Web Video News

Viacom vs YouTube - Part II

2007-03-13T19:02:00.000-07:00

The clash of these two titans continue. After Viacom demanded that YouTube remove all the content it owns from the site just last month, it has come out swinging again. This time Viacom has filed a copyright lawsuit against Google, the owner of YouTube, for a $1 billion compensation.
This is the first time any media company has launched a frontal attack against Google and it would interesting to see the outcome of this development.

Presidential webvideo campaigns

2007-03-06T19:33:00.000-08:00

     The era of YouTube has already had an indelible influence on politics. Just ask George Allen. This fact is not lost on the 2008 Whitehouse aspirants either. This presidential campaign will probably be the first one where webvideos will play a prominent part.
     With the exception of Rudy Giuliani and to some extent Sen. Brownback, all the front runners have a video section on their campaign websites. Both Democratic and Republican Candidates are unanimous in their choice of YouTube . Also Sen. Obama and Sen. Brownback atleast one thing in common - both use Brightcove to host their video/s.

* - DEMOCRATIC Candidates - *

Barack Obama

Hillary Clinton

John Edwards

Bill Richardson

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

*- REPUBLICAN Candidates-*

John McCain This is probably the best of the bunch. A very slick site in monochromatic tones and extensive use of web videos.

Mitt Romney

Sam Brownback - The only video on the site - announcing his candidacy.

     On a related note - There is now an interactive web-video forum called Fora.tv, dedicated to the topics of current Political, Social and Cultural issues. This is a very interesting effort by founder & CEO Brian Gruber. The site features various channels, with content derived from sources such as Brookings Institution, Hoover Institution, Cato institute and C-SPAN to name the few.

Travel Video Resources

2007-03-01T17:29:00.000-08:00

This is past-post update.
     In my earlier post, I had profiled two travel websites - Travelistic and TurnHere. (TurnHere has since morphed from an exclusive travel video site to a professional internet video service provider that now caters to a wide variety of businesses).
     Recently I chanced upon another interesting travel video site called the GeoBeats. Geobeats hosts free professionally produced short videos on international destinations, highlighting its history, culture, cuisine, shopping, nightlife and other aspects of interest. These short videos usually feature a host who gives a guided tour of the place.
     Geobeats also provides its own convenient downloadable video player that has all the videos from the site. All you have to do is just select the destination and the topic to be visually transported to that exotic place.
   Featured video of the day - "Jail Hotel" in Lucerne, Switzerland.

     Other useful video resources are the websites of popular travel channels on TV such as Lonely Planet and National Geographic.
* Lonely planet has a dedicated video site that features video clips from its own shows and also allows the users to upload their videos into any of its six channels.
* National Geographic has a video section with clips exclusively from its own TV shows. Check out the tab under "People and Places" for high quality videos from places both ancient and modern.

For many more video sites - Click Here

Viacom and Joost

2007-02-27T20:12:00.000-08:00

     Just weeks after Viacom had spurned YouTube (covered in my earlier post), it has decided to partner with Joost. Under this deal, Viacom will provide Joost with content from MTV shows, BET networks and Paramount Pictures.
     Joost which was initially code-named "The Venice Project", is the brainchild of the founders of Skype. It is a new P2P internet Television platform, that will offer several channels of free broadcast quality interactive video programming.
     The users will be able to watch the streaming videos without having to download any files to their computer. Joost however is still under limited beta testing and will be available to the general public in the near future.

Ford Bold Moves and Videos of Hotrods

2007-02-18T10:21:00.000-08:00

     It is no secret that Ford has stumbled badly in the market for last couple of years. Now with the change at its helm it seems poised for a turnaround. Internally it has adopted a strategy dubbed the "Way Forward plan" and for the public, a marketing platform called the "Bold Moves".

     A very interesting and fascinating aspect of this "Bold Moves" initiative is an ongoing online video documentary of its public introspection, its current status and future plans. To quote from its website, these episodes will contain "candid interviews from Ford executives, employees, industry experts and even Ford detractors, Bold Moves approaches each segment from every angle and keeps asking the question: Will Ford succeed?"
     New episodes will be posted weekly which will document Ford's progress and transformation.

     On a related topic I came across a video website for Auto enthusiasts called the WebridesTV.
     This site features an impressive collection of professional and user generated video clips of cars and related to cars. Models profiled range from the antiques to the hotrods including this million dollar car -

Click Here for more video sites.

Viacom vs YouTube

2007-02-15T20:37:00.000-08:00

Viacom after demanding that YouTube remove over 100,000 unauthorized video clips earlier this month, has decided to jump into the fray itself. Viacom which owns MTV networks and Paramount movie studios has announced that it will make available video clips of the content that it owns on its MTV-owned sites like this one.
Moreover like with Youtube, bloggers and myspace users will soon be able to embed these videos into their webpages. The company plans to invest more heavily in new networks and digital properties.

Walmart Online Video Store

2007-02-11T07:03:00.000-08:00

     After relinquishing its online video rental venture to Netflix, Walmart is at it again. Following the footsteps of Netflix, Walmart has launched a Video Download (Beta) Service.
     It seems Walmart has managed to rope-in all the major studios and therefore has a huge collection of movies. The movies can cost anywhere from approx. $10 to $20, tv shows will cost $1.99 an episode. These downloaded movies can also be viewed on select portable players.
     However it cannot be viewed on iPods and also the service does not work with Firefox browser.

     Here is a interview with Kevin Swint of Walmart's digital download division - from Bambi's blog

Experience Sundance on YouTube

2007-01-22T20:44:00.000-08:00

Sundance - one of the prestigious and largest independent cinema film festival is going on right now in Utah. There is a video blog of the film festival on YouTube - link to Sundance Channel.
There are also plenty of video clips of indie films at the festival on their own website - Sundance.org

*Referenced from Frank Barnako's post on his Media Blog.

