• Business 2.0 Magazine, Wednesday, February 14, 2007 10:47 AM

Here's some food for thought: YouTube 2.0, a way to weed out what you don't want and keep only what you do. In the chaotic online world, video clips can be five-minute cinematic masterpieces or raving paranoia from someone on too many prescription drugs.

It will be noted by many in this industry that aggregation is big business on the Web. Business 2.0 says that's exactly what would make online video more accessible to users, and thus, more attractive to advertisers. That's the idea behind VodPod, a new startup funded by Mark Hall, the founder of RealNetworks.

Similar to YouTube, the site encourages users to build "pods," which are basically online video channels, but instead of being limited to one site, VodPod lets you grab any clip you like from the 100-plus video sharing sites out there. Like a wiki, the channels belong to the community, and anybody can add to them.

Says Malik: "This is one of the hot opportunities in new new media: hyperaggregation ... the way of the Web is to go meta -- a Web site is born and covers politics, then another, and another, and that leads inexorably to ... a blog that covers all the Web sites that tackle politics." Indeed, who needs YouTube when you can have everything out there in one place? This could also become a new headache for traditional media companies.

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