Bubbles for your Video

     Have ever had the urge to add your own commentary in form of text or captions to web videos to make it interesting? Until recently this could only be done with a video editing software.
     However now you can add text into videos easily without any special software. Mojiti is a website that allows you personalize the videos. You choose any video and add captions, subtitles or annotations to it in any language.
     Bubbleply is another such website which lets you add your comments and text in a bubbles that is inserted into the videos. Also the website has a sample of "bubbled" videos that are quite entertaining.

Tech made easy with videos

     The technology driven reality of today can be tough to navigate for the not so tech savy. So if you are buying a camera or upgrading the operating system on your computer, Labrats is a good place to start.
     The brainchild of two technology journalists, Labrats is a video website that seeks to demystify everyday technology that is around us. The shows can be downloaded in Flash, Quicktime, Windows player, Divx (AVI) and also the iPod version.

NewTeeVee - Another blog about online videos

Gigaom - A popular online news & weblog published by GigaOmniMedia Inc, a company founded by Om Malik, has launched a new weblog called NewTeeVee to report exclusively about online videos.
This ofcourse duplicates the intention of my blog here. I had signed up this blog couple of months ago to write about the developments in the world of online videos and I will continue to do so in my own limited way.

Web Videos in High Def

     Azureus, the creators of a very popular BitTorrent Client have launched a video sharing website called Zudeo. Zudeo is a YouTube clone with a twist.... it will offer videos in High Definition and offer large storage space.
     Users will need to download and use the BitTorrent client Azureus 3.0 to view the videos. This application will also include regular features like uploading, tagging, rating system, easy sharing and link to "Digg" content.
     Also the company BitTorrent itself is planning on becoming a content distributor and has signed deals with several movie studios.

How to strum a Guitar.

If you are like me, you would have always wanted to learn a musical instrument but did not know where to start. Well at least in case of the guitar this would be a good place to begin. Click here.
This website contains a compilation of webvideos that will hopefully guide you from the 'one who never held a guitar' all the way to becoming a 'Jimi Hendrix incarnate'.

TasteTV - the indie food channel

     Couple of days ago I got the very first comment of my blog, in response to a post about travel webvideo sites. The comment referred me to another webvideo site called TasteTV.com.
     TasteTV as you may have guessed serves up videos about food, wine and style. The layout of the website is tastefully done and the content looks yummy. There are plenty of videos about recipes & recommendations on chocolates-to wine-to wide variety of cuisine and even movies with food themes. The videos are hosted on Brightcove and include those produced in-house by TasteTV as well as viewer contributed content.
     In addition, there are video reviews of restaurants and style & design. The website also contains an extensive list of blogs & vlogs of foodies and chocoholics.
     Overall TasteTV has an attractive menu of offerings and its definitely worth indulging in.

Blogging on the go - part II

Yesterday I had written about Mobile Blogging and today Verizon announced a tie-up with YouTube to allow its customers to watch videos on their handsets starting next month. This service will be offered through its Vcast service. Click here.
If you are not a verizon customer or don't want to signup for Vcast there are other options. Click here.
Also while searching for the sites that offer mobile blogging with ability to upload videos, I came across this one.

Blogging on the go

Mobile blogging may not prevalent right now, but it could be trend of the future. Video camera and web enabled cell phones are ubiqitious, so if someone has captured something interesting (or embarrassing) they can share it with world right away without having to get back to their laptop (or desktop).
This blogger service allows mobile blogging to the extent that you can share text and photos...and mobile video blogging may not be far behind. A handful of start-ups already allow uploading & sharing mobile videos as well as allow you to watch other videos on your mobile phone. Gigaom has an article that discusses one such startup called mywaves and also references some of its closest competitors.

Before you book that ticket - check out the videos

When making travel plans to a new destination, I always talk to my friends who have been there before, read the travel guides and also surf the web for feedback from those who have made that journey.
But I always thought that a good video preview would really help before I book that non-refundable ticket. Therefore I was pleased to learn about couple of websites that aims do just that.
Travelistic which launched recently, will be a site dedicated to travel videos. The website has a simple but pertinent slogan - "videos for travelers". Accordingly there will be professional travel videos as well as user generated clips. The layout of the video portion of the website is similar to many of the video-sharing websites.
Turnhere is another website that is built around a similar theme. Turnhere hosts professionally produced short videos about cities and neighbourhoods from all over the world. It touts to be the venue for local videos that would serve both local people and tourists.
Wander on to these websites to explore the world, whether you do it from your home or in person.

Web based Video Tutorial

An australian website called Video-tutes.com offers free web based "3D max" video tutorials for most of the popular softwares used to create webpages, print design and 3D animations.
These tutorials are apparently designed for all users and contain lessons from the very basics through to advanced effects and keyboard shortcuts.

How to make Guacamole- from About.com

     About.com, a information website with guides for all sorts of things has a very useful video library. Click Here.
     This video library features a collection of short video guides on wide variety of topics ranging from 'how to make guacamole' to ' grouting tiles' .
     These instruction and informative videos are sorted in five different categories - Health, Food & Drink, Home & Garden, Electronics & Gadgets and Style & Fashion.

Webshots to store & share videos?

Webshots a popular photo storing and sharing website, now allows to do the same with videos. Webshots is part of CNet networks family. Other sites like VSOCIAL, DAVE.TV & MOTIONBOX also allow storing and sharing of videos.

Goodyear union fights back with a video

Until recently online video clips was about entertainment or advertisement. Now its lending voice to a protest from an unlikely group. It appears that the labor unions have discovered YouTube.
The striking workers of Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. represented by United Steelworkers union has posted a videospot on the popular video website. The 30 second video spot seems to warn customers that the tires made by replacement workers at Goodyear will be subpar.
Video Clip
It would be very interesting to see the outcome of the this test blimp floated by Goodyear worker's union. If this proves effective, other groups might also resort to this unique approach to reach sympathetic audience.

The Rage & the Apology

Michael Richards' (aka 'Kramer') recent infamous racial tirade was a surprise to me. His character in Seinfield was delightful. He later apologized on David Letterman show.

Videos & Voices of Iraq

AliveinBaghdad - is fascinating blog from Iraq that offers a different perspective of the situation there than that of the main stream media. AliveinBaghdad brings short news segments from Iraq as well as video testimonies from individual Iraqis and footage of daily life in Iraq to you. The reporting on this website is made possible by a team of American & Iraqi correspondents on the ground.

Video Search Engine - Blinkx

blinkx claims to be the world's largest and most advanced video search engine.
Fed by bots that crawl the web for audio-video content and content partnerships with over sixty leading content and media companies, blinkx uses visual analysis and speech recognition to better understand rich media content.
Users can search for content, create personal TV channels that automatically splice relevant content together and even has a feature to automatically download content to mobile devices. Blinkx is a privately-held firm, founded in early 2004 and has offices in San Francisco and London.

Inaugural Post;

This blog is about the videos on the web. The popularity of video sites like YouTube, and videos on Google & Yahoo portend a not too distant future in which web videos will displace television and the published media as a medium of choice for many.
Also the mushrooming number of hosting, storage and editing websites will surely acclerate the dissemination and democratization of video infotainment. Videos on the web are said to have already influenced recent elections and in few instances help customers overcome the apathy of mighty corporations.
It would be interesting to see how this medium matures and I hope to discuss here about it as much as I can and as regularly as I can, as it happens!!