Battered User Syndrome: YouTube and Online Monopolies July 2, 2008
Posted by Nalts in : Blogs on Video, Video Online Tools, Video Sites, YouTube , 16commentsWant your Gmail to replace your YouTube messaging? Sorry- but
here are some pretty thumb icons you can use to rate comments!
Who would have thought the market would be so beholden to YouTube’s inside-out design… half way through 2008? By now, I would have predicted that Web 2.0 would offer us endless options for customizing a video experience using someone else’s player. They can pay for the bandwidth and make ad revenue, but please allow us to customize, widgitize, and private-labelize. You know- the open source, altruistic dream that borne Revver, and its open source API (whatever the hell that is).
Nope. Maybe that’s in the Web 3.0 upgrade. Not now. No soup for you.
Alas, market dominance means you innovate on your own terms. YouTube and Google were designed to solve a problem its founders felt, but the market didn’t quite know it needed. That works well when you’re in start-up mode or innovating, but can inadvertently spawn arrogance that hardcore users begin to resent. I’ve been an informal adviser to several smaller video-sharing sites, and found it very rewarding when those sites responded to our needs (or at least convinced us they were). Note: I disclose these relationships and they’re not paid — otherwise I’d lose my objectivity on them. And risk hating one less than another.
Now lately I’ve been confronted with some needs that are on the edge of YouTube’s functionality. So I did what any YouTube Partner would do: I went to both my dedicated YouTube technical liaison, Eric, and community representative, Brenda, to solve these issues.
No I’m just kidding. They don’t take my calls either.
No, friends, we’ve got battered user syndrome.We don’t expect YouTube to fix itself. It’s tired after a long day of work, and we did spill its beer on the counter. So we’ll search for our own tools we can use on top of YouTube… despite it. The bad news is that we’re limited to offering this to people via channels we can control. The good news is that they solve problems that YouTube doesn’t see, doesn’t care about, or views as off strategy. The more bad news is that we don’t know what tools are safe or effective.
Suppose you had a cheese playlist and wanted to randomize it (like the Oreo contest entries) so each video gets a fair shot at being first. Or maybe you’re using the playlists as a free, copyright-violating jute box. Well you can’t do that. You’d want the Randomize YouTube Playlist script (mind you I’m not vouching for these things- I wouldn’t know what to do with them even if I could get past the porn ads and download them).
Then there’s the YouTube Search Script. I suppose that one allows you to customize search and embed videos based on parameters? Then there’s the “YouTube Script” which represents itself as a poor man’s custom YouTube (with that impossible promise, I’m guessing it’s a virus that turns your monitor into a camera and broadcasts your life 24/7 in Stickam). I am having fun playing with Overlay.tv (which is kinda like YouTube’s overlay tools on steroids). But I may do a promotion video for Overlay.tv… so more on that later. And don’t give me crap about promoting them because it’s like a skateboarder endorsing a skateboard brand. It’s cool. It’s why I pimp TubeMogul for free.
Anyway- share your own YouTube hacks below (not the zillion YouTube rippers, thank you). And don’t expect Eric or Brenda to call you back. Nope. Leave it to Web 2.0 to foster a monopoly where we love a website even when it beats us. We deserve the beating, though. We didn’t behave, and the website is under a lot of stress lately.
P.S. I dare someone to turn this post into a video blog and make it look like they’re not scripted. I’ll add a link here if you do. You gotta do it like Pat Condell… with articulation and enough emotion that you don’t look like you’re reading.
P.P.S. Domestic violence is not funny. Go get help, please, if you experience it. I am just using the analogy to exaggerate the learned helplessness we face with some technologies.
Metacafe Gives Viewers Wikipedia-Like Editing Control of Videos June 26, 2008
Posted by Nalts in : Future of Online Video, Making Videos, Online Video, Video Online Tools, Video Sites, YouTube, metacafe , 9commentsIt’s maddening when a creator tricks viewers with misleading thumbnails, titles, tags and descriptions. Until now, we’ve counted on the website’s search engine to solve that problem. But even YouTube’s Google-like sophistication still opens the door to tricks by Viral Video Villians.
Google learns from its users, and I imagine the YouTube search engine quietly gives primacy to videos that meet criteria we never see… such as open rate, duration of average view, related videos, and other metrics that YouTube can track to determine if the video is perceived as relevant or “good.”
