youtube

I agree with Nick Carr. Wholeheartedly. Google's new ad-supported model for YouTube (i.e., consuming 20% of the already small video screen with an ad) is heralded by Google on its blog.

As Nick notes, Google isn't in the charity business, and some sort of advertising was always on the cards. But it's suggested format is hardly going to be a pleasurable experience:… Read more

ASPEN, Colo.--Microsoft lashed out at Google's YouTube video-sharing site on Tuesday, saying its own Soapbox is far more responsible and doesn't take advantage of "loopholes" in copyright law.

Thomas Rubin, Microsoft's associate general counsel for copyright, said that unlike YouTube, Microsoft's Soapbox video-sharing site is designed to work in concert with copyright holders and that it represents an effort to be a good corporate citizen. Soapbox uses Audible Magic fingerprinting technology.

In a swipe at Google, which has been sued by Viacom over the presence of numerous copyrighted videos on YouTube, Rubin said … Read more

Google is combining YouTube videos with Google News to offer users what it hopes will be greater perspective on news stories.

The company announced on its blog that visitors to Google News will see a "Video" prefix next to news stories. Clicking on these links will take them to a YouTube page where they can watch video about the subject.

Google is still testing the offering with news sources such as CBS, Reuters and local TV stations owned by Hearst.

"Today, viewing news videos or other content types on the Web can be a frustrating experience," … Read more

That handy new no-nonsense embedding feature for Google Maps has gone live today. Clicking the "link to this page" option on the top right of any map will give you quick and dirty embed code to place into any blog or Web site that supports it. There's also an advanced option set to tweak the size from small, medium, large, or custom like I've done with the one embedded below. Instead of using Adobe Flash, Google employs an iframe to simply load the page within the page.

This is a far easier solution than tracking down … Read more

Legendary scooter maker Vespa enlists the YouTube generation to make commercials highlighting what the company calls 'Vespanomics.' If you never encountered Vespanomics in your Econ101 class, it's the theory of how Vespa scooters are environmentally friendly, decrease traffic congestion, and look cool. At least, that's the definition proposed by the marketers at Vespa. And with gas mileage at around 65mpg, the company has a point. As for cool, you only have to watch the movie 'Quadrophenia' to get that vibe. Vespa is accepting videos illustrating these concepts until October 15. The entrants will be judged by Vespa and … Read more

Where else would we find all those funny videos featuring people getting hit in the crotch? And that is, in fact, the source of a fair amount of YouTube's traffic, according to WebProNews. I don't know about you, but I don't feel like my day is complete without watching a cat fall off a TV, seeing people dancing on treadmills, and such.

YouTube is the new central repository for crotch-smashing, according to the article:… Read more

New research from the mobile-focused statistics firm M:Metrics has focused on exactly how many mobile-phone customers are using their handsets to access social networks and blogs, and the results aren't particularly surprising: not a whole lot of people are.

In the month of June, a total of only 12.3 million mobile consumers in the United States and Western Europe (France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom) accessed a social-networking site or blog on their phones at least once. In the U.K., this came out to a total of only 2.5 percent of mobile users; … Read more

Let's see how funny Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert are on the witness stand.

The two comedians are apparently being dragged into the copyright fight between their employer and Google. Entertainment conglomerate Viacom, the company behind Stewart's The Daily Show and The Colbert Report filed a $1 billion lawsuit against Google earlier in the year, alleging that Google and YouTube encourage users to pirate copyright material.

The two companies entered the names of people they each wish to depose in court, according to documents filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York last … Read more

For a while there, the fate of the Republican counterpart to last month's CNN-YouTube debates among Democratic presidential contenders was looking pretty bleak. But it appears that the event in St. Petersburg, Fla., will, indeed take place--albeit a few months later than planned.

CNN and YouTube on Monday issued a brief press release announcing that the candidates will be invited to take the Mahaffey Theatre's stage on November 28. As of Sunday night, John McCain and Rudy Giuliani had agreed to show up for the post-Thanksgiving event, but there was no immediate word on the others, a CNN … Read more