

The announcement emphasizes the fact that Pitchfork is privately owned, with no outside investment or special interests. In their words, “We’ve waited decades for a music channel that respects our intelligence and reflects our ideals. Now that the technology is here, we’re finally able to do it the way that people who really care about music have always wanted to see it done.”

Pitchfork Media

Posted by brian tiong at 11:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

(* Source: Kristen Nicole *)

(* Source: Michael Arrington *) 

Mike says...

We covered Stage6, a DivX-owned site, in October 2006 as part of a roundup of up and coming video sites. The site, which allowed users to upload video in the high quality Divx format, streams video that makes YouTube look shabby in comparison.

The site won’t be around long, though, Uploads have already been shut down, and the site itself will go offline on February 28. The official reason: “So why are we shutting the service down? Well, the short answer is that the continued operation of Stage6 is a very expensive enterprise that requires an enormous amount of attention and resources that we are not in a position to continue to provide.”

Translated, that may be that the pirates took over the site. New movies and tv shows were constantly being uploaded and then taken down by the site staff. Sites like Joox.net took all that pirated content and repackaged it on their own site. The combined costs of hosting, plus all the monitoring for infringement, may have been more than Divx was willing to deal with.

Update: Ok, we’ve been shaking the trees on this story a little. According to one source, the planned spinoff of Stage6 from DivX apparently had $24 million or so in committed venture capital but negotiations with the DivX board broke down over ownership percentages. We’re still digging.

Update2: Comscore says Stage6 has 17.4 million monthly unique visitors and 360 million page views. We also hear that their monthly CDN bill from LimeLight is $1 million, about 11% of their revenues. That’s going to hurt them.

Posted by brian tiong at 03:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

(* Source: eMarketer *) 

Coming soon to a screen near you: Convergence.

Posted by brian tiong at 03:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

(* Source: Kevin Riley *) 

According to data at Alexa.com which ranks websites according to their visitor traffic, Web 2.0 video sharing site Youtube.com has now overtaken Google.com as the world's second most visited website. Is this proof that video search marketing has come of age and is becoming a threat to traditional online search?

After noticing a massive spike in popularity and traffic at video sharing sites such as Youtube.com starting early last year, internet marketer and website traffic expert Kevin Riley decided to see for himself if online video had more than just entertainment value.

 
"As someone who had previously focused on online marketing through traditional search using PPC and SEO, I initially assumed that video sharing sites were going to be a fad with little marketing potential," explains Riley. "But when I noticed niche content videos posted to these sites were getting a massive number of views and also showing up high in the search engine results pages for relevant keywords, I knew the potential for marketing with videos was about to explode."

 
"Although I was excited at the traffic these videos received, I was even more surprised when I noticed that these promotions really did increase website traffic to our sites that converted into leads and sales," says Riley. "In fact, the conversion rates on some of our video promotions are as good as the results we get with some of our traditional search campaigns."

"Video search marketing is here to stay," proclaims Riley. "Although video search is more of a compliment than a threat to traditional search, especially since Google wisely acquired Youtube, it has already proven itself as a necessary component of any effective online marketing campaign."

 

More here 

Posted by brian tiong at 01:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

(* Source: Soshable.com *) 

It’s time to run down to the nearest electronics store and grab a video camera while they’re still available.  Many of the businesses who haven’t been posting videos to YouTube will be jumping on the bandwagon soon.

There were 34 news stories listed on Google news for January 17th and 18th, 2007, stemming from the latest comScore video metrix results that have Google video sites owning over 31% of the online video market.  YouTube accounts for a huge portion of that.

Alexa data shows over 18% of Internet users worldwide visit YouTube, while Compete data has YouTube approaching 60 million visitors a month.

Perhaps most importantly, Google, Yahoo!, and some other search engines are starting to give very strong rankings to videos in their natural search results, especially those from YouTube.