Metacafe – without the funding or mother Google to help – has created a clever alternative. It’s giving edit rights to the viewer in true Wiki style. Just as anyone can edit a Wikipedia entry, Metacafe viewers can now edit the title, tags, description and even flag misleading thumbnails or duplicates (I flagged a “Farting in Public” ripoff just now). This is hard to explain, and a video is worth a million views. Watch Sherry in the video here to see how it works. I love this demo and not just because I make a surprise cameo.
I hope Metacafe doesn’t allow its creators to switch the hosts of it’s Metacafe Unfiltered series? Imagine how much better you could make this interview with KipKay, who has made more than $100,000 in advertising revenue on the website.
This begs a lot of questions. I can report a misleading thumbnail (the image you see representing a video before you play it), for instance, but I suspect human intervention is required, and perhaps that requires a few people reporting it. I can edit someone else’s video description, which introduces some risks of abuse initially (for instance, I could add my name to popular video tags but I’m sure it would erode a trust score and have little benefit to me). Ultimately the community will police the community, and that’s theoretically better and less expensive than editors or complex algorithms.
Wikicafe Beta: Hate Typos? - The best bloopers are a click away
Where Are the YouTube Ads? (Insert Cricket Sound) May 20, 2008
Posted by Nalts in : Video Advertising, Video Sites, YouTube, advertising , 24commentsThe biggest mystery of YouTube partners (those who share in advertising revenue generated by their videos) is yet unsolved. My post about Sxephil’s reaction generated a lot of discussion, but there’s still a big unanswered question….
Are the YouTube ads missing because advertisers aren’t buying? Or is there a technical glitch prohibiting them?
Either option is sad news. If YouTube can let its only revenue-producing functionality die, then that doesn’t speak well for the company’s priorities. If advertising inventory is low on the world’s biggest online-video site, that’s a sad statement about the economy or marketer’s recognition of online video.
No e-mails from YouTube. Nothing on the blog. Lots of YouTube partners seeing no Invideo ads, and wondering if they should hold their videos until something improves.
Often our burning questions about a YouTube matters go unanswered because the answer would perhaps create greater scrutiny to the question. However I like the proactive and transparent approach… “Hey guys, we have a problem, and here’s what we’re doing to solve it and prevent it in the future.”
In the meantime you viewers can enjoy your videos without interruption and know that we creators will start holding onto our day jobs a big tighter.
And I’m totally bumming because I finally got Spencer (the Farting in Public kid) back in action yesterday night with “Will You Be My Prom Date?” and it’s currently the #4 highest-rated video of the day. And the recent “Cool Fish!” was seen more than 30,000 times in the past couple days but doesn’t appear to be making money for me or YouTube.
And now I just found out that my stupid “How to Make a Viral Video While Driving” is on the homepage of YouTube. Unmonetized. 
How Many of the 10 Billion Videos Viewed in February Did YOU Watch? April 17, 2008
Posted by Nalts in : Future of Online Video, Online Video, Video Business, Video Sites, Viral Video, YouTube , 6comments
We watched 10 billion videos in February, according to ComScore yesterday. That’s a 66 percent gain from February 2007, and apparently about 73 percent of people online are watching videos. Which means the other 15 percent are losers that are too busy brushing up on their math skills.
35 percent of this activity is on Google/YouTube, followed by about 6 percent by Fox and 3 percent by Yahoo. So if you want the “long tail,” go diggin’ into some of the big-media entities that top the list with one percent share.
I’ll be on YouTube.
Appear Better Informed About Darfur in 3 Minutes: The Onion Makes Me Cry April 9, 2008
Posted by Nalts in : Killer Video, Nalts, Online Video, Video Sites, Viral Video, YouTube, popular videos , 10commentsDarfur. We both know how serious it is, but we’re not sure exactly why or where it is.
The Onion (helping you seem more informed”) has produced this fantastic parody of news analysis. It’s called “How Can We Let Darfur Know How Much We’re Doing For Them.”
I’ve never laughed as much in preparing a post for this silly blog- in fact cried laughing (to use a bad pun). The Onion, I hope you know, is a website/print publication that has made the single finest transition to online-video content. The Onion News Network is as well written as the website I used to eagerly anticipate each Wednesday (in fact, it was literally the only website besides Google that I checked routinely in the early part of this century). But the acting is what cinches this. The acting is better than amateur online-video content, and most of television.
