Youtube

Back to Firefox —

After a good while (I can’t search my Twitter stream) on Chrome I’m switching back to Firefox as my primary browser, and actually uninstalled Chrome. Why? I was getting the “Oh snap” failure page all the time, even on Google’s own Youtube! The only support I was pointed to was this page, and when I followed the instructions there when I restarted Chrome everything was gone. The sentence “copy the relevant files from the “Backup User Data” folder to your new “User Data” folder.” is useless when you consider the folder has 50+ files to sort through and I wasn’t sure which one was causing my previous problems. So back to Firefox, and thanks to Xmarks all of my stuff is there. I’m also using this persona which is pretty sweet. The feature I missed most on Chrome was lame: the ability to click and hold a folder then release on a bookmark I wanted to open. On Chrome you have to click twice. It bugged me. Now back on Firefox I feel like the browser has a large head.

HTC Supersonic meets Mr. Blurrycam, leaves us wanting more (video) — Being drip-fed information on the HTC Supersonic is unlikely to be as pleasant an experience as actually having one, but it's all we can do to fill the time until this beast of a phone finally makes its official debut (probably on Sprint). Today's appearance shows what looks to be a majorly insecure Mr. Blurrycam sporting gloves and gingerly handling a handset purporting to be HTC's latest and greatest. We're mostly treated to a sight of the back, which is white as our first (and most trusted) tipster had seen, and gives us a grainy first look at the camera and speaker grill arrangement. Check out the video after the break. As a bonus, we've found another source for the earlier Supersonic video -- you know, the one that got yanked from YouTube twice -- and have embedded it as well, go get them both while they're still around.

[Thanks, Andy]

Continue reading HTC Supersonic meets Mr. Blurrycam, leaves us wanting more (video)

HTC Supersonic meets Mr. Blurrycam, leaves us wanting more (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 09 Mar 2010 03:48:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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HTC Supersonic meets Mr. Blurrycam, leaves us wanting more (video) — Being drip-fed information on the HTC Supersonic is unlikely to be as pleasant an experience as actually having one, but it's all we can do to fill the time until this beast of a phone finally makes its official debut (probably on Sprint). Today's appearance shows what looks to be a majorly insecure Mr. Blurrycam sporting gloves and gingerly handling a handset purporting to be HTC's latest and greatest. We're mostly treated to a sight of the back, which is white as our first (and most trusted) tipster had seen, and gives us a grainy first look at the camera and speaker grill arrangement. Check out the video after the break. As a bonus, we've found another source for the earlier Supersonic video -- you know, the one that got yanked from YouTube twice -- and have embedded it as well, go get them both while they're still around.

[Thanks, Andy]

Continue reading HTC Supersonic meets Mr. Blurrycam, leaves us wanting more (video)

HTC Supersonic meets Mr. Blurrycam, leaves us wanting more (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 09 Mar 2010 03:48:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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US opens up web communications with Cuba, Iran and Sudan —

The US yesterday is set to allow instant messaging, web browsing and other communications tech in Cuba, Iran and Sudan, in a move to help promote freedom of speech.

The US Treasury department follows last June's elections in Japan which saw anti-regime protestors using Twitter, YouTube and Facebook.

The same anti-regime organisations have continued to use new communications technologies to organise demonstrations against the government and to communicate the news from inside Iran with western journalists.

Opening up lines of communication

"The issuance of these general licenses will make it easier for individuals in Iran, Sudan and Cuba to use the internet to communicate with each other, and with the outside world," deputy Treasury secretary Neal Wolin said.

Wolin added that these latest actions: "Will enable Iranian, Sudanese and Cuban citizens to exercise their most basic rights. As recent events in Iran have shown, personal internet-based communications like email, instant messaging and social networking are powerful tools.

"This software will foster and support the free flow of information - a basic human right - for all Iranians."

Congress is also considering banning government contracts with companies that sell snooping tech to the Iranian regime which allows them to monitor citizens' internet use.

Both Nokia and Siemens have sold such technology to Iran in the past.