All of these things point to one conclusion: the rise of video spam. Read more

Posted by brian tiong at 10:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

(* Source: Mark 'Rizzn' Hopkins *) 

Earlier this year, YouTube released a way to finally make a bit of cash off this internet video thing with the “Partner Program.” The program was widely panned for a number of reasons: CPC were thought to perform far inferior to CPM, and only a select few were being allowed into the program.

Now that folks know they can make substantial piles of cash monetizing with CPC ads with Revver and other places, folks have been clamoring to get into the limited beta program. In response to the overwhelming negative coverage of the fact that the Partner Program was limited to an ambiguous group of “YouTube Elites,” YouTube has created an expanded version of the program.

This applications process for this version is open to, and I’m quoting here: “anyone living in the United States or Canada.” On face value, it at least sounds less ambiguous.

Problem is, while you may be free to apply, those allowed to actually join will be limited to “the users who have built a significant audience on YouTube (as measured by video views, subscribers, etc.) and who consistently comply with the YouTube Terms of Use.” The program, as of the time of this writing, only has 100 extra users that have been accepted.

So, to recap and translate the YouTube-speak: “In response to the allegations that regular uploaders felt miffed they weren’t accepted into our limited beta, we’re having a limited beta.”

I’m really starting to wonder what’s going on over there at YouTube. I can’t tell if they just think we’re all stupid, or if they are actually, in fact, stupid. Phrasing this as if it’s opening it up to the wide wide world of the YouTube userbase while boasting of an additional 100 members to the program looks rather foolish in the face of the millions of users that YouTube presently has.

On that same note, I understand the legal need to mention that a user needs to comply with the Terms of Service to maintain the ability to stay within the YouTube Partner Program, but it probably wasn’t the best decision to include that in the “Wow, We’re Announcing New Awesome” verbiage. The first thing that comes to mind when they mention the Terms of Use is the shifting definition of what that means, and the many users world-wide that have their free speech curtailed as a matter course.

Regardless, YouTube is going about this thing all wrong. As a result, I predict that the level of serious producers that use YouTube as their primary distribution platform will go down. The strategy they want their users to employ seems to be: “Build it, get the people coming, and then if you’re lucky we’ll give you some cash.” That’s completely backwards. I understand how the behemoth can think this way - they’ve a glut of advertising inventory. The problem is that for serious producers, there are many other ponds to go swim in that will produced guaranteed revenue. You won’t perhaps get all the perks of the huge YouTube community by focusing on them exclusively. On the other hand, you won’t lose revenue by spending months building up a significant sticky audience only to later find out you may be turned down from participation in the Partner Program.

My advice to serious producers? Stick to respectable distribution methods with a history of paying their producers: BlinkX, Revver and Blip. Use YouTube as a promotions vehicle to funnel folks back to distribution methods with monetization on it. That means turning off viral features, and tagging your YouTube uploads with URL stamps leading back to your website or podcast feed.

Perhaps when YouTube gets their ad program figured out, I can change my advice a bit.

Posted by brian tiong at 10:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

(* Source: Kristen Nicole *) 

Gaia, the avatar-filled virtual world, has received an undisclosed amount of funding from Sony Pictures. You may be wondering why. It appears to be, in part, for building out Gaia theaters, where users can congregate in virtual rooms for the purpose of viewing video clips.

This was really brought to the forefront of Gaia’s feature set when it launched a VJ tool for users to create their own theaters and feature video clips from around the web. This concept has now been expanded to include content from Sony and Warner, who will be streaming films and television shows inside the virtual theaters found in Gaia. Some content will be pay-per-view while other content will be ad-supported.

This seems to be somewhat of an extension for centralized viewing options that broadcast companies like NBC have taken advantage of for streaming events such as concerts in virtual worlds like Second Life. What’s interesting is that we’re seeing these centralized streaming options pop up in multiple virtual worlds, not just one. It speaks to the importance of virtual worlds, and even moves attention away from the idea that companies don’t need to focus on certain avatar spaces for realistic quality alone.

