failure

Yahoo Video: The $6 Billion Black Hole Implodes

A source at Google tells us YouTube has seen a rush of résumés from engineers at Yahoo's rival video site, after a wave of layoffs last week that devastated the team. Is Yahoo Video done? More »

05/04/09

7,468

12

By Owen Thomas

Comment by NonaRareware: What the hell has Carol Bartz accomplished? So far nothing as far as I can see, she makes Yang look... 3 Responses | Other threads

Oscar Grant

The Shot That Sparked the YouTube Riots

A transit cop shooting a New Year's Eve rowdy, face down, in Oakland, Calif. turned into a national story thanks to YouTube, long before local newspapers and TV stations caught up to it. More »

01/11/09

13,119

155

By Owen Thomas

Comment by Trixie from Toronto: Further proof that most cops are profoundly stupid in addition to being seething rageaholics who get off on lording their... 20 Responses | Other threads

Lip Dubs

Laid-off eBayers get goodbye video all wrong

When a tipster told me that workers at eBay France had created a lip-dub video, my hopes were high. But I should never have expected great things from eBay.

12/18/08

7,769

13

By Owen Thomas

Comment by UniComp: If I were a dude working there, I'd be pissed that they laid off all those cute coworkers. 1 Responses | Other threads

online video

The Internet's funny business tunes out

Superdeluxe, Turner Broadcasting's ha-ha video site, has finally shut down. Is anyone going to miss it — or the rest of the Web's other humor-clips startups?

12/17/08

2,774

6

By Owen Thomas

Comment by alexr_vw: And when does domain name superdeluxe.com revert to it's original owner? more » | Other threads

search

Why Pamela Anderson can't beat Google

Remember AltaVista? The search engine, long swallowed up by Yahoo, once hired professional trashy babe Pamela Anderson to win our affections. What that terrible TV ad tells us: TV ads don't build Web brands.

12/14/08

7,222

6

By Owen Thomas

Comment by incrediblehelp: The best ones were the Hot Bot commercials: [www.jaankanellis.com] more » | Other threads

viral

Parry Gripp, the Weird Al Yankovic of YouTube

Could Parry Gripp be the best thing that ever happened to YouTube? The man behind Buffy the Vampire Slayer's theme song is turning Internet-video disaster into visual punk rock.

12/14/08

9,604

18

By Owen Thomas

Comment by if_i_only_had_a_heart: they're all the same but all different, like snowflakes and rainbows and unicorns and internet memes the dude was obviously born... 3 Responses | Other threads

online video

Report: Sarah Palin destroying Web video

We've uncovered what's really killing the online-advertising business: Sarah Palin! Or rather, the lack thereof. Traffic at Hulu, NBC's YouTube wannabe, tumbled in November without the Web's favorite hot lady governor and VP candidate.

12/12/08

8,752

5

By Owen Thomas

Comment by Catherine Helzerman: Palin was made for reality TV. Her family is a walking soap opera. I'm still waiting for cliff... more » | Other threads

fake trends

Making money on YouTube? Not so fast

There's gold in them thar YouTubes! People are making literally thousands of dollars a month! What a fluttery Times trend piece doesn't say: Most of YouTube is a creative desert with zero moneymaking potential.

12/11/08

4,953

10

By Owen Thomas

Comment by macbeach: I tried watching both of these programs when I first saw them mentioned here months ago. I had trouble getting through... 2 Responses | Other threads

explainer

Why Disney's funding Chinese pirates

If Chinese viewers want to watch Disney's Hannah Montana — no accounting for global tastes — they can do so on 56.com, an online-video site akin to YouTube. The show is pirated. But does Disney really mind? Its startup-investment arm, Steamboat Ventures, put money into 56.com two years ago. More »

11/21/08

1,832

3

By Owen Thomas

Comment by mind_at_large: funny thing is if you link to those videos sitting here in US, Disney will come sue you for copyright... more » | Other threads

commentards

GM's scare tactics fail to win over YouTube users

General Motors has posted its call for an auto-industry bailout directly to the Net, with predictably disastrous results. GM marketers have clearly fallen for the myth of Internet PR — that taking a company's message directly to the people through social media will give it a much friendlier reception than if it is filtered through the mainstream media. The reality? More »