Google vs. Yahoo: Who Has the Right Social Strategy? —

The Social Analyst is a weekly column by Mashable Co-Editor Ben Parr, where he digs into social media trends and how they are affecting companies in the space.

Facebook; Twitter; LinkedIn; YouTube; Wordpress: these companies, built from the ground-up, are mainstays in social media. None of them were created by a large tech company, and all but one remains independent.

It’s an interesting phenomenon, when you think about it. Large tech companies have had limited to no success creating their own social media home runs. In an era where communication is increasingly taking place on these channels, the inability of these digital giants to build social networks is rather striking.

Two titans in particular are making social media headlines for different reasons: Yahoo has decided not to create it own social network, but is instead striking partnership deals with Facebook and Twitter. Google on the other hand, not only bought YouTube, but it is attempting to carve out its own piece of the social media pie with Google Buzz.

Partnership vs. in-house development; content vs. technology; Yahoo vs. Google: which company has the right social media strategy? What are the goals of both companies in the social realm? Do either have a chance against new and nimble startups like Facebook and Twitter?

Let’s take a look, shall we?

---

The Yahoo Strategy: Partner in Order to Drive Traffic

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In 2006, Yahoo made a $1+ billion bid for Facebook. As we all know, Yahoo failed to close that deal and the story ever since has been the rise of Facebook and the slow decline of Yahoo, who was nearly acquired by Microsoft for over $40 billion in 2008.

Now with new leadership (led by CEO Carol Bartz), Yahoo is trying to make a turnaround and bring back some of the authority it once commanded. The Internet portal is turning to social media as a cornerstone of its growth strategy, but it isn’t focused on acquiring a Twitter or building its own social network, but on creating partnerships that integrate every facet of Yahoo into social networks, primarily Facebook and Twitter.

In September 2009, Yahoo announced that it would integrate Facebook Connect in its most popular web properties. The goal was to truly make Yahoo your portal to the web by not only delivering news, email, and finances, but also your social graph and the status updates of your friends. On the flip side, Yahoo would also benefit from the traffic bump that comes with sharing articles and content on Facebook’s news feed.

Yahoo has continued to push this partnership strategy in recent months. Two weeks ago, Yahoo partnered with Twitter to give users access to their Twitter feed from within Yahoo, update their status, and integrate Twitter content into the company’s search and media properties. A few days ago, Yahoo Mail hooked up with Facebook, the first integration between Facebook Connect and Yahoo.

Yahoo seems content in partnering with the major social services, rather than compete with them. Social media efforts like Yahoo Buzz, the tech giant’s answer to Digg, which hasn’t made a dent in the social voting powerhouse, have likely left a bitter taste in the mouths of its executives. Yahoo is now focused on using social media to generate traffic, eyeballs, and engagement times.

---

The Google Strategy: Dominate

---

Google’s strategy goes in a completely different direction to Yahoo’s approach; its strategy is also all over the map.

Like Yahoo, Google doesn’t have a good record in social media. Google Friend Connect isn’t even close to Facebook Connect in terms of adoption, Orkut never made inroads in the U.S., Blogger has nowhere near the traction of WordPress, and other acquisitions such as Jaiku and Dodgeball haven’t panned out.

You’d have a very good argument if you said that Google’s only social media hit has been YouTube, and that “only” cost the company $1.65 billion. Google has a lot more social properties than many people realize, but it’s a hodgepodge of acquisitions (Blogger, YouTube, Picasa) and internally-created services (Orkut, Google Knol, Friend Connect). The company’s batting average, though, has been pretty poor, especially by Google’s standards.

That was before Google Buzz, though. With the launch of its most advanced social product yet, Google’s strategy has finally begun to emerge, and it is a good one. If Google can stir up adoption for Buzz (which it has via Gmail), keep that engagement (this remains to be seen), and launch a standalone version of its social media tool, it can carve out a piece of the (very large) social media pie. Linking or integrating it to YouTube, Picasa, Orkut, Friend Connect, and its other social tools could provide a boost to those services as well.