As Sony has indicated its interest in finding more ways to distribute its content as a way to rival iTunes, this could be considered another way beyond Crackle and its other offerings, for Sony to do so. Gaia has a pretty large following, and while I don’t think television shows and pay-per-view films will make a major dent in Apple’s market share, I do like the idea of streaming content through more interactive and social places, like Gaia.

On the music front, Sony and Warner are in fact the two major labels that have not offered up DRM-free music downloads, which was highlighted in a recent announcement of Pepsi’s deal with Amazon for a promotion that will run beginning next year, during the Superbowl. As advertising and content owners look for more creative ways in which to insert marketing material and content into interactive and social areas of the web, perhaps the integration with Gaia will be a good way for Sony to test out more advertising options for its content.

[via paid content]

Posted by brian tiong at 12:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

(* Source: Erick Schonfield *) 

Video sites are moving towards full-screen, immersive experiences where there are lots of things viewers can do besides hit play. One of the better examples of what is possible comes from a small Isreali startup with two 26-year-old co-founders and no VC funding called Tvinci. The startup’s media management technology powers the social video player for MTV Israel.

If you play a video on MTV.com, you see this MySpace-inspired train wreck:

If you watch a video on MTV Israel, which is in private beta and will launch early next year, you will see something like this:

The video control box can be dragged around the screen anywhere you want it. You can minimize or maximize the video to whatever size you like. You can add comment bubbles, reorder items in your playlist by dragging them around, check out your friends’ playlists, or see other peoples’ playlists who share your taste in music videos. You can preview other videos and channels through a Coverflow-like rotation of thumbnail images overlayed on top of the video you are watching, allowing you to browse while enjoying a video rather than stopping the video to find a new one. The sidebar with your playlist pops out when you need it and hides away when you don’t. When you get bored with your playlist, you can watch your friends’ or find videos by mood (the videos are tag-based, so this could be set up for other categories as well). Of course, you can rate each video or leave comments. There are also chat and RSS feed widgets you can add to the player.

Tvinci also supports video uploading from viewers and video recommendations based on what your friends like. MSN Israel also uses the platform. Hopefully, we’ll see this stateside soon. Co-CEO Ido Wiesenberg hints that he is in talks with major media companies to do just that. He is also working on Facebook and OpenSocial apps so that videos can be shared between social networks and sites like MTV.

Unfortunately, you have to be in Israel to experience this for now because most of the videos are geo-blocked (due to licensing). but TechCrunch readers can try this site that Tvinci set up for us that replicates what can be seen on MTV Israel, without the restricted videos.

Here are some screenshots:

Posted by brian tiong at 10:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

(* Source: Techcrunch *)

New figures released by comScore show that YouTube remains the outright leader in online video.

Based on videos viewed, Google owned sites (YouTube + Google Video, but mostly YouTube) commanded a 28.3% market share in the United States in September with Fox Interactive Media (FIM) sites (MySpace and others) on 4.2%. The figures (see chart) demonstrate that YouTube doesn’t dominate video viewing as much as would be expected, suggesting that the long tail is alive and well in the sector given the top ten video sites only hold 45.2% of all videos viewed online.

The unique viewer numbers for video destinations also show Google leading, but by a smaller margin of 39.4% vs 22.6% for FIM sites. These figures are for people visiting the actual video sites themselves suggesting that much of YouTube’s dominance comes not from YouTube.com itself, but from people embedding YouTube videos (28.3% of all videos viewed vs 4.2% for FIM).

Notable in its absence from both top ten charts is the IAC owned Vimeo, who according to this post fired founder Jakob Lodwick today. Clearly Vimeo isn’t performing although it has positioned itself well with support for HD video. IAC usually takes long term positions in companies it owns (Ask.com for example) so it’s not on Deadpool watch yet but you’d expect IAC will be looking at ways of improving its performance going forward.

