Monthly Archive
for: ‘January, 2010’

In a financial sense, Google’s acquisition of YouTube has never made a lot of sense; the site, which sold for $1.65 billion, hasn’t even turned a profit on a quarter-to-quarter basis yet.  But according to a prominent analyst, that’s about to change. Doug Anmuth, who works for Barclays Capital, said today in a note, "[I]n …

Online music video service, Vevo, was the most visited U.S. website in the entertainment-music category in December with more than 35 million unique visitors, according to comScore. Partners in Vevo include Universal Music Group, Sony Entertainment and investor Abu Dhabi Media Company. The site is powered by YouTube. Vevo says its top ranking is an …

Different opinions exist regarding whether or not Vevo will ever be a big success; on the one hand, it doesn’t offer anything that other video sites don’t.  On the other, well, music labels’ lawyers may work to ensure it’s something special.  But either way, Vevo owes YouTube its life at this early stage. Right from …

Rush Limbaugh was released from the hospital today and says doctors found nothing wrong. It makes you wonder if the thousands of hysterical people wishing Rush Limbaugh death on Twitter are feeling a little foolish. Probably not. Below is the video of Rush speaking to the press about his good health:    Taking a look at …

Using YouTube may become a much less passive experience in the near future.  Google’s received applied for a patent on a "Web-based system for [the] generation of interactive games based on digital videos," and several facts point to the search giant moving ahead with the idea. Let’s start with an overview of the patent.  As …

Online tools have played important roles in the Iranian protests; right from the start, the appearance of videos on YouTube and trending topics on Twitter helped spread awareness about the disputed presidential election.  And YouTube doesn’t want anyone to forget that it’s still doing its part. A blog post titled "Ordinary citizens, extraordinary videos" was …

YouTube has launched its own URL shortener, but it is not like other URL-shorteners, because it can only be used specifically with YouTube videos. This way, YouTube says, when you click on one, you know you’re going to a YouTube video no matter what. That should certainly cut down on the likelihood that you could …

Hulu has a new captions search feature available via Hulu Labs. The feature allows Hulu users to search the captions of videos across hundreds of different shows. Show and video pages now have a "Captions" tab, and search can be found there. "Recently I watched an episode of House, and they made a funny joke …

It’s no secret that people work harder when given a financial incentive, and that companies also like to make a little money.  Now, the program that YouTube created to capitalize on these facts has turned two years old, and YouTube’s having a little celebration. As Shenaz Zack, a product manager, explained on the YouTube Blog, …

It’s that time of year when all of the big web properties reflect on the year’s worth of activity. We already saw Twitter’s top trending topics for 2009, for example. YouTube is also sharing its most watched videos and most searched for queries. "This year has been the biggest yet for online video, and for …

There’s a microwave that has been getting some attention this week. It’s called CastOven, and it plays YouTube videos while you cook your food. Not only does it play videos, but it plays videos specifically catering to the amount of time you have the microwave set for. The CastOven was created by two designers from …

The latest numbers regarding online video viewing are in from Nielsen, and they reveal some interesting trends.  In effect, things are looking good on a year-over-year basis, but stacked up against October, November didn’t go so well. Let’s hit the positive aspects of the Nielsen Wire report first.  Unique viewers, total streams, and time spent …