There’s no reason to believe Google will succeed with Buzz, given Google’s social media track record. However, Buzz is the most complete product Google has put out yet and has some strong engagement numbers. It’s riskier than Yahoo’s strategy, but the payoff could be be titanic.

---

Google and Yahoo Are Very Different Companies

---

Yahoo’s strategy is focused around integrations with already-popular social services, while Google is focused around building and acquiring its own social media powerhouses. While Yahoo does acquire social media companies (e.g. Flickr) and Google has some strong partnerships (e.g. Twitter in Google Real-time search), that’s not the focus of their respective social strategies.

The reason their approaches to social media are so different has little to do with their leadership teams or the quality of their decision-making. No, it boils down to one simple truth: Google and Yahoo are very different companies.

I argue that Yahoo is, for the most part, a content company, while Google is focused on technology. There was a point where Yahoo was known for its tech innovations, but that mantle has long since passed to Google, Facebook, Twitter, and others.

I explored this phenomenon in my first Social Analyst column, Content vs. Technology: What MySpace and AOL Have in Common. MySpace and AOL were also tech giants, but at some point lost their technology edge (MySpace lost to Facebook, AOL lost to DSL and Cable Internet) and thus began to focus on ramping up content creation and driving traffic to their web properties. Yahoo falls into the same camp.

Because of this key difference between Yahoo and Google, it’s no surprise that they are implementing different approaches. Google’s is focused on building technology that will drive adoption, revenue, and information through its doors. Yahoo’s focus is on bringing more eyeballs to this content and keeping them on Yahoo for longer periods of time.

---

Who Has the Right Social Media Strategy?

---

Now for the big question: is Google or Yahoo doing better at social media? Which one has the right social media strategy?

If you’ve read this column carefully, you can probably guess that I’m not going to outright declare that one company is “right” or that one is “wrong.” What I want you to take away from this week’s column is simple: your long-term plan and company composition should determine your social strategy.

Yahoo is simply better at content than Google. Yahoo Finance is, in my opinion, simply a better product than Google’s version. Its array of hosted news content is bigger, and it owns properties such as OMG, which is doing well as a celebrity news hub.

Google doesn’t write its own news or acquire a newspaper for a simple reason: it’s just not their focus, and they wouldn’t be very good at it. Would it make any sense for Google to focus on using social media to drive traffic to its content? The answer is no.

On the flip side, Google’s technology prowess trumps Yahoo by large margins. Google can build better technical products (e.g., Search, Gmail, Buzz, Android, Chrome) in a shorter amount of time than Yahoo can, and it can iterate faster than almost any large-scale public Internet company (its rapid privacy changes to Buzz is one good example).

These things are no longer Yahoo’s strength. So does it make sense for Yahoo to try to build a social network to rival Buzz, Facebook, or Twitter? Could it really keep up with any of them over the long haul? I severely doubt it.

So here is my conclusion: neither company’s direction is “wrong” because each one requires a different social strategy to succeed. Based on their strengths, Yahoo and Google are implementing the right strategies.

Now it’s just about executing them.

Tags: facebook, Google, google buzz, social media, The Social Analyst, twitter, Yahoo

The iPad introduction video, as captioned by Google — Hey remember that feel-good iPad introduction video with the Ben Folds cover of "Just Like Heaven" Apple posted on launch day? Yeah, well you're going to remember the hell out of it once you watch it with Google's auto-transcription enabled on YouTube. Trust us, you owe yourself these few moments of absurdity.

[Thanks, Jeff]

The iPad introduction video, as captioned by Google originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 08 Mar 2010 23:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Americans watch nearly 200 online videos a month —

If the latest Comscore report is any indication, the average Internet user who watches online video will soon view over 200 videos a month, or more than 6 each and every day. Nearly half of those come from YouTube.

read more

Chris Pirillo Debuts E-Book: 140 Twitter Tips —

One of our favorite geeks has just released an e-book on best practices for Twitter use.