Posted by brian tiong at 10:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Posted by brian tiong at 03:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

(* Source : Wired *)

Jenna Wortham says :

Posted by brian tiong at 11:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

(* Source : Walstreet Journal *)

A feel-good film about a girl from the Chinese countryside who moves to the big city to discover love, blogging and Starbucks will premier this month in an unusual venue: Shanghai's subway.

"A Sunny Day," is scheduled to play exclusively on thousands of high-tech flat screen monitors on Shanghai's subway cars and station platforms.

Girl meets boy and Starbucks in 'A Sunny Day,' to be shown in installments

Tailored for an audience of 2.2 million who cram onto China's biggest underground railway each day, the full-length feature film will be shown in daily segments of a few minutes each over 40 weekdays, soap-opera style. Subtitles in Chinese will help commuters follow the dialogue over the subway noise, and multiple daily rebroadcasts and tie-ins on the Internet are designed to ensure no one misses any of the cliffhangers.

Instead of an ordinary film, the so-called "subopera" is a blend of drama and advertising. A venture between Starbucks Coffee Co. and PepsiCo Inc. financed and helped produce the drama as part of a campaign that kicks off today in Shanghai to introduce bottled frappuccino drinks to the Chinese market.

"It's quite unique and demonstrates a departure from conventional marketing," says Howard Schultz, Starbucks chairman. The coffee company hasn't traditionally advertised, Mr. Schultz says, adding that a soap opera can be effective since it creates "real entertainment for our customers and along the way there is a complementary message." PepsiCo, which will bottle and distribute the Starbucks-branded drinks, referred questions to Starbucks

The film has a clear commercial bent. In some shots, the mermaid from the Starbucks logo gets as much face-time as the movie's big turnstile draw, Huang Xiao Ming, a 29-year-old pop star who is so well known he is sometimes called China's Justin Timberlake.

Still, "A Sunny Day" is no infomercial. Mr. Huang's character "CC" is a struggling musician who strums his guitar for coins in the subway, and falls for big-hearted Sunny, who is trying to get over the death of a boyfriend and fit into a new job.

During the shooting on a recent Sunday, as a gaggle of teenage women sneaked onto the set, Mr. Huang described the subway a "fashionable, very modern" venue that will appeal to a trendy audience.

Subways around the world have long featured visual distractions. A century ago, platforms were showcases for art, like the swank metro stations in Paris. In the 1970s, spray paint enlivened the dank and dangerous New York subway, and in the 1980s, the late Keith Haring helped make graffiti a respected art form with projects like "Studio in the Subway."

This year, the Berlin subway's 1.5 million daily passengers were the judges in a weeklong festival of 90-second, silent films called "Going Underground."

Advertisers are also pressing beneath the streets. Sidetrack Technologies Inc. of Winnipeg and New York-based Submedia LLC place light-board advertising in subway tunnels in several cities around the world, giving riders the motion-picture like effect of seeing a flipbook.

China's $20 billion advertising industry is increasingly adopting the global trend toward marketing disguised as entertainment. In addition to Hollywood-style product placements in TV shows and movies, a rapidly expanding segment is directed at an emerging middle class during the workday hours with slickly crafted TV-style ads in taxis, airplanes and even elevators.

More here 

Posted by brian tiong at 04:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

(* Source : Adam Ostrow *)

Google Earth has integrated YouTube, allowing you to view videos from specified locations around the world. A new “YouTube” button in Google Earth places icons on a map to show you where the videos are located. Upon zooming in, you will see more videos for the location of interest. The YouTube videos are plotted according to geotags that YouTube users have placed on their content.

This is a really clever integration between Google products. Versus the Street View feature of Google Maps where the company is sending camera crews around the globe, all of the content here is user-generated. In other Google Maps developments, the company has also added community maps to find things like places to eat, events, and activities, also submitted by users.

Could Google Maps be turning into one of the major social initiatives at Google? Between integrating YouTube videos, user-generated local maps, and potential presence features from the recently acquired Jaiku, it seems like there might be something brewing here.

