YouTube has come out with a tool to help you answer the question of who's watching you. YouTube Insight is a free video analytics tool that allows users who upload videos to YouTube to track the viewership on their videos including the geographic breakdown by region, as well as the popularity relative to all videos in that market over a given period of time. Uploaders can also delve deeper into the lifecycle of their videos to find out how long it takes for a video to become popular, and what happens to video views as popularity peaks. Another key feature expected shortly is a breakdown of how viewers discovered your video. Using these metrics, you can increase your videos' view counts and improve your popularity on the site. To view your video analytics, click "About this Video" button under "My Account > Videos, Favorites, Playlists > Manage my Videos."
Flickr, Yahoo's popular and successful photo sharing site, will provide Video sharing by April. Dan Farber reports on his interview with Flickr Co-Founder Stewart Butterfield, who along with his wife Caterina Fake and their staff developed Flickr several years ago as a supportive service to their game development and wound up focusing exclusively on the photo sharing capabilities. Yahoo purchased Flickr from them for a reported sum of about 20 million, which by today's standards may make Flickr one of the greatest Web 2.0 undervaluations in history.
Video sharing in a socially networked environment is definitely on the radar screens of all the major players despite the fact nobody has figured out how to monetize it. YouTube remains the key player in the space, serving up 1 of every 3 online videos. However Flickr entry into this market may have an impact, as Flickr enthusiasts tend to represent many developers and early adopters in the online space. That said, Yahoo's challenges in the recent launch of Yahoo Live service may indicate they'll have trouble making a dent in YouTube's video dominance.
Perhaps it should come come as no surprise that one in three of all the videos viewed online are served up by YouTube.
Comscore reports that in January of 2008 a total of about 10 billion online video clips were served. 3.36 billion from Google sites while the second place video provider, Fox Interactive Media, served up 584 million. Yahoo, once in contention for the top video spot, served only 315 million and Microsoft only 199 million.
Unfortunately for Google, YouTube's video dominance has yet to become a profitable part of Google's online advertising empire. Google acquired YouTube last year for 1.65 billion and so far attempts to monetize the tsunami of online clips and viewers has not met with much success.
YouTube is opening up even more to the online community with a suite of APIs (application programming interfaces) that will allow websites, mobile devices, and more powerfully integrate YouTube content and capabilities.
For some time websites have been able to embed YouTube videos using a standard player, but from YouTube's Press release this morning we learn that they have added added the following new API services for external developers:
*Upload videos and video responses to YouTube
* Add/Edit user and video metadata (titles, descriptions, ratings, comments, favorites, contacts, etc)
* Fetch localized standard feeds (most viewed, top rated, etc.) for 18 international locales
* Perform custom queries optimized for 18 international locales
* Customize player UI and control video playback (pause, play, stop, etc.) through software
The new interfaces that will spring from this effort will allow sites to customize players with the site theme to play YouTube videos as well as have the visitors interact with the videos in more interesting and site-specific ways.
This is an excellent move for YouTube as it will consolidate their dominance in this space as well as create more video uploading and viewing activity for YouTube. Users and websites should benefit as well from the ease of use and greater distribution. However despite the fact that millions of video clips are viewed daily at YouTube, monetizing that traffic and content has been a serious challenge for Google and it remains to be seen if the YouTube aquisition of last year will have direct and positive cash flow benefits for Google.
U.S. District Judge Louis Stanton denied Viacom's (VIAb) request to amend its complaint against Google to add a claim for punitive damages. The judge said that common law punitive damages cannot be recovered under the Copyright Act.
Viacom has files a $1 billion frivolous lawsuit against Google's YouTube which is an online video sharing service. Eric Schmidt has previously said that, "Viacom is a company built on lawsuits ... look at their history". Schmidt also pointed to the fact that Viacom was currently being run by a former general counsel of the company, Philippe Dauman. The company founder has gone on record saying "We have engaged in a lot of litigation at Viacom, of which I have been a primary mover."
Litigation has become the cornerstone of Viacom's business model. Viacom is getting squeezed by content producers and distributors. The traditional distrubtion channel for Viacom's product is shrinking. Users' are moving to more targeted and personalized mediums on the internet eg. YouTube. Technology has lowered the cost of production of content and there is more choice that ever and more competition for eyeballs. Viacom's is still operating under an old production and distribution structure which is bleeding the company. So the easiest thing to do is to blank others for your problems. Frankly, Viacom should be happy that users' are keeping its products alive by putting it on YouTube and introducing it to new audiences, who might end up watching it on TV thanks to YouTube.