Chris Pirillo's 140 Twitter Tips, a 14-page PDF, is a concise compendium of useful guidelines and helpful hints for every kind of Twitter user, from doing-it-wrong noobs to social media addicts. From the best time of day to get retweets to how to process public criticism, the e-book also covers a broad range of common issues users experience.

Sponsor

Some of the tips might seem like common sense - until you realize you might not be adhering very well to them, yourself. Most of us are occasionally guilty of using too much jargon and oversharing (or undersharing, in the case of some more professionally oriented accounts).

The e-book costs only $1.40, or you can hold out for the $14 deluxe version, which will contain more than 140 adorable illustrations from Kristin Marshall.

Click here to purchase 140 Twitter Tips from GnomeTomes, the new publishing arm of Pirillo's social media empire/blog network Lockergnome. Other GnomeTomes include guides for YouTube and Windows 7.

Discuss

Will Felicia Day’s Online Success Transfer Offline? —

Ah, the Sci-Fi Channel original movie. Even the channel’s recent name change to SyFy can’t keep Saturday nights from being must-see TV for B-movie fans who like their snakes mega-sized and their spiders on ice.

A pretty wide range of actors have done their time fighting CGI-rendered monsters, and today the Internet’s own Felicia Day joins their ranks, taking the lead role in the Little Red Riding Hood-inspired Red, which is due to premiere in 2011. (She’s a werewolf hunter!)

Being famous on the Internet doesn’t necessarily translate to offline success, but Day is the rare star who might just pull it off — at least, by SyFy’s standards. Why? Let’s look at the numbers.

First, what does SyFy consider to be a success? Well, their last major ratings hit for an original film was the premiere of Megafault in October 2009, which starred the late Brittany Murphy and was watched by 2.6 million people.

2.6 million people is a lot — but right now, Day has nearly 1.75 million Twitter followers, a number that keeps climbing, as seen in this chart from the last three months:

And that audience can be mobilized. According to Microsoft, the first two seasons of The Guild have reached nearly six million downloads, making it one of the most popular shows ever on Xbox LIVE. In addition, every episode of the show’s first season, as hosted on YouTube, has topped one million views, and her first appearance on Atom.com’s Legend of Neil pushed the show to almost 420,000 views (the site in general has less viewership than YouTube, but most other episodes of the series received about half as many views).

And here’s the big one, of course: the Guild Season 3-promoting Do You Wanna Date My Avatar music video, which with 8.5 million views is the most-viewed video on The Guild’s YouTube channel. If just one third of the people who watched Date My Avatar tune in for the premiere of Red next year, then that would mean 2.8 million views.

There’s no way to be sure how many Twitter followers Day will have in a year’s time, but 1.7 million is nothing to scoff at, and that number is likely to climb. If just half of that number were to tune into SyFy when they normally wouldn’t, that’d still mean an impressive bump in the network’s typical Saturday night viewership.

All of this is conjecture, though, and the challenge is getting people away from their computers and in front of their TVs. Network shows featuring Day as a guest actress haven’t benefited much in the ratings department from her guest spots: Her September 2008 House appearance did 12.3 million, while her December 2009 Lie to Me episode did 6.59 million — both numbers being relatively standard for those shows.

But neither of those shows seriously promoted Day or really capitalized on her online fame — meanwhile, SyFy makes prominent mention of her web series work in the Red press release. Personally, I think that’s a good sign, and who knows? By 2011, TV and web content might be well-integrated enough that we’ll see TV commercials for Red plugging its star as “Dr. Horrible’s Felicia Day.”

Related GigaOm Pro Content (subscription required): New Use For Web Stats: Finding Hot Markets, Offline

Google and Dish Network testing TV search on Android-based set-top boxes — We've definitely heard of a few different Android-based satellite and cable boxes in the past year, but it looks like Google's exploring a real move into living room: the Wall Street Journal reports that El Goog and Dish Network are testing a TV search service on a new box that runs on "elements" of Android. (We're taking that to mean it's a stripped-down version of the OS tailored for a set-top, not some totally crazy remix.) The box features a QWERTY remote, and users can search both Dish content and other services like YouTube, which sounds like the same riff TiVo's trying to pull off with the Premiere. Unfortunately, none of this seems destined to hit consumers anytime soon -- the WSJ also says the trial "is limited to a very small number of Google employees and their families and could be discontinued at any time." Okay, but can we at least get some hands-on pictures first?

