Google has teamed with SpotMixer to give small businesses the ability to create their own videos and traffic them on Google’s Adwords network, both online and on TV (Google has a few television partners).
SpotMixer allows small businesses to upload their own video, combine it with file video, add graphics and edit it into a commercial spot or longer-form advertorial video.
Google’s ultimate play here is giving its advertisers the ability to target its video ads on TV by zip code as well as audience. See this video about creating your own free TV commercial. Another interesting clip about how to create a TV campaign with Google is here: video 2.
This is also a good opportunity for video production professionals and scriptwriters. Google allows these specialists to fill it out an application to be considered part of its network.
Cell-phone and software companies are getting into the app act
The new competition in cell phones revolves around programs that run on the devices. As the New York Times was saying recently “the new status symbol is what your phone can do –count calories, teach Spanish, simulate a flute…” In a sense, applications have become a form of social currency, as users compete to find the latest quirk, show off to friends.
The king here is the iPhone, which leads the transformation, in a fierce competition with Blackberry, Palm devices, Google/Android and Microsoft/Windows Mobile.
Since July, Apple has posted more than 10,000 programs to its App Store; 9 out of every 10 iPhone users have downloaded applications –more than 300 million over all, including here software updates and repeats downloads. Some applications are free, while others typically cost $1 to $10. A user can download software to the phone in seconds, in a very easy-to-do and friendly way.
The concept of add-on applications has been for a decade, with hand-held devices like Palm being pioneers. However, with Apple’s introduction of the App Store, in July, the concept attained mass-market.
Google has about 300 applications available. Among the most popular is Shop-Savvy, in which users scan the bar code of any product using the camera built into the G1 smart-phone from T-Mobile. This free application searches for the best price online and delivers the information to the phone.
In terms of earnings, Google says it earns nothing from the applications. Any revenue is split between developers, who earn 70 percent, and, in the case of the G1, with the carrier T-Mobile. In the meantime, Apple takes 30 percent of all revenue from the store, and gets help selling more iPhones.
Boxee allows people to watch Internet video on their TV set.
Boxee.tv, a New York City 11 employees-start up, is generating significant buzz online, since many early adopters (as many as 200,000) are using its technology to get rid of that costly $100-a-month cable or satellite connection.
At boxee.tv users can download its open source software, and play Internet videos –Hulu, Netflix and many other sources- on their living room big-screen televisions. It works so far with Mac and Linux, and Apple TV.
Boxee offers a well-organized directory, which can be navigated using the remote controls that now ship with most computers.
Its business model is based on licensing its software to consumer electronics companies like TV manufacturers. However, now Boxee is concentrated on building up its user base. He got $4 million from two East Coast venture capital firms.
Apple doesn’t like very much the idea of Boxee being installed on Apple TV set-top-boxes, and he could take steps to prevent it. Apple wants users get their content from iTunes.
MSNBC new player makes videos easier to search passages
Msnbc.com has launched an innovative video player with transcripts. You click a word or a tag inside a transcript, and you jump instantly to that location in the video. Also, you highlight a sentence or two, and it spits out a little code, letting you embed that exact clip on your blog.
This is particularly useful for some news, because it makes easier to find specific passages of videos. For example, web users looking for a particular clip of Barack Obama’s inauguration address won’t have to review the entire speech to find it.
CNN uses Microsoft’s Photosynth technology
CNN is partnering with Microsoft and using their Photosynth technology to create a 3-D version of they are calling “The Moment”.
Users are asked to take a photo at noon when Obama takes the office. CNN will then stitch the photos together using the Photosynth technology to create the 3-D creation.