The Hulu Online Video Network launches Wednesday in the USA, coming out of a beta that has lasted many months. Some content is now available online at Hulu.com. The project is a joint venture of NBC Universal and News Corp, and thanks to a rich set of content agreements Hulu will provide access to a fairly large number of popular TV shows, sports events, and movies.
Like YouTube and other video sharing services Hulu will offer on demand content, content embedding and content sharing. Unlike most other services the content from Hulu will be high quality broadcast TV shows. Hulu's exceptional user interface and viewer are impressive, and it's clear they'll have a lot of activity at the site. In fact there are long term implications for TIVO and even cable networks as sites like Hulu increasingly provide TV shows on demand right from the users PC.
The big wild card for Hulu is whether it will be able to monetize this TV content profitably. Network television enjoys exceptional advertising success, and the tendency of advertisers to stick with what they know may challenge Hulu's ability to turn enough of a profit to make this service viable for the long haul. However, if Hulu can find the holy grail of high profits from video content it may herald a whole new age of broadcast TV... on our Macs and PCs.
China is imposing restrictions starting Jan. 31 on the broadcasting of internet videos to only sites run by state-controlled companies. It will require providers to obtain a government permit, report questionable content to the government, and pull content if deemed politically disruptive, pornographic, etc.
The new regulation applies to sites that provide online video or allow users to upload video. For popular video sharing sites like YouTube which is U.S. based with a China version and video sharing sites based in China, there is likely to be some impact. Already, WSJ is reporting that recently access to YouTube in China was temporarily blocked and that while Google China has an internet content license from the Chinese government, YouTube does not.
Not super surprising that the web is the newest hangout for teens. According to a study "Teens & Social Media" conducted by the Pew Internet & American Life Project "some 93% of teens use the internet, and more of them than ever are treating it as a venue for social interaction – a place where they can share creations, tell stories, and interact with others." What is interesting, however, are the trends being reported on teens' usage patterns online.
The use of social media – from blogging to online social networking to creation of all kinds of digital material – is central to many teenagers' lives.
39% of of teens online between the ages of 12-17 share photos, videos, and stories online and approximately 30% either work on a webpage or blog for someone or have their own, up roughly 20% from 2004. The number of teen bloggers nearly doubled from 2004 to 2006 with girls dominating the blogospere at 35% versus 20% of online teen boys. This could be attributed to girls tending to be a little more communicative and expressive than boys. A whopping 55% have created a MySpace or Facebook profile and there is evidence to suggest a direct correlation between teens with social networking profiles and blogging. Many of these teens also tend to be bloggers, read blogs, and comment on blogs.
57% of online teens watch videos online but boys trump girls in watching and posting videos online. Although photos and videos are an important part of teens' lives online, most reported restricting access to their photos and the majority report receiving comments on their photos and videos.
Communications patterns for teens are shifting for "multi-channel teens – those teens who use the internet, instant messaging, text messaging a cell phone, and social networking sites" to cell phones, IM apps, and social networks. And, compared to adults, teens are least likely to use email as a means of communicating, opting instead for texting, IM, and social networks to keep in touch with friends.
This data validates what we've all been seeing which is the growing popularity and demand for Web 2.0 phenomena such as user-generated content in the form of blogs, photos, and videos, and for social networking communities.
Here is an instance of a news item that couldn't have been made public if not for new media:
This picture is not about Fox or Digg but shows the difference between news sources that are centralized like Fox or old media and others that are decentralized - meaning that they are distributed over the web allowing any person to be a source. Let me first point out the difference between these two. Old media is newspapers or news channels which act as a central source of news to a large number of people. New media is simply media which uses the web as a distribution platform. The web enables anyone to be a source of news. It enables news to automatically reach a large number of people using viral platforms - which function as word to mouth - like Digg, Youtube, Stumbleupon, etc. If a person like me or you gets a hold of an interesting news item, we have a way to reach a large number of people easily. So, what is it that people are essentially doing if they want to read the latest interesting news items? They go to sites like Newsvine, Digg, or Youtube. And content on these sites are contributed by a large number of unrelated people. The other difference is that while old media is essentially an information pipe where there is only one direction for the flow of information from media to us; in new media, news is more of communication. Most of the bloggers go through and respond to comments to their articles, and any reader can be a blogger too where they can post a response. Since anyone can be a source of content, the lines between reader and contributor have blurred too.