[Thanks, Jordan]

Google and Dish Network testing TV search on Android-based set-top boxes originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 08 Mar 2010 18:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google and Dish Network testing TV search on Android-based set-top boxes — We've definitely heard of a few different Android-based satellite and cable boxes in the past year, but it looks like Google's exploring a real move into living room: the Wall Street Journal reports that El Goog and Dish Network are testing a TV search service on a new box that runs on "elements" of Android. (We're taking that to mean it's a stripped-down version of the OS tailored for a set-top, not some totally crazy remix.) The box features a QWERTY remote, and users can search both Dish content and other services like YouTube, which sounds like the same riff TiVo's trying to pull off with the Premiere. Unfortunately, none of this seems destined to hit consumers anytime soon -- the WSJ also says the trial "is limited to a very small number of Google employees and their families and could be discontinued at any time." Okay, but can we at least get some hands-on pictures first?

[Thanks, Jordan]

Google and Dish Network testing TV search on Android-based set-top boxes originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 08 Mar 2010 18:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google, Dish Network Reportedly Test Android-Based Satellite TV —

Google has set reportedly its sights on the television set-top box with a small test in conjunction with Dish Network that adds Google’s Android operating system to the satellite television experience. Viewers search satellite programming alongside websites such as Google’s YouTube with a keyboard and watch videos from either source on their televisions, reports the Wall Street Journal (subscription required).

“Google’s trying to replicate the internet experience on TV,” said WSJ’s Jessica Vascallero, “but it’s early days, and they’re testing a lot of formats.” She claims a small group of Google employees is currently kicking the tires on the service, but that Google nor Dish Network would comment about the test.

Google dominates online search, and is apparently eager to extend its reach to the other main screen in most homes. When people search for television programs and web video content on these boxes, they would encounter Google’s keyword and display ads, giving the search and advertising giant another way to reach consumers and profile their preferences.

Meanwhile, given the sorry state of most set-top boxes’ search functions, satellite and cable providers should be grateful for any help they can get as more televisions connect to the internet. They can’t even offer acceptable search for the programming that is available now, let alone the torrent of video available online.  Google would be able to help them in that regard the same way it’s helping the major labels deal with online music videos.

In addition to showcasing video from YouTube, possibly Hulu, and other web video sites alongside television programs, these set-top boxes reported run the Google Android operating system also found on Google’s phones. The same way apps designed for the iPhone will (mostly) work on the iPad, apps designed for Google Android phones could find their way onto televisions as a result of potential deals between Google and Dish or other television providers.

Whatever happens with these boxes, Vascallero said consumers shouldn’t hold their breath because it could be years until they can get their hands on a Google-powered television.

See Also:

• Google’s Super Bowl Ad: A Romance in Search (Updated)
• TiVo Redesigns Search Function, Wants to be the ‘Google of TV’
  
• Google TV: This Is Only a Test
• Google Makes a Stronger Bid for TV Ad Biz
• James Murdoch on Satellite TV, His Google Deal, and What Mogul Means
• Wired 13.12: Who’s Afraid of Google? Everyone.
• Google’s Music Strategy: Past, Present and Future
• Television: Reports of My Death are Greatly Exaggerated
  

Hulu, Vevo Take A Hit As Video Views Stall —

comScore released its Video Metrix numbers for January today, showing a decline across the board for all the major video sites. U.S. viewers watched 32.4 billion videos in January, compared to 33.2 billion views in December. The number of unique viewers also declined from 177.9 million to 173.4 million.

Two of the sites that seem to have been hit particularly hard are Hulu.com and the music industry joint-venture Vevo.com. Hulu was only able to generate 903 million views in January after breaking the magic barrier of one billion views in December. Vevo fared slightly better, but saw a huge decline of unique viewers.

