Full Length Movies on YouTube

Did you know that YouTube is now playing completely unedited full length movies? If you didn’t make it over the hump into digital TV switchover and you’re looking for entertainment, then never fear, YouTube is here! Now you can watch your favorite movies from the comfort of your home for free.

In the quest to remain as the top video website, YouTube (owned by Google) has decided to add full length movies to their bailiwick. If you are a typical YouTube user, you are only allowed as a maximum length to upload videos ten minutes in length. But as owners of the site, they’ve decided to give you more to watch. How about over two hours at a time? There are a variety of movies from comedy to horror to see. You can choose from Night of the Living Dead, Super Size Me, La Bamba, American Virgin and Jonah: A Veggie Tales Movie. Yes, there are commercials through out the movie, but they are at a minimum.

Parents: If you are concerned that your child can now be exposed to rated “R” or “PG-13″ movies, YouTube requires registration to view these movies. Thus an email address will be required for viewing.

http://www.youtube.com/movies

Bring on Web 3.0, What’s Next?

President Obama is revamping technology, so we should also plan to rebuild the information superhighway. We need a system that is measured in gigabtyles, not megabytes. The Great Depression jump started the roads in 1930s, this economic struggle could reignite information superhighway in the 2010s.  If a massive amount of investment is put into the web, then this current stage of the Web era will jump into version 3.0.

What will Web 3.0 represent?

• Increased Speed – The average page will load in fractions of a second.
• The End of Net Neutrality – You will have limited websites based on your ISP. Certain Internet Source Providers will make deals with specific websites to only appear on their network. Think TV networks, but you’ll pay for access to certain websites.
• State Sales Tax on All Items Sold – Right now you only pay if you buy in your state, but what’s stopping the government to enforce tax on everything you buy on the web?
• Too Much User Based Information – Users need help from the experts again because their is now too much content. What information can I trust on Wikipedia?
• Need of Secondary Validation – User ratings Not need 2nd Tier of Security. There are 100 ratings on TripAdvisor and 2 are bad reviews, how do I know the validity of those bad reviews?
• Increased Mobile Use – Phones will be used as central computers and surpass laptop use.
• Increased Geotracking – Why are you now?  You’ll be able to see at all times where everyone you know is physically located.

What do you think the future of the web will hold?

Mashup For You, Mashup For Me

What is a mashup? I define a mashup as combining unique items together to achieve something dramatically different that is overly unique. This act of synthesis is currently driving the innovation of today’s technology. Think about when chocolate met peanut butter to create Reese’s cup.

Google maps combined old MapQuest technology with Ajax to create innovative maps. Microsoft took the versatility of Flash and combined it with .net to create SliverLight. Thur-You layers single YouTube clips over each other to form new music tracks.

George Nemeth twittered Thru-You, a mash-up by Kutiman, that is so unique it will make your head spin. This artist took the time to listen to individual video clips of musicians, find similarities and then combine the clips to make new music. I can’t stop listening.

http://thru-you.com

More posts from Leading Hands about mash-ups are coming.

Yahoo Tries to Buzz It Up!

Yahoo has launched what seems to be their own version of Twitter called Buzz. They ask the question, “What’s Buzzing You?” and you have up 100 characters for the story headline and up to 300 for story summary. Yahoo wants to you to share your story by creating longer article type posts. They also pull in top AP news stories into the mix, thus it’s your stories and their stories.

Yahoo describes it as, “The Web’s most remarkable stories, determined by people like you. Stories are ranked based on your votes, comments, emails, and searches.” The concept behind Yahoo Buzz is worthy, however it seems contrary to any other social networking tool. The part where you interact actually seems more like a full out blog, than the short-natured conversational tool like Twitter. Do you think it will survive as the next Twitter? Did Yahoo hit the scene too late?

What do you think of Yahoo Buzz?
http://buzz.yahoo.com/

10 Signs You’re Addicted to Facebook

Ten signs you are becoming addicted to Twitter, Facebook, etc…

1. You prefer to reply to Facebook instead of taking out trash
2. You check it when you wake up
3. You use your mobile app to update status
4. You contemplated giving it up for Lent
5. You can’t decide if you like Facebook or Twitter better so you respond to all separately
6. You think email is outdated form of communication
7. You can’t remember last time you called someone
8. You check it in middle of night
9. You monitor flux of messages all day while at work
10. You have more than one screen name for the same service

Suggestion: Get FriendFeed to get daily archives of Twitter, Facebook, etc… to get your life back.

Do you agree with these points?

Web 2.0 Goes Primetime

This week I was under the weather, so I had the opportunity to flip through the channels and I was surprised to see various shows capitalizing on Web 2.0 features. TV always seems to mirror qualities from real life; now the Web is having an impact on the shows we watch. I just read a statistic in OMMA magazine that more Internet users with the average age of 35 are watching shows on the web than on traditional TV.