It is true as the old media supporters point out, that amongst many bloggers there is tendency to "post first, check later" but then as we all know, news channels or papers are not totally neutral or even true. Also, a blogger posting a false blog is never a single source of information. There are many other alternatives that readers can look at. It is no longer a matter of which kind of media is better because with the advent of new media, the need for old media no longer remains. Content on the web is both vast and more engaging than its old media counterparts and this is the main reason that old media has to change its character to survive.
Cisco’s social networking strategy is to help media companies connect with their customers. Cisco’s offerings will deliver multimedia content to online communities, help visitors find content through a recommendation and relevance engine that looks at a user's activity patterns and makes personalized suggestions, said Dan Scheinman, SVP Media Solutions. The strategy is predicated on the notion that due to information explosion:
1) Users’ often don't even know what they're looking for;
2) Finding anything in this world of infinite information is really going to be tricky; and
"We've become the only company that can do all of these three things together," Scheinman said.
Users’ often don't even know what they're looking for. Oh really! Do the millions of users on social networking sites not EVEN know what they want? Is that why they are spending so much time on social networks - because they don’t know what they want?
Users are finding it tricky to find content. Has Dan Scheinman not heard of Google? If not, let me quickly explain. Google is a web site where you can go and enter your search query, click the video link, and find exactly the video you are looking for. It will find the content you are looking for regardless of where it resides. The content does not have to be on your web site.
Cisco is the only company that can do all of these three things together. Wow! Have you NOT heard of YouTube? They do that and more, and they do it for free. Cisco recently acquired Five Across and Tribe.net, both dogs in the social media space. Five Across, was a blogging site founded by folks that did not blog but were looking to make a quick buck. Tribe.net was a site for burning man fans with good intentions but backed by evil doers (Mayfield) looking to make a quick buck. The evil doers finally gave up on the site after talks with NBC failed and an acquisition bid by burning man fans fell through. Finally, Cisco revealed that it had acquired the site for its cutting edge technology such as photo uploading and inviting friends.
If you are responsible for social media strategy for a major corporate web site or a small internet community you can save yourself a lot of money, time, and frustration by simply using YouTube. It is free and easy to use. You can easily upload your videos, integrate them into your web site, track subscriptions, get viewer analytics, and more. If you want to customize it, you can use their API and if you want to customize further, you can use their YouTube Director which has many more options for professional users such as logo customization and scheduling show times etc. In fact, UC Berkeley uses this service.
This is in no way an endorsement of YouTube's offering but information so that you don't end up blowing $250,000 when you can get the same thing for free.
Microsoft Video showed a fairly significant market share gain in October, partly at Yahoo Video's expense. Alex at the Compete blog has an excellent graphic showing YouTube/Google with a commanding 54% market share. MSN, Yahoo, AOL, and MySpace Video all had about 8% of the market in October.
MSN was the big winner in October in terms of gains. YouTube/Google only rose about 1% while MSN was up 25% from September. This is a bit misleading since MSN's base number was so much lower, but it's a notable increase.
Brightcove's departure from this space is an indication that online video remains very competitive as well as posing a lot of difficulties monetizing the content.
The Nasdaq (Nasdaq:NDAQ) today announced it has launched the NASDAQ Internet Index (Nasdaq:QNET). The Index is a new benchmark designed to track the performance of companies engaged in a broad range of internet-related services such as:
1) internet access providers 2) internet search engines 3) web hosting 4) website design 5) internet retail commerce
"The NASDAQ Internet Index is comprised of securities of companies that are at the forefront of internet technology. They are leading innovators in providing faster internet access, creating more intuitive e-commerce experiences, and developing the second generation Web," said NASDAQ Senior Vice President Steven Bloom.
However, they NASDAQ did not provide a break down of the index composition. Many in internet industry have relied on Google (Nasdaq:GOOG) to be a proxy of the internet industry. Why not! Google operates:
1) the largest search engine 2) the largest online advertising network 3) the largest online video site 4) the third largest social networking site 5) one of the largest payment flow services, email and mapping services
Soon Google will be a big player in: 6) mobile applications 7) productivity applications 8) online storage services (other than email)
Brightcove, the much touted internet TV company headed by Jeremy Allaire is shutting down. Users were informed via email that Brightcove.TV will no longer be accepting direct consumer uploads after December 17, 2007. The company had BIG dreams of becoming the next YouTube and competing with YouTube. The company had raised US$80 million.
