comScore just posted its monthly report on online video viewership, and the total number of videos viewed in January slipped slightly as compared with December.
In December, 179 million people watched 33.2 billion videos. In January, it was 173 million people and 32.4 billion videos. It’s not a big decline, and we already saw in one of our monthly top webisode round-ups that special holiday content can boost viewership during December, so we know that this probably isn’t indicative of a downward trend.
In fact, the larger trend is very much up. YouTube — by far the web video viewership leader — had users watching an average of 93 videos in January. That’s 50% more than a year ago, even though it’s almost a 4% decline since December.
YouTube still dominates, though. “Google Sites” (mostly YouTube) accounted for 39.5% of web video views in January. The nearest competitor was Hulu with just 2.8%, followed by Microsoft sites with 1.5% and Yahoo sites with 1.3%.
The narrative we’re hearing here is that we’ve settled into something of a groove. There’s an upward trend, but the numbers are still dominated by almost exactly the same outlets. Are there any startups you believe will upset these stats in the future or is this going to be the lay of the land for the foreseeable future?
Tags: ComScore, Google, hulu, microsoft, News, web video, Yahoo, youtube
Google is testing a new television programming search service in conjunction with Dish Network, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The service, which appears to be very much in a limited testing phase, runs on a special set-top box and apparently searches content from both the Dish programming guide, as well as web video services like YouTube.
Without any details about the specific implementation, it’s unclear how similar this venture is to the new upcoming TiVo Premiere service that was announced last week.
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of The Wall Street Journal’s report dealt less with the service itself and more with the technology that powers the set-top box. Apparently, portions of Google’s Android OS power the Google-enabled device. While Android has been spotted on other devices like tablets and netbooks (or, so-called smartbooks), a move to the embedded device space could be huge.
As consumer electronics rapidly shift toward connectivity (hey, it might have taken us 15 years, but now everything is moving at a rapid pace), there are huge opportunities for embedded systems developers. As it stands, most embedded devices use either a custom-built kernel or a modified version of BusyBox, but Google could theoretically offer a framework that would be both free and value-rich for device makers, while also offering opportunities that impact Google’s core business.
Of course, this isn’t Google’s first foray into television. Back in 2008, Google AdWords launched Google TV Ads as a platform for companies to buy airtime in various markets. That project hasn’t been as successful as other Google ventures, but perhaps a more direct way of tying search to television would have better results.
What do you think about the possibility of having Google on your TV? Let us know!
Tags: dish network, embedded devices, google search, google tv, iptv
Google is looking to integrate its Latitude and Buzz offerings, according to a story today in eWeek.com. Which means Buzz’s privacy problems may be about to get even bigger.
Google continues to draw flak from privacy advocates over Buzz, which launched last month. The company has scrambled to alter certain features and give users more control after some complained that their Gmail and Talk contacts were publicly released, and Google eventually admitted that the product had been rushed out the door.
Latitude, which launched last year, enables users to find friends and broadcast their whereabouts to others. Those aren’t revolutionary features, of course — Loopt and Useful Networks are just two that have gained some traction with similar friend-finding offerings. But Latitude’s tracking functionality is potentially more invasive than Buzz, which requires users to check in every time they want to update their location. And Google a few months ago sparked controversy by adding location alerts and history, features that inform users when their fellow Latitude friends are nearby and allowing users to see where they’ve been. (To its credit, Google wisely requires additional opt-ins for the new Latitude features.)
Integrating Latitude features with Buzz — which has millions of users — will further complicate a service that for some is already too confusing and who are likely to inadvertently broadcast their location information to Buzz-using friends even if Google does a good job of informing them that the two offerings sometimes work as one. Unless Google first makes Buzz much simpler, CEO Eric Schmidt will have a lot more opportunities to blame users for misunderstanding the service.
Related content from GigaOM Pro:
Location: The Epicenter of Mobile Innovation
Photo courtesy of Flickr user Doug88888
LONDON (Reuters) - Four in five adults believe access to the Internet is a fundamental right — with those feelings particularly strong in South Korea and China — and half believe it should never be regulated, according to a global survey.
