Update on 10/19/12: Apparently YouTube is counting raw minutes not percent of video as I have indicated. According to this source a video will rank more highly based on total minutes viewed — even above a video with more views that were shorter. YouTube, the second largest search engine, is increasingly following the “Google” approach…

[Update Oct 8, 2012: See comments around my video on this subject, and see Urgo’s response which reminds us that “amateur” is someone who isn’t paid… so that has almost always excluded many of us). “YouTube alienates amateur users by courting pros,” wrote the Chicago Tribune. The example is Ryan Douthit’s “Driving Sports TV” channel, which…

Keek raised $7 million to fuel a relatively new social-video sharing site, joining a crowded space including SocialCam, Viddy and Twitvid. VatorNews announced, “Keek is a social video network that lets people upload video snippets of just about anything from their mobile phones. It’s a bit like Twitter but what’s shared isn’t 140-character Tweets, but…

It’s one of the most extreme versions of a product sponsorship, and it’s called “Epic Rap Battle of Manliness.” YouTube sensations Rhett & Link (Rhett McLaughlin and Link Neal), held back no punches on this high-production music video designed to entertain and promote Build.com (and its YouTube channel BuildDotCom. The project is part of a trend…

It was just a simple TinyChat live video chat by some of the Anonymous folks. That’s the first half of this video excerpt obtained by RainCoaster. But halfway through the clip (1:30), the FBI storm “BarrettBrown” and the webcam goes off (but the audio remains). “Ohhhh is Barrett getting raided by the fucking FBI?” asks…

We’re at the 2-year anniversary of my book, “Beyond Viral.” You may be interested to know that, until this morning, I have not read my own book since manuscript. It’s downright painful to read something I can’t still edit, and I was terrified that the information would be antiquated or poorly written. But during my…

YouTube yesterday released an iOS app since Apple is no longer including a default YouTube tool as part of the typical package. Writes the Washington Post: The move was seen as just one more knock on the wedge separating Apple and Google, especially as Apple is also releasing its own version of maps in this…

I’ve gone dark here for a record 2 months… contrast that with my manic periods which included 3 blogs per day. Of course I have two excuses: a) nothing struck me as interesting enough, b) I couldn’t remember how to login to WordPress. Today I was struck by a piece Jim Louderback (Revision3/Discovery) wrote for…

For many years YouTubers have done sponsored videos for brands. I’ve done dozens of brand sponsored videos (see playlist) since my first Mentos-sponsored video in Jan. 2007. I did a bunch via Hitviews (now closed), such as the Fox campaign for Fringe and Glee, and they were seen more than 5 million times (see these videos)….