Here are some important pointers for entrepreneurs, partners, and investors alike:
1) Web start-ups should embrace openness. Successful web companies disrupt and bring efficiency to a market. To do so you have to become immune to the rules and limitations of the old market being disrupted. Brightcove was busy trying to compete with YouTube while working with old timers like Viacom. Therein lies the problem. Viacoms' business model comprises of a) restricting broadcast b) litigation (they have a big legal department including the CEO). For this to work you have to impose rules and restrictions and then litigate those breaking the rules and restrictions. So how could Brightcove disrupt a market, when every move they made was violating a rule set by a partner they were working with eg. Viacom.
2) Web 2.0 is demonstrating that nimble, smart entrepreneurs succeed time after time. Brightcove raised US$80 million! Where did it go? They certainly have a full management team, that is probably drawing super fat salaries, yet they have no product. At least a product that the marketplace wants. Smart investors fund agile teams that are disrupting a market using little capital.
3) Understand the web ecosystem - there are lots of people who don't understand the web including investors like Mayfield and Redpoint. Jeremy Allaire (co-founder of Allaire/ Macromedia) is not the first so called top gun that investors poured money on due to prior success and ended up losing it all. Terry Semel is a classic example of someone that never understood the web. To succeed on the web you have to have a narrow focus. Take money only from people who understand the web. Bring people on that understand the space. Just because someone was successful in the something else does not mean they can help you prevail on the web.
The video for "OpenSocial—High Octane For Widgets & Web Apps" is now available. The session is moderated by Daya Baran, President, WebGuild and features Chris Schalk, Google Developer Programs, Google; Joseph Smarr, Chief Platform Architect, Plaxo; and Akash Garg, Co-Founder/CTO, Hi5 Networks. Check it out!
Just did a Google search for Thanksgiving and noticed that the link for "Video" which used to be on the top left has been surreptitiously replaced with "Products". It appears on the homepage as well as on search results pages. "Video" has now been down-levelled to the "more" pulldown which is an alpha listing thereby, positioning Video at the bottom of the list. Ouch! If you click on Products, the two links switch places with Products moving into the pulldown and Video appearing at the top of the page in its previous position...seems like that shouldn't happen. This is a clear indication of lesser emphasis being placed on Google Video which has really been phased into YouTube and a greater emphasis on business and commerce. Can you say cha Checkout?!
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, told reporters that Google was not ahead in no way but search. "Google is not ahead of us," he told reporters at a Tokyo hotel. "In the area of search specifically, Google would lead."
Ballmer is increasingly on the defensive. In Mumbai, he said that "Facebook investment was not a mistake." Days after the Facebook investment Google and the rest of the social networking industry joined together to create OpenSocial. OpenSocial has put Facebook in the corner. Again.
Ballmer was in Tokyo to launch Windows Live programming package for e-mail, instant messaging, blogging and photo-sharing in Japan. The product was announced in the U.S. Tuesday. On Monday, Google announced that its similar product offerings for personal computers will be made available for free on mobile devices. The program called Android will be made available next year.
Oprah now has her own YouTube Channel. It appears that even the big "O" is not immune. Oprah, who has had her own TV show for 22 years, now has her own channel on YouTube. And its not likely because YouTube is cool. Chances are that Oprah is seeing the shift of eyeballs from TV to the web and that advertisers are no longer willing to pay a premium for tv ad spots so she is moving to where the eyeballs are...the web. She also did a YouTube interview with the founders of YouTube, Chad Hurley and Steve Chen, who appeared on the Oprah Show.
What's gonna be on this channel: -exclusive video including video she made herself for YouTube -what's coming up on the Oprah show -behind the scenes highlights of what goes on backstage during commercials
She stated that she is very excited for everybody to be able to show their own videos. Check it out: www.youtube.com/oprah.
YouTube has taken a page from Google and changed their logos for Halloween. Google is famous for having different logos for mark special days or holidays. YouTube changed the television graphic in "Tube" to a pumpkin. The television networks might be spooked by YouTube lately but the public is enjoying it. Happy Halloween!