A poll of 27,000 adults in 26 countries for the BBC World Service showed 78 percent of internet users believed the Web gave them greater freedom, while nine in 10 said it was a good place to learn. Respondents in the United States were above the average in believing the internet was a source for greater freedom and they were also more confident than most in expressing their opinions online.
“Despite worries about privacy and fraud, people around the world see access to the Internet as their fundamental right,” said Doug Miller, the chairman of GlobeScan which conducted the survey. “They think the Web is a force for good, and most don’t want governments to regulate it.”
However, others felt concern about spending time online, with 65 percent of respondents in Japan saying they did not feel they could express their opinions safely online, a sentiment that was also felt in South Korea, France, Germany and China.
The issue of Internet freedoms hit the headlines earlier this year after Google threatened to quit China, the world’s biggest internet market, over strict censorship rules.
Of the 27,000 surveyed, more than half agreed that the “Internet should never be regulated by any level of government anywhere.”
That belief was particularly strong in South Korea, Nigeria and Mexico while residents in Pakistan, Turkey and China were the least likely to agree, with only 12 percent, 13 percent and 16 percent respectively strongly agreeing.
Google launched its China search site in 2006 and complies with local laws requiring censorship of certain content such as pornography and sensitive subjects such as the banned Fulun Gong spiritual movement and Tibetan independence.
Other international groups such as Microsoft and local players including China’s search leader Baidu must also comply with those laws.
Over 70 percent of respondents in Japan, Mexico and Russia said they could not live without the internet.
Almost 50 percent of those who used the Internet said they most valued the ability to find information. Over 30 percent valued the ability to interact and communicate with others while 12 percent saw it as a source for entertainment.
Of the areas of concern, the poll found that fraud was the greatest worry, ahead of violent and explicit content and threats to privacy.
(Reporting by Kate Holton; Editing by Sharon Lindores)
Photo: (Florian/Flickr)
Not many companies could get away with defending controversial data retention practices by saying that the data is needed to "learn from good guys, fight off bad guys, [and] invent the future." But that's how Google sees itself and its practices—not surprising from a company that would give itself an unofficial motto like "don't be evil."
I had the chance recently to sit down with two of Google's top privacy people: deputy general counsel Nicole Wong and security/privacy engineer Alma Whitten. While the "good guy/bad guy" and "don't be evil" quotes may seem too cute by half to some, Wong and Whitten made a strong pitch for the truth of both slogans. In their view, Google really is fighting the good fight when it comes to your online privacy.
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Two weeks ago, we reported that Internet search giant Google had acquired third-party iPhone mail application reMail. At the time, Google rehired reMail CEO and programmer Gabor Cselle to work as a product manager on the Gmail team. reMail was then pulled from the App Store and Google decided to discontinue the app, only offering support through the end of March. However, Google recently contacted Ars to say that it had decided to make the code available as open source on Google Code under the Apache 2.0 License.
The Apache 2.0 License states that the code is free to use, alter, and redistribute as the user sees fit. Further, users can charge for any aspect of the software they choose, including the application itself or support. That means people can use portions of code to add functionality in their own applications or create totally new ones without having to release them under an open source license. Google usually favors the Apache license over alternatives and uses it for Android.
This may still mean the end of reMail, but it's good news for anyone looking to incorporate more advanced e-mail functionality into their own applications. As Cselle pointed out in his blog post, he has already dealt with many of the obstacles associated with developing an e-mail client, including communication with IMAP and parsing MIME messages. In other words, there's no need to reinvent the wheel if you don't have to.
If you're interested in poking around, the code can be found on Google Code, where there has already been a fair amount of action since the announcement on Friday.
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Is Google Search Coming to Your TV? - http://bit.ly/cDPxx1
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Continue reading Cyber-Nerdy Cities Woo Google's Fiber-Optic Service With Viral Campaigns
Cyber-Nerdy Cities Woo Google's Fiber-Optic Service With Viral Campaigns originally appeared on Switched on Mon, 08 Mar 2010 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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comScore has just released its US online video rankings for January 2010, and the results aren’t positive. Overall views dropped by around 2.5%, with 32.4 billion in January vs. 33.2 billion in December. And Hulu, which celebrated crossing the 1 billion view milestone for the first time in December, dipped back down to 903 milion views. The drop can’t be blamed entirely on seasonality, either, — January 2009’s overall video views were up 4% over December 2008.