Posted by brian tiong at 12:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

(* Source : MediaPost.com *)

Laurie Petersen says :

TURNER BROADCASTING SYSTEM, INC.'S NEW Products Group has signed a one-year deal with Kaneva to build and test virtual world extensions of its entertainment properties.

Each Turner Web community and corresponding virtual space inside Kaneva will contain video players for video streaming of select Turner network content.

"Our exploration with Kaneva of virtual worlds is yet another example of Turner staying at the forefront of consumer technology trends," said Blake Lewin, vice president for TBS Inc.'s New Products Group. "Through this opportunity, we hope to leverage the Kaneva platform to explore how users interact with our brands in a virtual world."

The agreement will grant Turner access to Kaneva's technology and tools to create and use Web communities and Virtual Spaces on the Kaneva Web site and in the virtual world of Kaneva.

"Turner is an ideal flagship media partner for Kaneva," said Christopher Klaus, founder and CEO of Kaneva. "Turner's high-quality programming and credibility is synergistic with our unique focus on delivering entertainment to the masses inside a virtual world. As a result of this partnership, we will provide entirely new ways for audiences to watch, participate and interact around their favorite TV programming."

Kaneva, which is Latin for "canvas," is a virtual entertainment world that unifies the 2D Web with a 3D experience. It integrates social networking, shared media and collaborative online communities into a modern-day, immersive 3D virtual world. Kaneva enables its members to hang out with their friends online and in 3D, share entertainment, express creativity and passions, and establish meaningful connections with others.

Posted by brian tiong at 11:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

(* Source : Billboard.com *)

Michael Paoletta says : 

Missy Elliott

Missy Elliott is adding flair to a new ad campaign for Doritos Collisions, Billboard has learned. In a TV spot that debuts Sept. 17, Elliott is seen working on a new track and then pausing to snack on Doritos Collisions chips. Inspired by the two different-tasting chips in the same bag, Elliott has an epiphany: her song needs two different musical styles. So, she immediately injects her hip-hop track with a little bit of country twang.

The multi-platform campaign was created by the Goodby, Silverstein & Partners agency. According to Rudy Wilson, brand manager of Doritos, the campaign's multi-million dollar media buy is the brand's biggest advertising spend of the year, outside of its Super Bowl ad buy.

Elliott's manager, Mona Scott of Violator Management, says the campaign offered her client the perfect creative outlet. "The whole idea of the mash-up is so prevalent and popular in music today," Scott says. "It's so Missy. And the fact that the campaign takes place in a studio means that Missy remains in her element, which makes the whole thing authentic."

But Scott acknowledges there was another important element that helped cinch the deal: "The TV portion is fine," she explains, "but the Internet element provides us with a great back-end." A link takes fans to Elliott's Web site, where they learn more about the artist and her forthcoming, new album (tentatively titled "The Countdown"), due in December from The Gold Mind/Atlantic Records. "We see this as a great way to further maximize Missy the artist and the new album," Scott adds.

Wilson calls the online experience "a bold, intensive experience for our consumers." Visitors logging on to snackstrongproductions.com will be encouraged to create their own mash-ups (or "collisions"), using Elliott's track as the foundation. Completed mixes can be posted and shared in a "gallery" on the site. Five winners -- with prizes still to be determined -- will be selected.

More here 

Posted by brian tiong at 05:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

(* Source : David Fishman *)

Posted by brian tiong at 04:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

(* Source : Leigh Alexander *)

Launches The Sims on Stage Beta

Posted by brian tiong at 05:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

(* Source: Mashable *)

Kristen Nicole says:

Habbo, the online virtual world, is holding its first worldwide Habbowood Digital Movie Awards. Using the MovieMaker tool, filmmakers are encouraged to create animated movies. The top film in Habbo.com will be entered into the “worldwide” competition where it will go up against the top films from 18 other Habbo communities. The winner gets a trip for two to Hollywood.