Video views across the board were down 2.5 percent in January, but Hulu’s views fell a whopping 11 percent. Some of this can be explained by seasonal viewership behavior, with popular TV shows like Glee going on break. However, one shouldn’t expect Hulu’s ratings to get better any time soon, given the fact that the immensely popular Viacom shows The Daily Show and The Colbert Report will be leaving the site this week.

The reason’s for Vevo’s disappointing numbers is less obvious, and the numbers actually look pretty good at first. Vevo was able to gather 32.4 million unique viewers in January, which is up from 28.1 million in December. However, the site didn’t launch until Dec 9th, which means that its average daily traffic actually was down close to 15 percent. Vevo saw its average daily number of views decline around four percent.

Vevo is already getting a helping hand from YouTube with its traffic numbers; comScore not only counts videos viewed on vevo.com, but also on Vevo’s YouTube channel as well as on artist sites affiliated with Vevo’s owners, the Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment.

Related content on GigaOm Pro: Not Your Grandfather’s Streaming Video Business (subscription required)

Four More Join Twitter from Yahoo!, Google, LinkedIn, Retail — Twitter's growing ranks continue to swell practically every Monday this year, and today is no exception, as the blue birded microblogging service added four more to its arsenal today with an interesting mix of well-known tech faces and a curveball, also taking on an executive from a franchise furniture store in San Francisco. The latest hires take the company's full-time roster closer to 150, and swell the number being followed on their official list to more than 170.

Last night, you could see three of the four new hires getting what they called "first day of school anticipation" jitters, as Bryan Haggerty, who championed LinkedIn's mobile development, saw his excitement echoed first by Isaac Hepworth, most recently at Google, and finally by Kris, aka @GGateGirl, who left Yahoo! earlier this month, getting a goodbye hug from co-founder Jerry Yang.



The three new hires from LinkedIn, Google and Yahoo! are also joined by Caroline Quick, who along with her husband, Josh, built out a furniture business, called EQ3, which launched in 2003 and started to take off the following year. Caroline's LinkedIn profile describes how she oversaw the build-out off two multi-million dollar retail locations in San Francisco and Emeryville, which are the company's top performing stores in North America.


Haggerty's role at LinkedIn, and subsequent move to Twitter, was highlighted by TechCrunch at the end of February, describing his move to Twitter's mobile team.


Isaac Hepworth, who left Google at the end of January after 3 1/2 years there, didn't spend much time on a planned break, announcing his joining Twitter in mid-February. He starts today as a product manager for Twitter after his role at Google as a group program manager focused on partner solutions. Products he impacted while at Google included AdSense, Android and YouTube.

Despite Isaac's addition and the fact that both Biz and Ev hailed from Blogger, part of Google, Twitter hasn't become completely dominated by former Googlers, as we have seen hires join the company from practically every major tech company since the beginning of the year, including Facebook, Microsoft, Ning, IBM, Six Apart and others as well. The wide array of backgrounds should make for interesting discussions as the company makes strategic decisions going forward.

Google Fights for Time in Viacom Lawsuit —

 

How odd is this? Google, which makes a bit of coin by making anything and everything available through its search engine to anyone and everyone, would prefer a little privacy when that information is about itself. Google has asked a federal court to keep sealed documents filed in the case between it (as owner of YouTube) and Viacom for another month.

Google’s request comes on the heels of Viacom’s asking for the records to be unsealed right away. Unsealed means the records will be publicly accessible--the ‘down and dirty’ of the Google/YouTube-Viacom battle can at last be revealed. According to Viacom, and entertainment lawyer Ben Sheffner, law requires that records, save for trade secrets, be unsealed once summary judgment has been filed for. Google, on the other hand, envisions a nightmare of inefficiency in processing the records, which might impede Google’s final arguments in the case.