11/17/08

1,848

11

By Owen Thomas

Comment by isights: I think Barack is on the right track. We need to do somethng, but we also need to get EVERYONE... 1 Responses | Other threads

great moments in pr

Hulu wants me to tell you they're catching up with YouTube

You've never heard of media analyst company Screen Digest. Keep that in mind when you stumble upon a few dozen news reports today that claim "Hulu ... a smaller upstart backed by News Corporation and NBC Universal ... is forecast to draw level with Google’s YouTube in US advertising revenues next year." Any reporter who reads that sentence in the Financial Times instantly wonders, "forecast by who?" By the Financial Times? By Hulu executives? No, by Screen Digest. Take that as you will.

11/17/08

924

4

By Paul Boutin

Comment by IsadoraBear: Paul, you're welcome to call me anytime and I'll show you our credentials, our client lists, and explain our methodology.... more » | Other threads

barack obama

President Change dumps radio for YouTube

This week's Democratic Party weekly address by our audaciously hopeful President-elect will not be on boring old NPR. Barack Obama's going to upload to YouTube, reports the Washington Post. The WaPo says the Obama administration will also make "online Q&As and video interviews" part of its communications strategy. Think this is payback for Google CEO Eric Schmidt's late-to-the-game Obama endorsement? More »

11/14/08

3,086

11

By Paul Boutin

Comment by Omelas: In my experience working for the gov, when we use Gmail or other free services, it's because they're providing a... 2 Responses | Other threads

loser-generated content

YouTube ads must be big in Japan

YouTube has never been this exciting. And I don't mean the puppy videos. The video-sharing site is frenetically experimenting with every imaginable form of advertising, from prerolls to rollovers to overlays. There's even that staple of late-night television — headache pills! For this, we can thank Ben Ling, the product manager who recently returned to Google from Facebook to figure out how to make money on YouTube. But surely the most absurd ads we're seeing right now are the adaptations of Google's familiar text ads displayed on Web search results. A blog post featuring two cat-with-head-trapped-in-bag videos — a staple of YouTube users' contributions to the world of cinema — has ads "by Google" slapped on top of them. In Japanese.

11/12/08

934

3

By Owen Thomas

Comment by Drunken Economist: Oh, Owen, you TOTALLY MISSED the Fark: "Chinese product manager [related to Bai Ling? Another Asian bizarro?] returns to Google to... more » | Other threads

Mark Jung

Vudu CEO to spend more time with his lovely wife

Vudu, which makes a nifty little set-top box that no one is buying, beat the rush by laying off employees in August. Today, an alert tipster notes that CEO Mark Jung has disappeared from the company's management page. Jung's LinkedIn profile has also been updated, putting Vudu in past tense. San Francisco's 7x7 magazine scored this shot of Jung with Mrs. Jung at a fundraiser in May. The boss wants me to draw some big conclusion here. I think it's: Go to the party. You can always work yourself to death when Web 3.0 comes around.

11/05/08

2,146

2

By Paul Boutin

Comment by SuttonHizer: In 90 days they will be closing shop.... more » | Other threads

online advertising

Viacom turns MySpace bootlegs into an advertunity

A year ago, Viacom sued YouTube for one billion dollars, claiming YouTube was not blocking uploads of copyrighted Viacom material from Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, MTV, VH1 and others. Today, MySpace will join YouTube in running ads targeted to Viacom-owned clips, instead of deleting them. Auditude, a Palo Alto startup, provides the software that identifies Viacom-owned content. Remember when musicians believed all advertising was evil? Now, I'm looking forward to seeing a Big & Rich ad targeted against another Big & Rich ad, overlaid by another Big & Rich ad for a Big & Rich ad I haven't seen yet. Collect them all!

