Audio and video

Veotag adds to emerging trend of 'deep-tagging'

Yesterday, I wrote about Gotuit's SceneMaker, a new tool for "deep-tagging" YouTube and Metacafe videos: pointing out notable moments within clips, and even splicing them so that portions of a longer video can be shared. The larger concept of deep-tagging is, to me, really interesting. In 2006, we saw an explosion of tagging functions just about everywhere, but is something like SceneMaker an indication that regular tagging just isn't enough?

It's a likely possibility. Because, as I learned at last night's New York Web 2.0 Social Networking Tech Meetup, Gotuit isn't the … Read more

If you can hum it, Nayio might find it

This morning, the music software and remixing company Nayio is launching its Humming Search feature in the U.S. This tool is supposed to be able to identify songs by listening to you hum a few bars. (It works on Internet Explorer only, as far as I can tell.)

I think it's a great idea. If you hear a catchy tune on the radio and it gets stuck in your head, and you don't know the artist, Humming Search could save your sanity. Plus, it's cool.

Or it would be if it worked. I tried humming several … Read more

Chop, slice, and 'deep-tag' your YouTube faves with Gotuit's SceneMaker

You know what I'm talking about. It's not your favorite YouTube video, but it would be if it were shorter, because it's got one hilarious moment bogged down in nine minutes of dumb commentary and bumping the camera around. Some people say that's what you've got to deal with when it comes to user-generated amateur video. But it doesn't have to be that way, according to Boston-based broadband video start-up Gotuit Media. It launched a new Web tool today that's hoping to make online video content more, well, adaptable.

Until this point, Gotuit … Read more

Looking for Zune in all the wrong places

Welcome to the social? Not exactly.

I spent a week trekking around San Francisco, Zune in tow, hoping to find more of the players to share music with. I nearly gave up in failure but finally found one other Zune on my downtown expedition.

It's early on, of course--the Zune has only been available for around a month. Still, one of the main reasons Microsoft is hoping that consumers will opt for the Zune over the iPod is the MP3 player's wireless sharing feature. And, as I found out, it's not much use if there is no … Read more

Guess who's crashing your holiday party?

"I'm so tired of people talking about Web 2.0," says Sarah Meyers with a forced sigh. That's a lie, judging by her on-camera bouncing--platinum wig and bustier and all--as an unwelcome guest at a fete full of venture capitalists. Clearly she's relishing the access, the attention, and the ability to mock the scene while quaffing free cocktails and climbing into the cockpit of a parked miniplane.

You can watch Meyers's silly, party-crashing adventures at D7TV.com, a start-up that serves original micromovies to a Web browser or mobile phone. You can even hang … Read more

VideoEgg's EggNetwork thinks you'll say yes to opt-in ads

VideoEgg has made a name for itself as a piece of webware that actually lets you tweak around with the videos you upload--as well as facilitate sharing, embedding, and revenue-reaping ads. Now it's making another step into the world of online video advertising with Tuesday's announcement of its EggNetwork VIBE (Viewer Initiated Brand Experience) ad model, which claims to have an answer to the age-old (okay, age-old in Web years) question: How can you make Internet ads less annoying?

The gist of VideoEgg's model: During or after a video clip that someone is watching, ask if the … Read more

FlipTrack puts your slideshows to music

Video-sharing sites like YouTube, Grouper and Revver, are hugely popular because they let everyone around the world watch sleepy kittens, as well as to save favorite videos and leave snarky comments. Sites like JumpCut take the interactivity a step further with tools for creating your own videos from a variety of source materials. FlipTrack is a similar new service that lets you start with one of their prerecorded music tracks, add your own photos, tweak the special effects, and publish your creation to their Web site.

For creating videos from photos, FlipTrack works similarly to JumpCut, except that it requires … Read more

Wake up to your widgets

Enough already with the combo clock-weather stations. They've become as commonplace as the $6.99 digital alarm clocks behind the counter at Walgreens, next to the batteries and razor blades.

This uber-clock, by contrast, gives you the stuff you really want to know when you wake up: stock news, traffic bulletins, the Monday Night Football score and the latest on Britney's divorce and sex tape scandal. And you can set your MP3 tunes or Internet radio for the alarm. As its name implies, the award-winning "WidgetStation" displays your custom widget feeds on one of its two … Read more

Home videos go mobile with MoboFlix

Up until now, Seattle start-up Melodeo has concerned itself mostly with a sort of "social podcast" business model that combines an audio directory, user profiles, and an appeal to customers who are interested in mobile podcast listening via its Mobilcast product. It's had some success, inking deals with cell phone carriers. But now the company has launched something completely different: MoboFlix, which aims to be a sort of YouTube for mobile videos.

The concept is this. Use your camera phone to film a mobile video, submit it to the MoboFlix site, and it can be viewed by … Read more