Archive for August, 2007
Posted August 24th, 2007 by Char Lyn
Have you noticed the new features on YouTube? I love the new beta page—it’s cleaner and just feels better in my browser. Today I noticed that they’ve also added forward and back navigation buttons to the recommended videos at the end of each clip. The forward button also has a timer feature that lets you know when the presented clips will change. I’m thrilled about these nav buttons since I can never mange to click on an interesting video before it is replaced by a new one. They’ve also added thumbs up/down buttons to the comments to help filter out the drivel, which I greatly appreciate.
Successful Web services like YouTube have learned that they have to continuously improve in order to stay relevant. But, they also have to earn revenue. In addition to other improvements this week, YouTube has rolled out a new advertising format that overlays the videos like a news ticker at the bottom of the video. Its use is very limited right now, and I had to watch a number of videos before I found one with the new ads. The blogosphere is voicing its opinions about these ads in posts like these on Profy, CyberNet News, and Jaffe Juice.
According to Mashable, Google is making the ads optional for the content owners. If these ads survive the current maelstrom of mostly negative reaction, Google could potentially use the format to make revenue from the extremely popular embed feature, which currently allows people to put ad-free clips directly on their blogs and Web pages.
Corporate America has capitalized on the platform by sponsoring vloggers, posting their commercials, and buying banner ads. The new ad format may increase commercial use of YouTube and water-down the user generated content, but as the largest video community on the Web, it will continue to get the eyeballs marketers covet.
Posted August 21st, 2007 by admin
Heavy.com, providers of such online video hit series as “Superficial Friends” and “Behind the Music that Sucks” has today announced the public beta of its own ad network, The Husky Network.
According to the press release, Heavy will be wrapping video players, such as YouTube or Revver, with branded skins and selling them on a CPM basis. According to the screenshot below, Heavy will be dropping a big static pop up on your page with a hole in the middle for the video to play in.
Posted August 15th, 2007 by admin
The recent bridge collapse in Minneapolis showed the extent to which citizen journalism has been empowered by social media. The news quickly spread on Twitter, photos were uploaded on Flickr and videos were posted on YouTube and the whole world could Digg them.
News organizations recognize the power of citizen journalism. Sites like CNN’s iReport, MSNBC’s First Person or BBC’s Talking Point call readers to submit their own content. The BBC even offers courses in photography and reporting. Even Yahoo came up with its own version called You Witness News.
A recent trend is citizen journalism sites where anyone can post news stories they find on the web and can also submit their original reporting. Here are a few:
NowPublic is probably the most prominent. The posts are twitted on the home page as they arrive. The site is mostly people re-sending news from news wire services, but every once in a while there is some original reporting by subscribers. The site claims little over 125,450 subscribers in 4095 cities.
Wikinews says it is trying to do for journalism what Wikipedia has done for Encyclopedias. It is up to you how you want to interpret that.
GroundReport.com is a citizen news portal that enables anyone to instantly publish articles, photography and video. A story gets pushed up by voting and a reporter needs to establish trust within the site. The frequency of posting is not great, but it does require original reporting to get published and all contributors earn a share of revenues based on traffic to their stories.
Orato.com is a site where both citizens and journalists contribute.
Another trend is news sites dedicated to specific towns and cities like Bostonist of Boston, Newton’s Garden City, and my personal favorite H2Otown of Watertown. If you want to see if your town has a site, visit the Knight Citizen News Network which has a nice map.
While the debate goes on whether citizen journalism is a good thing or not, the world keeps reporting and it has never been easier to get published. It has only been two years since I got a degree in journalism and I’m already wondering if it will be worth much in the future. Lucky for me I double majored!
Posted August 13th, 2007 by admin
What do Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards have in common? It’s not their stance on Iraq I’ll tell you that much. Actually, they’ve managed to engage millions of voters and raise tons of revenue using the social web. Hillary has her very own Hillary TV, a weekly segment where she answers questions posted on her blog and gives a video collection of her latest achievements. She has also cleverly used other popular websites such as YouTube to post her “Clinton Soprano” parody that advertises her campaign song contest.
Obama even has his own social web network. No, it’s not called Obamaspace.com. It’s actually My.barackobama.com. Members can create profiles, meet other supporters, join groups and events, and help in campaign fundraising. According to TIME magazine, more than $10 million of Obama’s whooping $31 million second-quarter contributions were made online.
However, the prize for “Best Social Web Ideas” goes to John Edwards. Two of Edwards’ top advisors posted a “how-to” video on YouTube for making John’s favorite pecan pie, courtesy of “Mama” Edwards. In return for the dish, the Edwards campaign asked for a minimum donation of $6.10 to share the recipe. The video brought in nearly $300,000 in one week! As you can see, these select presidential candidates have recognized an untapped resource for connecting to voters and raising funds. Having a profile on MySpace just doesn’t cut it these days.
Obama in iMac
Hillary and Obama boxing
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