September 8, 2008
According to statistics, if you are reading this, you are probably on a broadband connection. Whether you are surfing at work on a LAN or at home on a DSL or cable modem, you are probably not on dial up at this moment.
However, there was a time not that long ago in which Webmasters were optimizing every element of their page feverishly to squeeze every ounce of speed from it. Broadband simply was not that common and, even over dial up connections, visitors had twitchy fingers on the “back” button at all times.
But in the age of YouTube, Flash ads and embeddable content, those lessons have been all but forgotten, However, not everyone has access to high-speed connection, especially in rural locations, and after spending just a few days limited to dial up, the lessons come flooding back.
So what lessons did I learn while surfing the slow Web while evacuated? Here is just a sample of what I saw. read more
Tags: Adsense, bandwidth, blogger, broadband, cable modem, dial up, dsl, Gmail, site optimization, WordPress, YouTube
September 1, 2008
Great news for video publishers that want to expand their possible viewership on YourTube videos, now you can add captions to your videos. From the official blog:
You can add captions to one of your videos by uploading a closed caption file using the “Captions and Subtitles” menu on the editing page. To add several captions to a video, simply upload multiple files. If you want to include foreign subtitles in multiple languages, upload a separate file for each language.
BBC, CNET, MIT, and Japanese anime publisher Gonzodoga are among the partners mentioned in said blog post. read more
Tags: captions, international, Video, YouTube
August 27, 2008
MoFuse, the service that makes your site mobile friendly, announced an interesting array of news via e-mail today:
- Improved recommendation engine
- WordPress comments integration
- YouTube video transcoded to mobile-friendly format
The first one on the list isn’t something I personally care about, MoFuse got this recommended reading links at the end of mobile pages, if you enable it, so that readers will find more content in the mobile web. However, the integration of WordPress comments, and automatic transcoding of embedded YouTube videos are interesting news.
Check out MoFuse if you want to have a mobile version of your site.
Tags: Mobile, Mobile Blogging, MoFuse, YouTube
August 26, 2008
Wired covers the fact that the 2008 Democratic National Convention is the most covered media event in their party’s history - by bloggers!:
This year’s convention sees multiple firsts in technological innovations for the quadrennial political party gathering. For starters, the Democratic National Convention Committee is providing bloggers (and floor delegates) with “video-upload booths” where they can upload their footage to YouTube or any other online-video platform.
The DNC is using text messaging and streaming video to keep delegates (and those following along at home) up to date.
Their story also contains great hi-rez photos of the DNC setup along with discussions of other technologies and support that are in place for bloggers covering the convention.
Tags: Democrats, DNC, Political Bloggers, Political Blogging, YouTube
August 25, 2008
When it comes to matters of copyright, some companies have an earned reputation as being attack dogs. They are known for filing takedown notices at the drop of a hat, throwing lawsuits around at will and generally intimidating anyone that they feel gets too close to their intellectual property.
Though there is nothing wrong with being aggressive about your copyright, especially when you make your living from it. The problem comes when companies cross the line and sacrifice the rights of users and the public in their bid to protect their work.
These attack dogs are dangerous for many reasons. First, they are the ones most likely to file takedown notices, including against bloggers. Second, they often times trample free speech and run afoul of the law. Finally, they also end up writing both the copyright news we read and many of the copyright laws we follow.
So who are the most aggressive copyright holders? Though such a list is entirely subjective, here is my personal list of the most aggressive major copyright holders I have been tracking. read more
Tags: associated press, copyright, copyright law, disney, Football, IOC, mpaa, nbc, NFL, Olympics, riaa, universal, Viacom, warner brothers, YouTube
July 15, 2008
As you probably know, a court ruled that Google would have to turn over user data from YouTube to Viacom, as part of the list of viewed videos that Viacom claims (probably justly so) are illegally available on YouTube. This made some people sweat, but more importantly, it pointed out that not even the all-mighty Google can keep your stuff secret for you, unless they delete it of course.
However, good news just in! TechCrunch reports that Viacom agrees to Googles request to anonymize the user IDs and IP addresses, although it will be able to track them down. Michael Arrington sums it up nicely:
The new order, filed this evening, states that Google will substitue user id’s and IP addresses for anonymous but unique identifiers.
For more on this, read the full order over at TechCrunch.
Tags: Google, Viacom, YouTube
May 21, 2008
It’s amazing that bin Laden, the world’s most hunted terrorist, is able to pre-announce that he has a new video coming.
I’m starting to wonder if soon Al Qaeda will just run trailers before movies start at the theater.
Google-owned YouTube has denied a request from U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman (D) to remove videos that are “sponsored” by the terror organization. According to the online video giant, these vids don’t violate its community guidelines.
It’s the age-old battle of freedom of speech. In a letter to Google CEO Eric Schmidt, Lieberman wrote the following:
“Islamist terrorist organizations use YouTube to disseminate their propaganda, enlist followers and provide weapons training…YouTube also, unwittingly, permits Islamist terrorist groups to maintain an active, pervasive and amplified voice, despite military setbacks or successful operations by the law enforcement and intelligence communities.”
Do you think videos that show the killing of U.S. soldiers should be banned from YouTube? Or, is Google right to keep their Website censor-free?
Tags: censorship, Google, islamic, terrorist, Videos, YouTube
YouTube wants to put more focus on citizen news, so enter Olivia, the new News Manager who urges people to participate. She’s got a channel up, want tips by e-mail, and says hi in a video:
Tags: User-Generated Content, Video, YouTube
May 19, 2008
While some sections of the US military face restrictions on Internet use, one Army General appears, at first glance, to contravene the security blocks put in place.
Lt. Gen. William Caldwell, head of the Combined Armed Center, and Fort Leavenworth, has encouraged blogging and the use of YouTube.
“Faculty and students will begin blogging as part of their curriculum and writing requirements both within the .mil and public environments. In addition CAC subordinate organizations will begin to engage in the blogosphere in an effort to communicate the myriad of activities that CAC is accomplishing and help assist telling the Army’s story to a wide and diverse audience,” he wrote in a recent memo.
He has already encouraged soldiers to send their YouTube videos to friends and family, even though the use of YouTube is officially banned on military networks, and blogging is severely restricted.
I’m sure, if we could dig deeper, there’d be reason behind this apparent contradiction. Presumably Lt. Gen. Caldwell doesn’t expect his students to start discussing classified information or shooting detailed videos for the whole world to see.
(Via WIRED)
Tags: Blogging, YouTube
May 16, 2008
Now you can get some more statistics for your YouTube videos, with the recently launched Insight tool, available in your YouTube account (under Manage my Videos, which is probably temporary). The new stats feature is described like this by Tracy Chan, YouTube product manager:
For example, uploaders can see how often their videos are viewed in different geographic regions, as well as how popular they are relative to all videos in that market over a given period of time. You can also delve deeper into the lifecycle of your videos, like how long it takes for a video to become popular, and what happens to video views as popularity peaks.
Darren over at ProBlogger takes a closer look, with a bunch of screenshots detailing some stats for his videos.
Tags: Video, YouTube