With the MovieMaker tool, you can edit your film and use a provided set of sets, props, special effects, music, etc. to create sets for virtual avatars to act out your movie. This editing tool supports up to ten different scenes to create a film that’s 5 minutes in length. The Habbo community will choose the ten finalists, based on page views and ratings. Editors will choose a winner from the top ten, and there will be awards handed out for Best Director, Best Writer, Best Actor and Best Actress as well. These awards will be presented live at a virtual gala in Habbowood.

Clearly the virtual “movie” world is heating up. Origin Digital now offers on-demand streaming media to be used in virtual worlds, while the rights for a documentary filmed in Second Life have been acquired by HBO.

 Check Youtubevideo

Posted by brian tiong at 12:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

(* Source: Mashable *)

Kristen Nicole says : 

BlipBack is a new site that lets you offer video comments on your website, blog or social networking profile page.

This service integrates with your webcam to enable video comments. The widget player is very similar to what you’ll see with most video widgets from YouTube and other video-sharing networks, though there are thumbnails for you to view the upcoming comments from others, along with the number of views and the rating for each comment. Your sorting options are to view from oldest to newest or vice versa, or view from highest to lowest rated or vice versa. You can also sort comments by most viewed, and an option to subscribe to video comments via RSS feeds.

In order to add your own comment, you’ll need a webcam, though there is an option to take a video with your camera phone and send it in to the address provided for each widget. This way groups can have a remote way to create collaborative video streams on a website, similar to Cellblock or Pickle.

The other option offered is a BlipBomb, which is a comments widget you can insert in comments threads across various social networks and blogging platforms. Having an automatic play option to view all the comments in the widget as a streaming channel would be a good feature for this service.

Posted by brian tiong at 01:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

(* Source: BusinessWeek *)

Neal Sandler says:

The startup proposes video sharing on mobile handsets—already, Universal Music Group is on board

The idea for his new startup came to Jon Medved two years ago at London's Heathrow Airport when he was trying to reach the Hertz (HTZ) call center. While waiting on hold, the Israeli venture capitalist was forced to listen to audio ads from Hertz about the various cars available. It suddenly struck Medved that it would be far more effective for Hertz to serve up images or even videos of cars.

Thus was born the idea behind Vringo, a startup launched last year by Medved and David Goldfarb, a leading Israeli mobile software expert. The idea is to capitalize on the popularity of social networks and digital video, marrying them with the phenomenon of downloadable audio ringtones—a business that already racks up $6 billion in annual revenues for mobile operators and content owners worldwide. Medved describes Vringo as a "sort of ICQ [instant messaging] combined with a personalized YouTube (GOOG) on your cell phone."

With conventional audio ringtones, customers download a short music clip—say, the theme to Hawaii Five-O—onto their own phones. Whenever somebody calls, the song plays instead of a regular ring. Aside from some possibly annoyed people in the vicinity, the only person who enjoys it is the owner of the phone.

Vringo Defined

Vringo's video ringtones turn that model on its ear. To use the service, customers join the Vringo community for free and install a small piece of software onto their phones. Then, when one Vringo member calls another, instead of a ringtone, the recipient of the call is treated to a video clip chosen (and paid for) by the sender. Every call thus becomes an opportunity to share content and to establish identity—the wireless equivalent of the "hey, dude, check out this YouTube video" culture of the Internet.

If it catches on, Vringo has the potential to be about far more than just sharing clips, though. Advertisers are intrigued by the idea of using mobile phones to pitch their products; Vringo offers the possibility of adding viral marketing to the mix—essentially, having enthusiastic consumers spread the word for you. What's in it for Vringo users? Instead of paying for a clip, a caller might get five minutes of free talk time for sending his buddies copies of a new ad.

More here 

Posted by brian tiong at 02:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

(* Source: Mashable *) 

Another great compliation by the Mashable Team...