11/03/08

231

2

By Paul Boutin

Comment by Uncle-Sam's Littlle Helper: Thanks! I tried to write you back on MySpace, but my network is running so slow because of all... more » | Other threads

online advertising

Hulu's surprising lesson

Jason Kilar, the CEO of online-video site Hulu, has rediscovered a truism: less is more. Hulu, which is mostly owned by NBC and News Corp., runs fewer ads on the TV clips it licenses from its TV-network parents than they air when they broadcast the same shows. And yet the ads are more effective. This could simply be a novelty effect; everything about Hulu is new, so the ads also draw more notice. But Hulu may be onto something. Why don't networks try running fewer ads on air, too? (Photo via Alarm:Clock)

10/29/08

1,696

13

By Owen Thomas

Comment by marcsiry: I'm not sure this story follows VW style guidelines- aren't you supposed to use at least one vaguely insulting descriptor... 2 Responses | Other threads

social networks

No poking your television

"Some of the tools that allow people to build communities and socialize on Internet sites like MySpace and Facebook are making their way to the living room," reports the Wall Street Journal. Awesome! That means we'll be able to throw a sheep at Tina Fey while watching 30 Rock, right? Wrong. The article actually talks about using Xbox Live as a cheap voice-chat service, a Sony service which doesn't exist yet, and a bunch of startups. Too bad, because I'd love to multitask my two favorite brain-dead activities: watching TV and clicking "ignore" on Facebook friend requests. (Illustration by Jason Schneider/Wall Street Journal)

10/27/08

224

0

By Owen Thomas

meltdowns

Break.com basically fires 11 people, but calls it a layoff

Web-video-for-guys startup is "laying off" 11 people, but hiring another 11 with different skills, according to its CEO, Keith Richman. Dude, that's not a layoff — that's a classic nutshot. More »

10/23/08

1,578

4

By Owen Thomas

Comment by sggrf: Break.com needs to merged with Heavy.com! 1 Responses | Other threads

layoffs

Veoh lays off 15, still lacks reason for being

An online-video industry insider emails us to tell us that Veoh has laid off 40 percent of its staff. On Monday afternoon, LinkedIn had 94 people listed as Veoh employees. PaidContent says that the company laid off 15 employees from its Russian office in St. Petersburg, and is hiring stateside. Veoh has raised almost $70 million in venture capital in order to produce a pale imitation of YouTube.

10/20/08

3,576

12

By Owen Thomas

Comment by kellykelly: you guys are such douchebags. I'm sitting here in veoh's headquarters right now and no one has been laid off. 1 Responses | Other threads

great moments in pr

YouTube founder Chad Hurley a parody of himself

The dirty secret of YouTube's Chad Hurley: Despite selling an online-video startup whose slogan is "Broadcast Yourself" to Google for $1.65 billion, he's still desperately uncomfortable in front of a camera. Google PR's media training has only turned the millionaire's awkward mannerisms into a hilariously stiff folksiness: "Having the opportunity to sit down with some press, communicate to them the deals we've been working on, meet with partners." Is he consciously imitating our tongue-tied president? Or rather, Will Ferrell's Saturday Night Live version of Dubya? No: I think he's just doing a bad impression of Chad Hurley.

10/16/08

554

5

By Owen Thomas

Comment by Carlos: at least he spent some money on getting rid of the crackhead looking bags under the eyes more » | Other threads

online video

Why YouTube's desperate revenue hunt is on the money

CEO Eric Schmidt botched Google's $1.65 billion acquisition of YouTube. Under his misguided traffic-first strategy, the online-video site has seen off would-be rivals, but failed to grow a business. When he decided, rather late, to make revenue a priority, he wasted time looking for a magical new ad format. (The one result of this effort, YouTube's InVideo ads, which are overlaid over a video as it plays, seems to be a complete failure.) Now, YouTube cofounder Chad Hurley admits there is no "silver bullet." YouTube has abandoned one of its shibboleths — that viewers are turned off by "preroll" ads which play before a clip — and is experimenting with a number of moneymaking schemes. More »