Intel is asking its partners participating in the "Intel Inside" advertising program to shift more of their advertising dollars online and minimize it in traditional media like television and print.
According to Intel executives, consumers are turning more and more to the online media when they consider buying products like computers and other digital products. "In the last year, there appears to be an acceleration of attitude-forming, opinion-forming, online, instead of in the traditional media, and we have to respond appropriately", said Sean Maloney, EVP Marketing at Intel.
A survey of how consumers were influenced in their buying decisions undertaken this year by Intel showed that "three or four out of the top five sources have something to do with the online media," including search engines, blogs and Web sites, Maloney said.
"TV, print, can play a role," he added, "but once you're researching a purchase, we need to engage with you in a deeper way."
The program spends hundreds of million annually and beginning in 2008, Intel will require companies that take part in the program spend a minimum of 35% of the money that Intel provides to them on online marketing.
Some of the companies participating in Intel's program are Dell, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Lenovo, Sony and Toshiba.
Mike Abary, SVP Marketing Sony said "Some of the "Intel inside" co-op ads Sony is running appear will appear on YouTube.
Al Jazeera and Google signed a commercial agreement last week to share advertising revenue on th Al Jazeera's YouTube channel.
Al Jazeera, the world's 5th most popular brand, sees YouTube as an efficient platform to distribute their content and monetize it on non Televisions mediums. Al Jazeera الجزيرة, which means "The Peninsula" in Arabic, is a television network headquartered in Doha, Qatar. Initially launched as an Arabic news and current affairs satellite TV channel it has since expanded into a network with several outlets, including the internet and specialty TV channels in multiple languages, and in several regions of the world.
UC Berkeley has joined the internet revolution and is making available courses for free via YouTube.
University officials announced that over 300 hours of UC Berkeley classes and events are available online at the web address www.youtube.com/ucberkeley. The classes include lectures on peace and conflict studies, bioengineering, sciences, technology and computer programming.
UC Berkeley was one of the first major universities to embrace webcasting and podcasting and now YouTube.
Users are spending more and more time than a year ago watching video online and expect to watch even more going forward as long as the content remains free and ad-supported. "This study confirms that consumers accept video advertising in exchange for a free viewing experience, which is good news for advertisers," said David Klein, vice president of TNS, in a statement. "As with advertising across all media, if the video advertising is relevant it can contribute to and enhance an engaging media experience, not impair it." The study was sponsored by Google and AOL. (Source: http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?id=1005431&src=article1_newsltr)
And this may be a good thing given that Google has just launched YouTubeAdsense video units that allows website publishers to monetize their YouTube video content on their sites with text or image ads. Experientially, users are already trained to expect the pre-roll and post-roll ad displays on their online videos. Hopefully, they won't start popping up mid-video or go on for longer than the IAB recommended 30 second length. Like traditional Adsense, the ads will be contextually relevant to the video content and from an advertiser point of view, likely, more effective given its rich media format.
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed on the WebGuild Blog including posts, comments, and external links, are those of the individual
authors and not WebGuild's.
YouTube has come out with a tool to help you answer the question of who's watching you. YouTube Insight is a free video analytics tool that allows users who upload videos to YouTube to track the viewership on their videos including the geographic breakdown by region, as well as the popularity relative to all videos in that market over a given period of time. Uploaders can also delve deeper into the lifecycle of their videos to find out how long it takes for a video to become popular, and what happens to video views as popularity peaks. Another key feature expected shortly is a breakdown of how viewers discovered your video. Using these metrics, you can increase your videos' view counts and improve your popularity on the site. To view your video analytics, click "About this Video" button under "My Account > Videos, Favorites, Playlists > Manage my Videos."
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Just did a Google search for Thanksgiving and noticed that the link for "Video" which used to be on the top left has been surreptitiously replaced with "Products". It appears on the homepage as well as on search results pages. "Video" has now been down-levelled to the "more" pulldown which is an alpha listing thereby, positioning Video at the bottom of the list. Ouch! If you click on Products, the two links switch places with Products moving into the pulldown and Video appearing at the top of the page in its previous position...seems like that shouldn't happen. This is a clear indication of lesser emphasis being placed on Google Video which has really been phased into YouTube and a greater emphasis on business and commerce. Can you say cha Checkout?!
Al Jazeera and Google signed a commercial agreement last week to share advertising revenue on th Al 