Watch each of these actors and realize how easy it is to believe that they’re real analysts and you’re not supposed to be laughing- the cadence, the off-camera glances, the “pile on” comments, and the timing. Folks if you’re watching, I’d kill for a cameo. No charge, and I’ll get their with 24-hours notice.
According to Wikipedia, (but watch out because The Onion reminds us Wikipedia is prone to error), The Onion launched The Onion News Network, a daily web video broadcast that had been in production since mid-2006. An early story featured an illegal immigrant taking an executive’s $800,000 a year job for $600,000 a year. The Onion has reportedly invested about $1 million in the production and has hired 15 new staffers to focus on the production of this video broadcast.[11] Carol Kolb, former editor-in-chief of The Onion, is the head writer.
In a Wikinews interview in November 2007, Onion President Sean Mills said the ONN has been a huge hit.
“We get over a million downloads a week, which makes it one of the more successful produced-for-the-Internet videos,” said Mills. “If we’re not the most successful, we’re one of the most.”
TheOnion has a YouTube account (with an atypical banner that allows viewers to drop directly into its podcasts, website or RSS) since March 2006, but its videos are all relatively new to YouTube (past several months). As of this post, I have about 35,000 subscribers on YouTube, and The Onion has about 13,000. I’m willing to bet that the network has twice as many subscribers as me by the summer.
I’ve often said that quasi professional content is on the rise, but this isn’t fair to call “quasi.” The only reason this content isn’t a better version of SNL is because there’s not enough of it, and perhaps it appeals to a smaller segment of the SNL audience with primarily news parody. Then again- it works for Jon Stewart.
See: FDA recalls pot pies because they’re hungry and the plight of lost hikers.
Survey of Video Advertising Rates April 2, 2008
Posted by Nalts in : Video Advertising, Video Business, Video Sites, YouTube, advertising , 7commentsWeb Video Report polled a number of online-video outlets, and it seems that $25 CPM (cost per thousand) is the norm, with slight variances based on the quality and “targetability” of the content. After a quick scan, you’ll get insights from the comments by Mike Abundo and Paul Kontonis.
Yes, Jenna. There is a YouTube. April 2, 2008
Posted by Nalts in : Online Video, Video, Video Sites, Viral Video, YouTube, popular videos, viral videologist , 5commentsJenna from YouTube asks the questions (in the comments from a recent post). The humble viral video genius gives the answers…
Hey Nalts, I have some questions about the history of video blogging and the history of Nalts (you).
- Did the guys who made YouTube intend for it to be used as a video blogging site? Chad and Stephen created YouTube in the requisite “Internet startup garage” because they saw a need for simple sharing of videos (instead of e-mailing large attachments). Vlogging came later. Those two don’t even vlog, at least publicly.
- Have you ever been to a YouTube gathering? Are you kidding, Jenna? Those are like Star Trek conferences. Never.
- What do you think are the genre antecedents to video blogging? Do you think it came out of reality TV? Actually I think it’s “anti reality TV.” People were sick of manufactured reality, and entranced by the notion of real people interacting with audiences in an almost real-time setting. The early vloggers were stars who weren’t.
- Can you write a post where you watch your first two videos and then your last two videos and reflect on how your style has changed and why? Wow. First time I’ve thought about that. Initially I was just posting goofy stuff with the kids like “Scary Santa.” The kinda thing that might end up on America’s Funniest Video. The second was “Gum Tree,” which was more carefully edited and still makes me smile. A bit later came “Speed Racer,” which might be worth a sequel now that the movie is coming out! My most recent video, “Rusty’s Song” was more crafted for spreading (nostalgia, cultural references, cute dog, annoying song). The most recent popular video I’ve done was a parody on Mac Air’s commercial, and it did fairly well (about 400K views on YouTube alone) for a video that was never featured. Maybe I’m trying to hard now.
- Where do you live? Between NYC and Philadelphia. But I’m from New Orleans and we still have a family place in Sweet Alabama.
- Do you use StickAm? I tried to use it but I don’t understand how to do it. I have used it, but I can’t take it except in short doses and usually when I’ve had a few drinks. It’s hard to get used to… check out my “Stickam is Crack” video and the responses for some thoughts.