Trivial Pursuit
Home viewers read trivia questions ala YouTube style to the contestants. You can upload your own question for a chance win some money. Then the two contestants battle against a mob of users logged on webcams or pseudo webcams. They call it the contestants versus America. Peter Brady aka Christopher Knight hosts it daily, check your local listings.
http://www.tpamericaplays.com/

New MTV Afternoons
New afternoons on MTV features three shows, Sex… with Mom and Dad, Room Raiders 2.0 and Parental Control. During the introduction of each show, the host stands between two monitors and emcees the conversation. A teen viewer is on one webcam with a question for a featured member of a reality show consistent from the last episode that is on the other webcam.
http://www.mtv.com/ontv/new_afternoons/

iCarly
Finally I saw that there is a new show called iCarly starring Miranda Cosgrove that appears on Nick. The show is about a girl that starts her own online web show that counts down the top YouTube videos. Basically a TV show about an online TV show, which to me is truly Web 2.0.
http://www.nick.com/icarly/

How are you adapting your business in the world of web 2.0? TV is finally catching on and making it work, how can you do it?

Mogulus – Live Streaming TV in Beta

I was watching the morning crew on WKYC today and they encouraged the viewing audience to chat with them online. I logged on to the Channel 3 website, but I was more impressed with the opportunity to watch them live on the web through Mogulus.

Mogulus is watching live broadcast TV online. The website is in “beta”, but I was truly surprised that it’s teeming with a multitude of channels from around the world. After checking out WKYC for a second, I watched the Italian version of Big Brother, a U2 music channel and a Green Day concert. I also stumbled upon a swim meet from Iowa. I was also surprised you could also setup your own Mogulus channel and start webcasting live today.

WATCH

• Live, 24/7 On-Demand Video
• Many Pre-recorded shows too
• Multiple Channels of Music, Sports, News and More
• Chat with others watching the show

BROADCAST

• Live in a single player
• 100,000+ live viewers can watch at once
• Embed on your website aka WKYC
• Multiple camera shots

Get lost on all the “Live” broadcasts on Mogulus.
http://www.mogulus.com/

Monitor Websites with “Page 2 RSS”

Do you use RSS (really simple syndication) feeds ? If you aren’t already using RSS, you should check it out because it saves time. RSS is essentially a quick way to get updates from websites without visiting them. Every time the site is updated you know. However the key is you need to sign-up for a website’s RSS feed and download a free RSS reader. To sign-up for RSS, look for the orange icon that looks live a sound wave. I recently got back on the RSS wagon and downloaded the Google Reader.

What do you do if the website doesn’t have an RSS feed? Now with Page 2 RSS, it monitors web sites that do not publish RSS feeds. It will check any web page for updates and deliver them to your favorite RSS aggregator.

Are you an RSS junkie? Can anyone offer any words of advice to any first time RSS people?
http://page2rss.com/

Discover & Publish Docs with Scribd!

Do you need to post a bunch of PDFs to your website? However once you upload them to you website, your users are annoyed that they pop-up in another browser? Easily publish and share your documents with the world with Scribd.

Scribd uses iPaper which turns your PDF into a virtual flip book. Now you don’t have to wait for the document to load into another window because it loads in the same window. Flip through the pages like you would with your favorite book. Right now you can surf their website and explore many topics.

Scridb is striving for collective intelligence; they want to use their technology to make collections of your documents, ebooks, and presentations easily searchable. There are many topics currently available for you to browse.

Scribd Topics include:
* Cheat Sheets
* Cooking and Recipes
* Databases
* eBooks
* Economics
* Funny Stuff
* Magazines
* Maps
* Origami
* Photography
* Physics
* Programming
* Religion
* Sheet Music
* Sports
* Textbooks
* Travel and Tourism

Do you like this technology? What don’t you like about it?

Discover and Publish Docs with Scribd!
http://www.scribd.com/

The Hills + Web 2.0 Social Media?

Speak over TV with Back Channel
Back in the 90s, “Pop Up Video” was so innovative because as the music video played little tidbits about it would appear in chat bubbles. For example, in the Tiffany video “I Think We’re Alone Now” a chat bubble would appear that would say, “Tiffany wore the same denim jacket again in her next video (All This Time)”. Now MTV’s most popular show “The Hills” has launched “The Back Channel” to give watchers of the show the ability to talk about it as it happens.

MTV promotes “Back Channel” as “Playing online while you watch The Hills.” You type your thoughts on the website as you watch the show and you are awarded points. You can gain points when other players vote for your comments. If MTV identifies you as the most popular or the funniest player, the network will then post your comments on the screen as the show happens. “Back Channel” is like pop-up video on steroids because now the comments are user driven.

Do you think this a good use of Web 2.0 and social media?
http://backchannel.mtv.com/