• And a Healthy New Millennium
    Statisticians don't usually climb the ranks of YouTube too often, so Swedish health researcher Hans Rosling must be tickled that his four-minute discourse on a century of trends in world income and health is about to crack two million views. Well, Justin Bieber needn't be worried just yet, but the good doctor's rosy vision of a world growing ever richer and healthier is a upbeat note on which to end an otherwise gloomy and frustrating 2010.
  • Music in Review: Bieber To GaGa
    As 2010 comes to a close, the lists begin to roll. Today we get from music site Vevo its run down of the most popular videos on a service that itself became one of the top trending Web properties of 2010. In comScore's latest ranking of Web properties (November 2010), MTV's parent Viacom continues to be the larger presence with 81.7 million unique visitors (No. 11 in the list). But Vevo is now at No .19 with 57.8 million uniques, and it is streaming hundreds of millions of vids a month. Curiously, and not coincidentally, MTV itself reported yesterday that …
  • We Wish You A Sexist Christmas, and a Naughty New Year
    I thought that a generation of feminist soldiers fought bravely in the streets so our children would never have to watch the kind of video you will want to (nay, have to ) watch below. Recalling the days of Playboy magazine Christmas cartoons that objectified women to excruciating lengths, we present with begrudging admiration "The Cup Size Choir" video that is trending up the viral charts this week. From UK lingerie-maker La Senza and agency Karmarama comes a choir of young models in a range of cup sizes gasping Christmas carols. Oh, it gets better.
  • Time to Play: Metacafe Launches Games Vide Hub
    Video game marketing and media have been the underappreciated forward troops in the march towards a video-centric Web. Back in the day, news, review and preview sites like GameSpot, IGN, and UGO were among the first to fill our fattening pipes with streaming media. Game preview clips were crack for game addicts. All that luscious CGI and melodramatic cut scenes. Yum. Some smart investors at the big media companies took notice, because now these three are owned by CBS, News Corp. and Hearst, respectively. The sheer volume of games-related video out there from multiple sources cries out for a video-oriented …
  • Making the Videosphere a Safer Place One Clumsy Cameraman At a Time
    I confess that I was born with a golden camera in my paws. While my family eked its way into the middle-middle class, I had a well-to-do grandfather with a serious jones for anything related to photography. And he had enough money to be dangerous at it. Back in the '50s he owned a 16 mm Bolex pro camera, an editing bay, a Bell and Howell Sound projector, and all manner of experimental film equipment. He even had one of the first and only 3-D slide cameras. Trips to Willoughby's camera shop in New York were pilgrimages. Yeah, I am …
  • Game Consoles Moving To the Center of the Living Room
    Roku, Google TV, Apple TV and Boxee may be scrambling to capture the hearts of digital media fans and be the source of streaming media to the living room TV. But, truth be told, they are skirmishing over the margins. There are already scores of millions of boxes that have been sitting beneath the TV for a couple of years now, most of which are Web connected. And they are springing to life. The latest metrics from Nielsen show that 20% of the time the Nintendo Wii is on, the users are streaming video (most likely Netflix) instead of …
  • YouTube Trends Detects 'Viral Video Vibrations'
    "What's Poppin" around you? Google asks in its surprisingly entertaining video walkthrough of the new Trends service that tracks emerging viral video hits. Actually, more than just another geeky tool from Google, this is YouTube Trends page is one of the most sculpted and deliberately programmed efforts we have seen from Big G. Even though the site is put together by what the company calls new algorithms to pull in trending video topics and themes, there is something closer to a full-fledged editorial project at work here.
  • Can Video Take Names, Get the Lead?
    Online video has been sold so hard and for so long as the familiar, safe branding vehicle that will lure TV dollars online, we rarely hear much about its direct marketing potential. But ad software and services company Panache says that with the right formats and appeals, video advertising can also take names and become a hard core DM lead generator. The company is rolling out Tuesday morning a slate new products for its publisher partners to add to the mix call "Lead Accelerator."
  • Actors and Their Craft: NYTimes Recalls Silent Screen
    Features like yesterday's online enhancement to "The Scene Makers: Actors Who Defined Cinema in 2010" in The New York Times Magazine, remind us just how versatile and rich Web video can become. Don't' miss it. The magazine article on acting is brought to life and given an entirely new dimension in the ambitious video project directed by Norwegian photographer Solve Sundsbo. In pin-sharp black and white, with no audio track other than evocative scores by Owen Pallet, 14 of this year's most accomplished actors and actresses perform short silent scenes.
  • But Did They Earn Scale? Friskies Premieres Film Made By Cats
    I know what you're thinking. A film lensed by house cats probably couldn't be any worse that some of the other stuff that gets posted on YouTube. Well, just as with Coppola, Demme, and Fincher, the magic really all happens in the editing room. Nestle Purina proves that point with a fun exercise meant to make cat lovers everywhere gush with "awwww." Their Friskies brand premieres "Cat Diaries: The First Ever Movie Filmed by Cats." Indeed, Fudge, Gizmo, Nutkins, Charlene Butterbean and others strapped video cameras to their collars and engaged in a little cinema verite at ground level. The …
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