What’s in the records is anyone’s guess. Some are hopeful there’ll be more embarrassing admissions, such as Google emails that indicate YouTube managers were uploading or condoning the presence of copyrighted material on YouTube. Or Viacom’s, where employees purposely uploaded Viacom content to YouTube to promote Viacom’s product.

If such things do exist in these records it will take a while to find out. During the three year battle hundreds of thousands of pages of information have been exchanged. It’ll take a while to shift through it all once its released--whether that’s now, as Viacom as requested, or in June, when Google prefers.

 

Image Credit: Carolyn Coles/Flickr

ASUS Eee PC 1005PR packs Broadcom Crystal HD and high-res screen — Today in Tales from ASUS we bring you the story of the 10.1-inch Eee PC 1005PR. While we didn't catch this one hiding out in the overflowing CeBIT booth, it appears big A has gone and swapped out the screen on the 1005PE for one with a 1366 x 768-resolution and tucked a Broadcom Crystal HD accelerator inside, which means the little lappie should be able to handle some YouTube HD (at least after you download 10.1 Beta 3). Nothing special apart from that, as it's standard netbook down the line: 1.66GHz Intel Atom N450, 1GB of RAM, and 320GB hard drive. No word on pricing or availability, but we're guessing it'll probably come in at under $400, like the Dell Mini 10 and HP Mini 210. It may not be a bad deal in the end, but we're still holding out for the Ion 2-equipped 1201PN and for ASUS to someday slow down the frenetic pace of Eee PC iteration.

ASUS Eee PC 1005PR packs Broadcom Crystal HD and high-res screen originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 08 Mar 2010 17:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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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

US YouTube video views up 50 percent in January: comScore (AFP) —

AFP - Industry tracker comScore on Monday reported that US online video viewing at YouTube climbed 50 percent in January as compared to the same month a year earlier.

comScore: Online Video Views Down Across The Board In January —

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.

Google Testing TV Search Service With Dish — According to the Wall Street Journal, Google is testing a new TV programming search service with Dish Network: The service—which runs on TV set-top boxes using elements of Google’s Android operating system—allows users to search content from Dish as well as other Web video, like YouTube, and to personalize a lineup of shows, according to these [...]

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Lawrence Lessig: What Conservatives Can Teach Us About Free Culture —

Here’s one of the first videos to emerge from this weekend’s indie TED conference in New York City. More videos will eventually be posted on the TEDxTalks YouTube Channel, which we’re adding to our Smart YouTube collection. In case you’re not familiar with him, Lawrence Lessig, a Harvard law professor, has been a driving force behind the “free culture” movement and Creative Commons. This talks offers a quick introduction to his thinking … and his distinctive (and always engaging) manner of presentation.

Lawrence Lessig: What Conservatives Can Teach Us About Free Culture is a post from: Open Culture. Visit us at www.openculture.com

Related posts:

1. Lawrence Lessig’s Last Speech on Free Culture (Watch it)
2. Lawrence Lessig’s Free Culture: Available in Text or Audio (For Free)
3. Lawrence Lessig Speech Streamed Live Today

The Crazy Things Cities Do To Get Broadband From Google —

Google’s announcement last month that it would build “ultra” high-speed broadband networks in the U.S. has generated interest from cities who want the tech jobs (and prestige) that would likely come if Google (NSDQ: GOOG) were to select them as a trial location. To be considered, cities must fill out an online questionnaire by March 26. So far, a spokeswoman tells us that the company has “received a good number of submissions from communities.”

Several towns, however, are also going beyond the form and launching outlandish campaigns in order to get Google’s attention. Three examples, after the jump.

Topeka, Kansas (pop. 122,000)

The mayor of Topeka has renamed his city ‘Google, Kansas—The Capital City Of Fiber Optics’—during the month of March. A proclamation is laden with praise for Google and the attributes the city and the internet giant share.

Sample sentence: “Google’s commitment to innovation depends on everyone being comfortable sharing ideas and opinions coupled with the belief that every employee is an equally important part of its success mirrors the City of Topeka’s belief that every citizen is an important part of the city’s success.”