10/15/08

1,884

6

By Owen Thomas

Comment by ShamitaNerq: Here's an idea, why doesn't YouTube have some sort of commerce marketplace and charge a fee for the conversions. Amazon... 1 Responses | Other threads

microsoft

Microsoft to sneak in a launch of Silverlight 2.0

Yes, all anyone can talk about are Apple's new laptops. Always prone to squandering a PR opportunity, Microsoft is set to debut the next version of its answer to Adobe's Flash — Silverlight, the video player everyone talks about but no one has installed. Silverlight 2.0 has ~~digital rights management software to power multimedia sites, skinning capabilities for the player, deep zoom, as well as finally Mac and Linux support for Firefox and even Chrome~~ a long list of features that don't matter. [PC Magazine]

10/13/08

378

5

By Alaska Miller

Comment by ritachopra8: MS likes focus ONLY on areas where other companies are doing well and have a great product. Now Flash and... 1 Responses | Other threads

online video

Who cares about business models? "MacGyver" is on YouTube!

Look, you're going to be reading a lot on AdAge and NewTeeVee and Silicon Alley Insider about YouTube's deal with CBS to run full-length TV shows, and what this means for online-video advertising models and what this means for the Google-owned site's rivalry with Hulu, the joint venture between NBC and News Corp. Blah blah blah. Let me abbreviate it for you: More »

10/13/08

695

3

By Owen Thomas

Comment by TMonster: The Mac Attack is Back. Yes. more » | Other threads

meltdowns

The Cyprus 20 and the art of the single-take video

The deep mystery of the Camp Cyprus 20: What were they thinking? The most common theory floating around is that the 20 or so Internet-employed twentysomethings who filmed themselves cavorting by the Mediterranean, even as the markets imploded and Silicon Valley shuddered, were simply drunk. Oh no, my friends: This was planned. The beer cans were expertly placed props. Think about it: The Cyprus vacation home of Wall Street power broker Bob Lessin screams "music-video set." His son, Sam Lessin, invited a number of people, including his girlfriend, Wall Street Journal reporter Jessica Vascellaro. She and the other bathing beauties all brought identical black-and-white checkered swimsuits. A single-take video like this doesn't just happen; in fact, it's something of an art form. It doesn't require the cinematic talent of a Welles or Scorsese, but it does require a stunning amount of free time. Here are three videos which likely inspired the Cyprus hill gang: More »

10/13/08

13,135

12

By Owen Thomas

Comment by bigleggedwoman: Why don't they just take the printer out into a field and shoot it in slow motion? 2 Responses | Other threads

online video

Netflix raising prices, with Blu-ray as the excuse

Every Netflix subscriber who's ever added a Blu-ray disc to their queue — which triggers a setting for Blu-ray movies — is getting a $1 a month fee added to their bill for "access" to the high-def movie discs on the rent-by-mail service, even if they didn't intend to watch Blu-ray movies. Users can log into their account and remove the fee if they change the setting to stop all Blu-ray movies. So what this really is: A tax on laziness. [Silicon Alley Insider]

10/09/08

677

8

By Owen Thomas

Comment by gogetemguy: in defense of my post, I was going by what I ready here, and admit to not checking my netflix... more » | Other threads

online video

Ex-Disney CEO Michael Eisner's grand insight on online video: Sex sells. [PaidContent]

10/07/08

420

0

online video

YouTube goes live after all

On November 22nd, YouTube will host a two-hour event in San Francisco, "a celebration of the site's vast user communities." Looks like we can expect performances from Akon, Soulja Boy, will.i.am and a bunch of online video-powered Weblebrities. And it will be broadcast live over the Internet. So, it turns out that Steve Chen was right after all — YouTube will have introduced live streaming video by the end of the year. More »

10/03/08

4,086

2

By Jackson West

Comment by buzzzkilll: Isn't that Flavor Flav in the screen grab? 1 Responses | Other threads

online video

YouTube adds ad format Google derided

So-called "postroll" ads — commercial clips which play automatically at the end of a video — are coming to YouTube, NewTeeVee reports. It's an embarrassment for Google CEO Eric Schmidt, who had insisted users hate postroll ads and predicted YouTube would find a new, more effective ad format. The postrolls, while they may make ads on YouTube more desirable, don't solve YouTube's real problem: The vast majority of its videos aren't suitable for carrying ads, because of their content or uncertain copyright status. As a result, YouTube has a far smaller share of online-video revenue than it does of online-video traffic.