P.S. In business school (Babson) we studied in Prague with some people from Millsaps College in Mississippi, where your profile says you attend. That made me laugh because there was a guy from Millsaps that used to say the name of his school with the funniest Southern accent. And one of my classmates (who died a few years later of cystic fibrosis) did a belly aching impersonation of him… “I’m doin’ some indeeepdendent reeesurch for meeeel ssshaaapps” he’d say. You hadda be there.
YouTube Goes High Definition: The “Secret” Hack Know As &fmt=18 March 16, 2008
Posted by Nalts in : Online Video, Video Online Tools, Video Sites, YouTube , 9commentsThe thing that put YouTube on the map was easy file sharing — quick uploads and fast Flash-based streaming. Lately YouTube is experimenting with high definition, which is a slight improvement from the typical squished Flash format.
Here are the key things you need to know:
- It’s in testing, and it’s not perfect. The audio sometimes fails to synch, and not all videos work in high definition.
- This isn’t HDTV. It’s just a higher resolution version of Flash.
- You can add the code: &fmt=18 to the end of a video’s URL to see if it makes it better.
- You’ll see some text below videos that allow you to toggle between high and low resolution.
- You can update your account preferences so you have the ability to default to high definition if you don’t mind the potential loss of speed.
- I’m not aware of any discrimination on this feature between “Partners” and everyone else.
Charles Trippy posted a video on this yesterday and SMPFilms in (”YouTube Hack”) announced the news as well. This perhaps prompted YouTube’s Blog to post” YouTube Videos in High Definition.”
Mike Abundo (Inside Online Video), of course, identified the hack on March 4, and provided this recent update. I saw the post, but found the improvement to be of nominal visual distinction.
Charles Trippy provided this nice post for Mac users to help them export their videos to take advantage of this higher definition.
I’m working on a video that explains this, and demos some of the before/after. It will also show people how to turn on high definition as a default via their account preferences. I’ll show the step-by-step for exporting better quality (the limit is now 1 gig for all).
Another source: Wired Wiki explains formatting in great detail
Another Video Site Bites the Dust February 25, 2008
Posted by Nalts in : Online Video, Revver, Video Sites, advertising , 14commentsWell we’re clearly in the bubble burst of online-video sites. Stage6 shut down, and Revver was sold. Who’s next?
YouTube Sketchies (and Stupid Thumbnail Ad by Dove) February 25, 2008
Posted by Nalts in : Contest, Video Sites, Viral Video, YouTube, advertising , 5comments
You have until March 3 to enter your comedy video into the first round of YouTube’s Sketchies II. Corolla, leveraged popular YouTuber LisaNova to promote the contest (she was second place last year with this “LisaNova does George Bush” video).
I spoke with LisaNova via phone for the first time on Saturday, when TheMightyThor1212 was good enough to put her on the line while at the YouTube San Francisco gathering.
Here’s a recap (wish I had videotaped it since it doesn’t quite translate as a manuscript):
Nalts: Hey, Lisa- Lisa: Hey
- Nalts: Are you getting bombarded?
- Lisa: What?
- Nalts: I’m a big fan. I liked your recent video about the comedy contest.
- Lisa: Which one?
- Nalts: You know- the one on the beanbag. With your face on the homepage.
- Lisa: Oh- the Sketchies.
- Nalts: Yeah. Will you do the BubbleGumTreeShow? (a show featuring viral creators, like Mark Day, who will perhaps be juding the Sketchies?).
- Lisa: Sure. Just send me the information.
- Nalts: Kay. Have fun.
- Lisa: Some kids is asking me to autograph their shirt.
- Nalts: Go make their day. Nice speaking with you.
- Lisa: Nice speaking with you too, Renetto.
Too bad I don’t have a screen grab of the YouTube homepage when it featured LisaNova’s video. It was framed so the ridiculously huge gray play button doesn’t obscure LisaNova’s face. Unlike the image here by Dove.
Honestly. Who lets an ad like this go live?
Just before I posted this, I hit refresh and found this version. Now instead of featuring the Dove host, they’ve got an image from the winning entry (by Celeste Wouden) of the Dove Cream Oil Body Wash advertisement contest.
Hmmm. Two-star rating with the last 4 being the lowest possible. Hmmm. Either the YouTube audience doesn’t care for this video or some of the losers are launching an attack on this video.
Too bad about the thumbnails. You know, Dove, this gal isn’t going to drive nearly as many clicks as a woman with a slender neck and face shaped like a play button.