For the magazine industry, the Internet has been a challenge from the beginning. When Time Inc. launched its doomed Pathfinder collection of online magazine brands back in the mid 1990s the hope was that this World Wide Web thingie could be just another publishing platform. In truth, almost every aspect of the magazine industry didn't map well against Internet culture and media. The monthly editorial cycle was immediately challenged by the 24/7 Web. add video and you have an industry that was royally screwed by the Internet. Online magazines suddenly found themselves competing with cable networks, online portals and network …

Just when you thought the Internet was getting too buttoned-down and super-serious for its own good, an offbeat startup comes along to remind us that irreverence and wit survive in the new media world of suits and VCs. But when Amazon recently acquired the quirky shopping site Woot, it definitely bought into, well, quirky. Unlike Amazon itself and most first-gen e-commerce plays, Woot does not try to impress with the infinite inventory a digital catalog allows. Instead, like Groupon and Thrillist, Woot sells a sensibility to shopping and in this case highlights only one item a day. The site offers …

The long-awaited Hulu premium program launched yesterday. Or I think Huluplus launched for someone somewhere. The $9.99/month plan appeared as an app on both my iPad and iPhone but when I tried to log into them with my current Hulu account name it kicked me over to the Web site to request a "Preview Invite." Does this mean I am not hip enough to be invited to the Huluplus pre-party? And here I am all tricked out with a fair number of the connected devices the new service addresses: from Xbox 360 and PS3 to iPad and iPhone. How disgustingly …

While full-episode TV re-viewing seems to have gotten much of the press and even advertiser attention in recent years, new research sponsored by short-form hub Metacafe begs to differ with some conventional wisdom. In its annual sponsored study of online video habits from Frank N. Magid, Metacafe says that 63% of digital video viewers watch music videos, movie trailers, TV clips, sports or video game content, while only 40% tend to watch full-length TV shows or movies. Still the preference continues to be for professionally produced content of all kinds, which is watched by 76% of all users and more …

At last week's Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival two viral video favorites were among the winners, and they underscored the importance of the big idea in grabbing consumers' fleeting attention spans. The Cyber Lion Grand Prix winner was "The Fun Theory," the DDB Stockholm campaign for Volkswagen that featured a piano staircase designed to encourage people to chose the steps over escalator powered ascent out of the underground station. The big idea for Volkswagen was that making ecologically friendly activities fun to do could change people's behaviors.

What a difference a year makes when it comes to video consumption. Last year in May comScore counted 16.5 billion videos served for the month. Now, they just reported that for May, 2010 we are up to 33.95 billion. And there have been some extraordinary shifts in rankings and market share, year-over-year. In 2009, Google accounted for a 40.1% share of videos served. But the gorilla in the marketplace has only grown amid substantial competition, now up to 43.1% share. Hulu, of course, was the big winner, rising from a 2.5% share last year to 3.5% in May this year. …

Anyone who has followed bleeding edge technology and emerging platforms over the last decade knows that Hispanic and African American digerati have been leading the charge in adopting new forms of interactivity. Some of the earliest, largest and most successful online social networks back in the early 2000s were BlackPlanet.com and MiGente, for instance. When it comes to mobile, again, Hispanic and African American customers over-index wildly when it comes to data usage. These users were embracing mobile social networks like MocoSpace long before Facebook and MySpace even launched mobile

We haven't checked with Revision 3, Blip.tv, or Mevio about whether they have served over 1 billion videos over the short life of streaming media on the Web, but Next New Networks appears to the one who came up with the bright idea of celebrating the milestone. We have to give them some PR props. The home of Web series IndyMogul, Channel Frederator and ThreadBanger is throwing a billion-videos played party. The dedicated site NextNewBillion.com has a countdown meter that invites the user to vote on the day the site will crack the big mark. A downloadable poster is a …

If you surf away from YouTube and click off of the male-18-34-year-old demo video hubs for just a second, you can find people who use online multimedia for genuinely edifying, life-affirming ends. No joke. One of the smartest blends of professional and amateur user-gen media I have seen lately comes from Meredith's MyFirstBaby.com. The 36-Webisode series is brilliantly targeted at one of the most frightening moments in most adults' lives -- bringing their first children into the world. Done in partnership with baby products maker Graco, the series uses host Jill Cordes as the anchor for user-submitted clips that …

Comedy Central was among the first networks to defy the cable industry's resistance to airing full episodes of cable fare online. The company has been putting Jon Stewart online for years. Now the network is reversing the polarity with a full-bore online-only Web talk show. Comedy Central's Portable Lounge is true to its name. this is a traveling talk show. It is designed to appear just about anywhere. The set is a pair of foldable beach chairs, a wooden crate and a cheesy red-shaded lamp. Let the hilarity commence.