10/02/08

530

1

By Owen Thomas

Comment by sggrf: Google's stock is broken and they are desperate for revenue. This is bad news for all Internet companies. more » | Other threads

self-promotion

Googling "I Google Myself"

Funny because it's true: Web-video comedienne Kara Luiz's "I Google Myself" aptly charts the YouTube's generation self-obsession. The best part: A blog post about the video is already the No. 2 Google result for Luiz's name.

10/02/08

735

2

By Owen Thomas

Comment by porterhouse125: These lyrics could use some work. more » | Other threads

rumormonger

LiveUniverse struggling to pay employees, clients

It's only a matter of a few hundred dollars, but after high acquisitive LiveUniverse acquired affiliate movie marketer Peerflix, blogger Eric D. Snider stopped receiving the until-then-regular checks. Which happened around the exact same time that we got a tip — in late August — that LiveUniverse didn't have enough cash to pay employees on payday. And it's just the latest in a string of bad signs. More »

10/02/08

2,697

6

By Jackson West

Comment by SanchitaLumos: Hereâs the real deal, folks. LU and Brad G have been totally screwing vendors, service providers and employees for months,... 1 Responses | Other threads

youtube

Commercials your new punishment for not clicking on ads

YouTube will now run a post-roll commercial after you watch a clip if you don't click on the overlay advertisement that pops-up on partner videos. It's the kind of exciting, innovative thinking from re-hire Ben Ling, who was brought back into the Google mothership to figure out how to turn YouTube's revenue deficit frown upside down. It's also the kind of thinking that YouTube once attempted to scientifically prove users didn't like, but not the kind of thinking that Eric Schmidt has been telling anyone who will listen. The news also comes on the heels of YouTube's release of "hot spot" tracking — so you can better craft your narrative to make sure people stick around long enough for the commercial to play. (Image via NewTeeVee)

10/02/08

371

1

By Jackson West

Comment by thekevin: Lame! more » | Other threads

TMI Weekly

NextNewNetworks now supplying Julia Allison with better lighting

OMG you guys gadgets and girls and hey it's the rich girl from Los Gatos and her iPhone and her friends and one is Julia Allison! Julia Allison you guys! Who is totally not the point of this story, because wow NextNewNetworks is really producing this? More »

10/01/08

1,062

13

By Melissa Gira Grant

Comment by porterhouse125: Those dogs make a lot of noise. And the two pets bark a bunch as well. /1:36 is hilarious (dog... 1 Responses | Other threads

online video

Netflix streaming service goes from bad to "Superbad"

In a deal with premium cable channel Starz, Netflix will now be able to offer Walt Disney and Sony Pictures films to its streaming video service. (Netflix's films play in a browser or on your television through a set-top box made by Roku.) It's an important step — what's been holding back better content from many online sources aren't technological hurdles, but contractual hurdles. Starz and other premium cable channels have had rights to on-demand distribution locked up for some time. [Los Angeles Times]

10/01/08

547

1

By Jackson West

Comment by WagCurious: Everyone who is paying $6.95 a month for the current Starz download service please raise your hand... That's what I... more » | Other threads

online video

HBO's original YouTube programming an epic failure

Site YouTube Reviewed began banging the drum early and loudly that the original content project for YouTube from HBO Labs, Hooking Up, is terrible. They've since chronicled everyone from YouTube's content partnership wrangler George Stromoplous to one of the YouTube fameballs who appears in the show, Cory "Mr. Safety" Williams, distancing themselves from endorsing the show. And now it seems that someone at HBO is trying to juice the subscriber stats to make the show look more popular than it is. More »

09/30/08

427

2

By Jackson West

Comment by marcsiry: Free advice for HBO: Viral videos have one thing in common (besides crap production values): Authenticy. There's something real, honest, original... more » | Other threads

Blamestorming

Adobe: Amazon.com goof allowed free movie downloads

Amazon.com's Video On Demand service, which allows you to preview and purchase streaming videos online, uses Adobe's Flash Media Server to deliver the video. Late last week, Reuters reported that hackers had discovered an exploit that would allow users to turn the free preview into the full stream, allowing folks to watch movies for free using software like Replay Media Catcher from Applian. Adobe took issue with Reuters' contention that Flash isn't secure — instead suggesting it was Amazon's fault for not enabling various security options such as streaming encryption and player verification. Why did Adobe choose to blame a customer instead of quietly fixing the problem behind the scenes? Probably seemed easier.

