There are over 100 Million view of YouTube videos monthly. Every media company (look at CnnFn, Fortune, etc.) is now providing video content for viewing online in addition to their text.

A good percentage (undetermined but at about 40%) of this video is user generated. Now these users are passionate, happy people, but the big need is to monetize all this video watching & production. Users who create these videos would LOVE to be paid for their fruits of labor. There are several mechanisms ranging from OLD to NEW.

Old: CNN and MSNBC use the Pre roll (AKA the 15 second spot BEFORE the real content is shown, they play an ad for 15 seconds. Why is this old – It follows the TV 90 second spot model. Its INTERRUPTION based advertising.

Older: 15 second Post roll. I believe Metacafe tried this and it does not work.

Relatively New: Google with its Google Adwords for Video. The placement of ads is on the bottom of the screen a “clickable” area with ads relevant to the tags in the video. You can BTW, close that Ad bar.

Truly New: A host of small companies trying to create Interstilial Ads. Ads that take up either Dead space on the video or Ads that are product placement ads on video that’s been created. These are meant to be “made to seem as if its right in the video.

1. Elucid Media

2. Coull

3. SeamBi

4. AsterPIX

5. Innovid

There are more that I met with (who are in stealth mode). Regardless of number of entries, this space is HOT. I’ll give you a more detailed review after I get a chance to view these offerings in detail.

There have been several reports of the plateau of Facebook and other social network sites. This at a time when there was a writers strike in Hollywood, nothing interesting going on TV, movies generally sucking and the weather and economy not really conducive to doing anything that costs money.

So what are people doing with the time from not watching TV, or spending time on facebook? Here’s my guess:

1. Looking for work or working really hard. Beginning of the new year is a good time for most people to get really busy as do school programs. Many folks I know are doing that extra bit expecting layoffs in most companies they are working at.

2. Games – Virtual worlds not withstanding, I know a lot more people are spending their time with the Wii they got for Christmas.

3. Meeting “real people” and building real networks. Not that facebook is bad, but I know a lot more people are spending their time trying to find more ways to network one-one.

How are you spending your time?     

Remember that trick the Gizmodo kid pulled at CES? Its called TVB Gone. It was a horrible trick but very funny if you were not one of the people that paid for the CES sponsorship.

I wish though someone would invent Cell phone be gone. Lots of rude annoying people in lots of places, can suddenly be silenced with a nifty “cell phone coverage blocker”. Zap the calls into oblivion. Please someone invent this.

The still more ugly side of social networks.

Manheimer said kids get into discussions in the comments sections of
web sites, and engage in everything from vicious threats to what seems
to be innocuous chit-chat.

“The type of profiling they’re
doing of themselves makes them prey to predators and also at odds with
and challenging other gangs,” said Manheimer. “So, we’ll see something
start on the Internet, and actually turn into an assault or a gang
fight that actually results out of Internet profiling.”

In my Facebook news feed today was this. Two of my friends (who BTW have been married for 5 years) were married on Facebook.

This morning’s news that Google’s coming out with local news by zip code created a stir on Techmeme. I thought the Topix blog covered the issue well with a counter point.

Here’s a point that’s worth a thought though. I remember being in the valley trying to raise money in 1997 when Microsoft was invincible. Every startup had to answer the question “but Microsoft can build that”. Now its Google. So – what happened?

The Internet. – Netscape came, and went, but a host of startups including Yahoo and Google rose without having to answer the question “What about Microsoft”? Microsoft became a me-too player on everything related to the Internet.

Now its Google’s turn. Every Web 2.0 and other company is being forced to ask the question “But Google can build that”. Investors (VC’s) are a lot savvier than that now. They know Google’s point of “sheer domination” is the best point when compelling new “groundbreaking shifts happen in the tectonic plates”.

That shift is Mobile. Microsoft’s dominance was killed thanks to the Internet – its an important company no doubt, but not as big a threat as it once was.

Which companies thrived during the gap between Microsoft’s dominance and its irrelevance now? – Those that bet on the Internet.

Same for Mobile – Google does not want to become Microsoft within 2 – 5 years. Which is the main reason for their interest in Mobile. Dont get me wrong – they care about social networks too, but that’s like fighting Microsoft’s “browser” war to the Internet war that Microsoft is still fighting – which is the mobile area.

Its nice when I call something before main stream media picks up on it.

Awesome job by Josh and Jeremiah compiling their twitter social experiment on rating superbowl ads. Worth a full read.

Ever notice that certain cliche’ now make it in imagery also? For example, I am pretty sure that todays 300+ point drop in the Dow will invoke that trader with his hands on the head. There are several sitesfor cliche’s that I came across. Here are my favorite Social Networking cliche’s.

1. Its about the community
2. Make passionate users of your customers
3. Communities are built “one person at a time”
4. The web is the biggest social network
5. Email is the best social network
6. The lines of social networks between business and home are blurring
7. Keep your community always in the know
8. Get inside your community’s head, but go for their hearts
9. Marketing to a community is evil
10. Build a community for the sake of doing good, not profiting from it.

Looking at Yahoo’s numbers and lack of focus yesterday, gives me pause on Google. They are supposed to report tomorrow.

I did 15 searches for the same items on both Google and Yahoo. On 13 of them the same 2 items came on the top. I agree that this is not very scientific but still tells me something:

Google and Yahoo search engines are mostly similar if not the same in terms of results.

If you ask many Search engine optimization experts they will tell you that MOST people click on the top 3 links (non paid ones), that’s why they do heat map analysis.

So, still why do people still use Google as their primary search engine? My guess, feel free to add / challenge:

1. Creatures of habit. When I want to search I just type google.com, Yahoo is out of sight, out of mind.

2. Simpler search interface: No competition here, Google’s simple what are you looking for VS. Yahoo’s NASCAR type front page. Yahoo’s front page distracts me so much I have not been there in 6 months (or more!)

3. Long tail of search words: If you are searching for the top 10,000 words they come up with the same search results, BUT if you are looking for specific stuff, your results on Google are probably more relevant.

4. Integrated into my Mozilla toolbar. Over 50% of the time I use the Ctrl-K keystroke, go directly to the search button on Mozilla.

So why do you think you still use Google?