Oh man. Screw your HTML 5, Semantic Web and your little blog too! THIS is why 'THE INTERNET' was inventored. To bring us vicious, territorial fights ending in complete domination by one side or the other. Which one will win? WIll blood be drawn? Will children run from the room screaming as their parents faint dead away from the shock of it all? Nah. It's just a puppy fighting a robot... but holy crap is it awesome.
We've watched it about fifteen times already and we're still ignoring that car alarm going off in the parking lot outside out offices and the annoying stabs of hunger shooting through our guts. We just gotta watch it ONE more time.
Ahhhhh... that's the good stuff. Bet you don't see THAT on Metacafe. We love the slums of YouTube. We feel so at home there. *sigh*
That's where we stopped reading because everything else is meaningless after that doozy. There's your journalistic integrity and commitment to professionalism folks. Just ask SOMEBODY about what they heard. From that point on you're golden. Shoot your mouth off endlessly and without bothering to dig into the source of your story. Third hand information is good enough.
We finally got our invite to Hulu today and any lingering doubts we had about the awesomeness of their delivery, architecture and overall business model were quickly dispatched after wonking about with their controls. There are several specific features that made us raise an eyebrow and vow to continue brushing up on our RoR knowledge, including a 'dim the lights' feature which grays out all the busyness surrounding your currently streaming vid - and the smooth transitions between popping out, full screening then going back to the original embedded version, with nary a hiccup or restart. *knocks back a shot of single malt Glenlivet* Smooooooth man... smoooth. Not to mention they have quite a solid lineup of content, including NBC, Fox, Bravo, G4, Sundance, plus lots more.
The most fun we've had so far was watching Conan's recent opening monologue/on-air faux battle with Messr. Colbert over who actually MADE Mike Huckabee. Was it Norris? Was it Colbert? Or did Conan actually make ALL of them? We think you know the answer.
That was followed closely by the fun of picking our own clip, then auto generating the embed code. YES it was fun. We swear. Lookit.
Not only is the embed process seriously intuitive and easy to grasp, even for non-technophilez.. it just works. The delivered stream looks top notch, the supporting ad is non-annoying and lasts exactly as long as it should, namely a few seconds.
Who knows where Hulu will end up in the totem pole of 2.0 but they are strong out of the gate and we'll be watching them, and their content closely. First we're gonna go eat someone else's lunch from the company fridge though. Anybody need anything while we're up?
We keep trying to hate J.J. Abrams and we keep failing miserably. Anybody who floats along so steadfastly through the flotsam & jetsam of network television and big budget film marketing automatically inspires both awe and ire in us. We can't help but respect someone who breaks through the celluloid ceiling with such aplomb. But still... why haven't Fox Searchlight or Screen Gems optioned our screenplays for 'Repo Man II: Otto Gets Blotto' or 'Escape From Waukegan: Snake On A Lake'?? Huh? When does Gil get a lick? *is bitter*
Regardless, one of the things that Abrams' seems to have a thankfully iron grip on is the viral marketing for his projects, and again... in a sea of mediocrity his team always manages to at LEAST get their chins above the water.
Just the simple yet important details like what URL to register can signal to potential participants in a viral campaign whether they should or shouldn't bother. Being able to secure the domain ncc-1701.com for the upcoming Star Trek film is a minor stroke of near genius. It's instantly recognizable by the existing fan base, yet retains an air of mystery for even those who aren't mad Trek dorks.
Additionally, the site itself functions intuitively but doesn't make things TOO easy to figure out right away. To start off, try adjusting all the sliders to 100%. Even the flash UI is fun to fiddle around with, so you never feel like you're not 'getting' something or missing a trick.
The balance between achieving some sort of real retention of your marketing message and not beating people over the head with 'It's a viralz dude!! Pass it on!!" is a delicate one. Even though we're really not fans of the Star Trek properties, this should be a fun one to watch.
ZOMGPWN! are unabashed fans of everything Blinkx does so we thought we'd cover what they've been up to lately. We'd love to see them hooking up with some partners who have fatter pockets... and pipes. (Get your mind out of the gutter, pervy!)
But now that the WGA and broadcast TV are sticking to each other's wickets, original online video content should theoretically get a bump in quantity and quality. Then again that's what they said about, that.. um... other thing that they said that about. Remember? You totally do, dude.
Anyway, the list of new partners we just read about is pretty exciting because it means that there's plenty of life left in the Blinkxters. WE LOVE that Blinkx pimps the Indies and shares out revenue properly.
It's about damn time someone liquored up a few hot chicks and took a Tazer to their delicate extremeties. Such a simple concept, and yet it works so magically. Behold another entry (and likely finalist) in the continuing saga of Tazerfest `06.
Somehow we missed this montage of Mitch Hedberg on YT via Neozaz. It's eleven and a half minutes of classic and early Mitch, with most of his best lines included. The early stuff, pre-sunglasses and even pre 'wall-of-bangs' is interesting, mostly because it illustrates how some of these jokes evolved over time.
If you don't know who Mitch Hedberg is or know what the fack I'm talking about then please click.
First things first - let's give the fools at MotleyFool credit for the best headline so far. We thought of it second, swears. 'Can YouTube Me Now?' *slaps knee* Nice one Motleys!
While it's not the first team-up in the new economy space, tis certainly the largest so far. It makes us wonder who is getting the money for every YT Vcast stream on your phone. Some of YT's biggest stars are already gravitating towards revenue sharing models like Revver, so how will they feel when their clips are being consumed en masse, sans watermark and they aren't getting a cut? Maybe Mark Cuban had a point after all.
Oh man. Screw your HTML 5, Semantic Web and your little blog too! THIS is why 'THE INTERNET' was inventored. To bring us vicious, territorial fights ending in complete domination by one side or the other. Which one will win? WIll blood be drawn? Will children run from the room screaming as their parents faint dead away from the shock of it all? Nah. It's just a puppy fighting a robot... but holy crap is it awesome.
