Video

Mesmo knows what your friends are watching

Several weeks ago I learned about Mesmo.TV, a social site for video recommendations. I tried it, found it confusing, and didn't write it up. This morning the Mesmo site officially launched. It's still confusing. But Mesmo's Facebook app is a different story. It's much cleaner and easier to get into than the Web site. It's also more powerful, since the community is built in.

Simply, Mesmo lets you flag the video content you like--TV shows, online video clips, and video podcasts--and also see what your friends like. When you want to expand your viewing … Read more

Sony goes snap Crackle and pop

Online video is all the rage and everyone wants in on the action. One year ago Sony acquired Grouper for $65 million dollars and today that enterprise is known as Crackle. In an effort to distinguish itself from the crowded competition, Crackle has chosen to dangle fame in front of would be producers young faces. Given that the elusive hope of fame has fueled a pilgrimage to Hollywood for close to 100 years, such tantalizing promises will likely deliver the goods.

In order to ensure that the lure of fame resonates with Crackle's audience the company is currently offering three contests that will likely advance the careers of the lucky winners.The High Wirecontest will allow the funniest individual a chance to perform at the IMPROV. The Shorts contest offers a $15,000 purse and the winner an opportunity to pitch his or her best idea to Columbia Pictures. Finally, the Wet Paint contest winner is open to aspiring animators and also comes with a $15,000 cash prize as well as a trip to the Sony Pictures Animation Studios. Participants should expect a rotating array of enticing contests.

Sony announces new pocket camcorder, claims it isn't 'full of stars'

If you ever wanted to videotape your pets fighting to Romanian dance music while on a trampoline, Sony has a new pocket camcorder for you. Sony's NSC-GC1 Net-sharing CAM is targeted specifically at the YouTube crowd, with a low enough price tag and just enough power to throw clips up on the Web. The Net-sharing CAM can shoot video ranging from QVGA (320x240) at 15 frames per second to VGA (640x480) at 30 frames per second. It records to Sony's Memory Stick DUO memory cards, so if you already have a PlayStation Portable or a Sony Cyber-shot digital … Read more

'Harry Potter' and 'HairSpray' appear at Google Video.

The hits just keep coming to Google Video.

Pirated versions of Hairspray, Bruce Willis' Live Free, Die Hard and last weekend's top grossing film Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, were available at YouTube's sister site on Monday.

The films were first flagged by the National Legal and Policy Center, a watchdog group that tries to prod public figures to act ethically. The NLPC argues that Google treats the entertainment industry unfairly by allegedly looking the other way when users post pirated material to its sites.

For a month, the NLPC has dug up hundreds of … Read more

Sony veers away from video sharing

YouTube's dominance in video sharing has prompted Sony to take a new approach to the sector.

Grouper, the video-sharing site acquired by Sony last August for $65 million, announced on Monday that it is dropping its name and changing its business plan. Grouper from here on out will be known as Crackle.

"User-generated video is dead to us," declared Josh Felser, Grouper's founder who is now Crackle's president. "We are definitely leaving video sharing and focusing on emerging talent."

In the past, visitors to Grouper could post videos to the site and eventually … Read more

Michael Rosenblum launches new initiative for citizen journalism

If you visit ctzn.tv, you won't find anything beyond the company logo. But according to an e-mail I received from Ken Krushel, the president of CitizeNews, ctzn.tv will soon become a portal aggregating "the very best work of the very best video journalists in the world" while providing compensation for its content creators and developing itself as an agency for content distribution networks yet to be announced. Ctzn.tv expects to launch in August.

Prior to starting CitizeNews, Ken Krushel developed Proteus and worked as an executive for NBC. Alongside Krushel, controversial video visionary Michael Rosenblum will work to bring ctzn.tv to life. Rosenblum is best known for coining the term VJ (video journalist) and teaching the principles he developed to television stations large and small. His approach has completely changed the way local San Francisco station KRON gathers news, and these techniques have been adopted most recently by the Travel Channel.… Read more

Camfrog: First Look

If you're a social creature, Camfrog is a megapopular internationally-trafficked chat site that seamlessly integrates video and text chat, the Web 2.0 version of the old "party lines" that people used to call in to.

The schmoozing features include regular quizzes, as well as guitar instruction and deaf-specific chats, among others. Watch this First Look at Camfrog video to see if it's your kind of party.

Google hack creates peer-to-peer network

A video posted to YouTube in April offers a primer on how to use Google to pilfer music and video files in less time than it takes to download them from a peer-to-peer service.

"I'll be teaching you how to use Google as your own peer-to-peer network," said Jimmy Ruska at the beginning of the clip. Ruska is the 21-year-old who posted the video, according to a report in The Financial Times.

The how-to video focuses on what is known as an "index of" search and shows users how to direct Google's search engine … Read more

Watchdog group flags top pirated films on Google Video

Forget Joost, CinemaNow, NewCo., or any of the other companies scurrying to distribute movies and TV shows online. The company offering the best material on the Web right now may be Google Video.

Of course, many of the films and shows found there are bootlegs posted to the site in violation of copyright law. As first reported by CNET News.com, the National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC) a non-profit group that advocates for integrity and fair play in the public sector, has been reviewing copyright violations at YouTube and Google Video.

On Tuesday, the NLPC issued a new top 50 list … Read more

E3 2007 preview

In years past, E3--the Electronic Entertainment Expo--involved as many as 50,000 members of the video game industry descending on the Los Angeles Convention Center in early May. This year, the show--now dubbed the "E3 Media & Business Summit"--has been radically downsized, rescheduled to July, and moved out to Santa Monica.

With all of the gaming consoles now effectively old news, the show doesn't quite have the air of anticipation as it did the last few years, when gamers were scrambling to get a glimpse of the then-unreleased Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Nintendo Wii. Still, … Read more