Google Proclamation

Duluth, Minnesota (pop. 85,000)

Duluth Mayor Don Ness jumped into a 35 degree fahrenheit Lake Superior in order to make the case for his city. Afterwards, he described the experience as “exhilarating—just like bringing Google Fiber to Duluth.”

The city also declared (via YouTube, of course) that every first born man living within the city would be known as “Google Fiber,” while every first born female would be known as “Googlette Fiber.” Ness says it’s all a joke—“intended in the spirit of good natured competition between cities.”

Sarasota, Florida (pop. 372,000)

Sarasota has put out a video of its own in order to remind Google that Duluth is frigid and the view in Topeka is plain.

It also renamed an island ‘Google Island’ and put out a ‘Declaration of Independence’ for it:

Google Island Declaration of Independence

Other less flashy campaigns that have arrived in my inbox include those of Jersey City (which is playing up its diversity) and Grand Rapids, Michigan (which says it is ‘committed to leveraging
technology to effect strategic change.’)

Will the campaigns work? Possibly. The Google spokesperson says that “one of the many factors we’re going to consider is level of community support.” And, indeed, many of the campaigns encourage residents to visit a Google site where they can nominate their communities for Google’s fiber network.

Google says it will announce the winners later this year.

Related

• Google's Newest Business: Internet Service Provider

HP Slate makes an appearance to show off Flash, stays for a rock concert — It shouldn't be any surprise that the HP Slate supports Flash, since it runs Windows 7, but we've seen so little of the device since Steve Ballmer first waved it around at CES that we're still totally intrigued by this video from Adobe showing it in action. Yep, there it is, playing video, running casual Flash games, and using AIR applications. We also get a quick shot of the on-screen keyboard, which looks like a mildly tweaked version of the standard Windows 7 keyboard. Interestingly, Flash is said to be hardware-accelerated on the Slate, which suggests something other than a bone-stock Atom setup in there -- we'd guess it's an Atom plus a Broadcom Crystal HD Accelerator, but there's a chance it's something else entirely. HP's also posted up a new marketing video, which bears a striking resemblance to last night's iPad commercial -- until the end, which frankly makes no sense. Check 'em both after the break.

[Thanks, Rick]

Continue reading HP Slate makes an appearance to show off Flash, stays for a rock concert

HP Slate makes an appearance to show off Flash, stays for a rock concert originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 08 Mar 2010 13:18:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Did Google Ignore an Italian Takedown Notice? —

The verdict on the Italian YouTube court case verdict seemed pretty clear: sentencing Google execs to jail time for an invasion of privacy in a video posted (by someone else) on the UGC site was, well, “absurd,” as we said two weeks ago.

But some new evidence is coming out that may just justify at least the “guilty” verdict from the Italian court—since that’s all the Italian judge released (i.e. he didn’t publish his reasoning). According to TechDirt, there are now reports that Google may have ignored a takedown notice on the video.

…Oooooor not. While Google Translate is woefully inadequate in translating the Italian article intelligibly, it appears that the takedown requests in question (if they exist) might actually be from users—i.e. people without legal standing—via the site’s feedback form. Although that could certainly alert the company that inappropriate content had been submitted by a user, it’s a far cry from an official legal filing.

It’s also hard to tell because Google hasn’t apparently responded adequately to requests from the prosecution to provide copies of any legal takedown notices (although I believe the article says they have provided a copy of one such filing: “Google Inc. has sent not only evasive replies on the comments made [on the video page] but also on removal requests (having produced only one on that SB)”). Furthermore, the EU has no guidelines on what constitutes a sufficiently fast response to a legal takedown notice (or even a clearly defined process for filing takedown notices).

Still, it hardly makes sense to sentence executives who probably never saw any takedown notices (whether or not they were filed), didn’t abuse the child in question, didn’t tape said abuse and didn’t post the video, to jail time for invasion of privacy. TechDirt points out a fine for ignoring (or losing) a takedown notice would be a far more appropriate penalty.

What do you think? Did Google receive a takedown notice? Who should be punished, and how?

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