Rankingwise, there weren’t many changes. Google Sites (which is essentially YouTube) is still the reigning champion, with Hulu and Microsoft Sites still rounding out the top three. Fox Interactive Media fell from 4th to 6th place as its views dropped from 550 million December to 293 million in January.
A month after Seattle's Tableau Software launched a free online tool for creating and sharing dynamic data visualization charts, Google Labs has announced a free online tool for creating and sharing dynamic data visualization charts.
Like Tableau Public, Google's "Public Data Explorer" comes as the federal government is posting huge buckets of data online through its Data.gov transparency project, stoking demand for tools to analyze and present the information.
But there are a few big differences in what's being offered to end users.
Google's experiment is relatively closed and seems aimed at building partnerships with public agencies as much as providing free Web tools. At this point its tools can only be used to analyze a handful of datasets that Google's procured from public sources. Google's asking agencies to suggest additional data that it can upload and publish on its platform.
Tableau already has partnerships with agencies using its commercial visualization tools in-house. The free public version released last month is more open than Google's and can be used on any data. Users of the free version also have to share the underlying data via the visualization, while Google's tool doesn't yet allow the data to be downloaded directly.
Here's an example of a visualization created with Google's new tool:
Here's a Tableau Public visualization blending unemployment with venture capital and housing data:
2009 Housing Prices 
Google is testing a new TV search service with Dish Network, the no. 2 U.S. satellite TV provider, the WSJ reports.
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(All photos by the author)
Didn’t Ford just give us a new Super Duty, like, two years ago?
Yes they did. So why a complete makeover for this segment?
The government.
Yes, lawmakers in our nation’s capitol have mandated stricter emissions guidelines for the (diesel-powered) heavy duty pickup segment for 2010 and automakers have hit the end of their “grace periods.”
Ford (with GM to soon follow and Chrysler did theirs last year) gave its Super Duty pickup line not only a pair of totally new engines and transmission, but decided to address the entire vehicle with this model makeover. The result? The baddest big boy toy to date from the big blue oval.
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Firefox: If you want to compact your user interface in Firefox and turn your address box into a destination for not just URLs but searches too, Foobar combines the address box and search box into one.
If you often find yourself typing in a search command into the address box when you actually meant to use the little search box off to the side, Foobar is a handy addition to your Firefox arsenal. Install the extension and your address bar becomes a little more spartan, the address box and search box are now one.
URLs typed into the box take you to the site, but anything outside a recognized address like HTTP, FTP, or ABOUT: becomes a search in the selected search engine. In the above screenshot my entry of site:lifehacker.com Firefox will pull up the Google search results for Firefox on Lifehacker.com.
Have a handy Firefox extension—interface-altering or otherwise—to share? Let's hear about it in the comments.
Filed under: E-mail, Google, Mozilla, Freeware, Social Software, Browsers
There are a number of email plugins that look to give you contextual information about the person you're communicating with. The first one I tried (and arguably the best I've seen) is Xobni, an Outlook plugin.
There's now a similar plugin available for Gmail users called Rapportive. Rapportive replaces the ads you normally see in the right-hand sidebar with a profile of the person you're emailing with that is automatically generated by searching online services for your correspondent's email address. Rapportive is only available to users that are using either Firefox or Chrome as their browser, since Firefox and Chrome have a plugin architecture.
The information Rapportive provides is interesting, and it searches a surprising number of online services. But I can't help but think that they're putting themselves on shaky ground by choosing to replace the ads in Gmail; I doubt Google could easily block this behavior technologically, but if Rapportive gets too popular I don't doubt that Google's lawyers might be able to block it, permanently.
In the mean time, if you're looking for a clever way to get more information about the people you correspond with the side-effect of blocking ads in your Gmail, have a look at Rapportive.
[via ReadWriteWeb]
Rapportive replaces Gmail ads with useful social information originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 08 Mar 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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