Hillary announces Presidential Bid

2007-01-20T06:36:00.000-08:00

Today Hillary Clinton announced her much anticipated bid to become the first woman president of USA. The video announcement was posted on her official website and is succinctly titled "I'M IN". - Video Link here

Presidential candidate vlogs

2007-01-16T20:13:00.000-08:00

Alan Gore may have "invented" the internet, but the 2008 presidential hopefuls seem to have truly embraced it, especially to deliver their video campaigns.
In keeping with the times, Barack Obama recently announced his decision to form a Presidential exploratory committee in a video on his website. John Edwards on his website outlines the agenda of his campaign in the video titled "Tommorrow Begins Today" and Tom Vilsack presents his opinion in a series of videos on his vlog hosted on blip.tv.

Netflix a movie online

2007-01-16T07:01:00.000-08:00

Well the inevitable is here - Starting this week, Netflix will have an option to show movies and TV episodes over the internet. This will be called the "Watch Now" feature and will be available to subscribers at no extra charge.
Read the rest of the details here - Netflix Press Release

Vongo and Movielink are the other two services that offer online movie delivery.

Wine anyone?

2007-01-11T19:35:00.000-08:00

     If you are a casual wine drinker like me, then very likely you buy the same Merlot or Chardonnay everytime, because it works for you. However if once in a while you would like to try something different but not sure what to look for or where, then Wineass would be a good place to start.
     This tongue-in-cheek website offers video podcast reviews of inexpensive wine. The reviews are funny but relevant (for eg. the wines are rated for their "Body", "Grip", "Wank" and "Snoot").
     If your interest in the world of wines run deeper and you aspire to become a sommelier but have not yet mastered the art of opening a bubbly, then Wineloverspage has the video clip to show you how. It also has other wine related information like cooking and painting with wine.

Watch online videos on TV - the Sony Way

2007-01-09T19:38:00.000-08:00

     Continuing on the topic of watching online videos on TV - yesterday Sony announced at CES in Las Vegas, the first of its kind TV feature called "BRAVIA Internet Video Link".
     This feature is expected to debut in most its new television sets and will allow access to internet video content (including HD content), from various providers such as AOL, Yahoo, Grouper as well as Sony Pictures Entertainment and Sony BMG music.
     Sony's new internet video-ready tv will have the ability to receive streaming broadband video via a small optional module that can be easily attached to the back of the tv set. This module links the TV directly to the user's broadband internet service provider via an ethernet connection. The user can navigate through the video content using Sony's Xross Media Bar user interface.
     Slingcatcher (see two posts down) and Sony BRAVIA will not be the only two hardware options in the future; Netgear too announced a WiFi set-top box called Digital Entertainer HD, which will direct Streaming videos from the web to the TV. For more details click here.

Lifestyle TV

2007-01-08T19:27:00.000-08:00

     LX.TV defines itself as Broadband Television website for Luxury Lifestyle and Cultural programming. True to its claim, LX.TV features professionally produced short videos that cover the whole gamut of activities like Shopping, Style, workout, Nightlife, dining, arts and much more.
     These videos offer an insight and information on the luxury lifestyle that can be had in the cities of Los Angeles New York, Las Vegas. Also coming soon, the cities of Miami and San Francisco will also be included.
     Tastetv (which I had covered in one of my earlier post) is a similar website with videos about cuisine and lifestyle, albeit the theme of these videos is not confined any particular strata of the society.

Watch Online Videos on TV - the Sling way

2007-01-07T19:48:00.000-08:00

Yesterday's post was about a web application which would allow online videos to be viewed on TV. Well coincidentally yesterday GIGAOM reported that Sling Media will debut a hardware option to do the same.
The new product will facilitate watching online videos on TV and apparently will debut at this year's CES which opens tommorrow in Las Vegas. This product called the "Slingcatcher" will be the exact opposite of a Slingbbox (also from the same company) which as you may know allows watching TV live on your Laptop. Further details are available here.

Watch Youtube & Revver on your TV

2007-01-06T10:52:00.000-08:00

     Have you ever wanted to watch online video clips on TV instead of your laptop, especially those that were TV shows to begin with.
     Well now you can with a web application aptly named SOFATUBE. This utility was developed by Ottawa, Canada based company called Red Kawa. Presently using this simple application you can browse and watch videos on You Tube and Revver.
     Red Kawa also offers a free personal video downloading program - Videora 2.0 . This application uses Bittorrent and RSS feeds to find and download online videos for you. They also provide a freeware to convert video files from popular formats such as .avi, .mpg etc into custom formats that allow it to be viewed on iPod, Tivo, Xbox etc. In addition they also have something called the Red Kawa Marketplace where you can find software to use and play on your video game system.

Bubbles for your Video

2006-12-17T19:48:00.000-08:00

     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

2006-12-10T17:41:00.000-08:00

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

2006-12-06T20:04:00.000-08:00

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

2006-12-04T20:34:00.000-08:00

     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.

2006-12-03T20:00:00.000-08:00

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

2006-12-01T17:48:00.000-08:00

     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

2006-11-28T17:34:00.000-08:00

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

2006-11-27T17:38:00.000-08:00

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

2006-11-26T17:32:00.000-08:00

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

2006-11-26T13:46:00.000-08:00

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

2006-11-24T17:07:00.000-08:00

     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?

2006-11-23T15:36:00.000-08:00

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

2006-11-22T14:46:00.000-08:00

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

2006-11-21T20:44:00.000-08:00

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

2006-11-20T20:00:00.000-08:00

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

2006-11-19T19:55:00.000-08:00

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;

2006-11-19T17:46:00.000-08:00

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!!