09/30/08

707

0

By Jackson West

online advertising

Pity the poor 13-year who clicked on this "Let's Get Naked" video

In character, the used-car dealer is a close cousin to the Web spammer, so he appreciates the advantages of misleadingly labeling a car ad as porn in order to drive up views, which is what Massachusetts-based Clay Corp. did with a YouTube video titled "Let's Get Naked." Expect much, much more of this to come: There are 20,800 car dealerships in the U.S., and one in four use Web videos to market themselves, reports Ad Age. In 2006, General Motors stopped marketing its used cars anywhere but online. GM marketer Larry Pryg says car dealers made the move because Web video is often free to distribute and even cheaper to make than your average BUY! BUY! BUY! NOW! NOW! NOW! local car-dealer commercial. Clay Corp's deceptive video: More »

09/29/08

740

1

By Nicholas Carlson

Comment by noodleman: I still don't trust him. lol more » | Other threads

online video

Joost will let you relive the '90s with "Friends"

BoomTown's Kara Swisher paused in making ribald jokes about Joost's London office to report that the online-video purveyor will be offering six full seasons of NBC's former hit Friends. With this, Joost will reach an audience who prefers New York City when there's no black people, just like in dated sitcoms and Woody Allen movies. But I digress. NBC-backed Hulu only offers snippets of Friends episodes. Joost isn't exactly going to take off with syndicated reruns you can watch on dozens of cable channels. For those of you desperate to relive Ross and Rachel, the site will relaunch in mid-October — no plugin required.

09/24/08

262

6

By Jackson West

Comment by sample032: Remind me again, was season 6 before or after the cute guy became a prescription drug addict and got fat? 1 Responses | Other threads

online video

CBS head honcho Les Moonves wants those newspaper ad dollars

CBS CEO Les Moonves pontificated at the Mixx conference in New York today, saying that he loves the Internet, really. Departing from the party line of other networks, Moonves pointed out "The Internet is not cannabalistic; it is only additive," presumably referring to audience attention share between television and the Web. So how's CBS going to capitalize? The plan is go after what's left of the newspaper industries advertising with CNet and local affiliates. [MediaWeek] (Photo from Andrew Mager)

09/23/08

203

1

By Jackson West

Comment by mager: Original photo: [flickr.com] more » | Other threads

online video

Michael Moore's "Slacker Uprising" kind of available free online

The latest shockumentary from portly auteur Michael Moore, Slacker Uprising, has launched today. To watch the film, you have to sign up with an email address. While Moore says his fans should go ahead and download it, there's no actual link to do that. And you can't embed the whole film on third-party sites without pulling some code from the bowels of the HTML source — which I've done here, while also restoring the "share" button so you can easily post it yourself wherever you like. Heck, if Moore just wants the film out there, why not distribute it on BitTorrent and save on bandwidth costs? More »

09/23/08

974

13

By Jackson West

Comment by colonelpanic: But go ahead, Jackson, and continue your Valley-esque wank/rant about how techies are superior and old media tycoons like Weinstein... 3 Responses | Other threads

online video

New CBS iPhone app uses hack for video

CBS EyeMobile, the new iPhone application that will let you beam horrific images of disasters directly from the scene to the CBS News team. And it lets you upload video as well as photos. But only if you first hack your iPhone with Jailbreak and other software to enable video recording — thereby voiding your warranty. And new subsidiary CNet will be happy to show you how! [NewTeeVee]

09/23/08

542

0

By Jackson West

valleywag

Ex-Disney CEO Michael Eisner's grand insight on online video: Sex sells. [PaidContent]

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