Selling real estate with web video. Real estate agents and brokers are teaming up with video producers on WellcomeMat.com to demonstrate the most dynamic means for showcasing a property online. Whereas slideshows and photos are limited in their ability to capture the emotions of buyers and renters, web video enables viewers to get a much more comprehensive and inviting peek into a potential home. WellcomeMat.com highlights the top five new videos of the week to support the many agents, brokers and video producers helping to re-define the real estate buying and selling experience.

If this shopping channel marketing speak doesn’t turn your stomach.. then we’re just not trying hard enough.. who writes this crap anyway?

Strap Yourself In Real Tight Because Our Proprietary New Software Is Going To Catapult You Directly Into The Magical And Amazingly Profitable World Of Internet Video!!

But wait! There’s more.. if you buy now..

STOP.. you’re huuurrrrting me.. +_+

The Alley Insider is asking if you have ever heard of MeeVee? This coming on the heels of a recent company statement:

Due to accelerated development of the online entertainment market, the Board of Directors at MeeVee has determined that combining with an established player will maximize the potential for the community, technology and content relationships the Company has built. Accordingly, MeeVee is engaged in multiple discussions with potential acquirers that provide the greatest long term upside and synergy. Interested parties should contact Steve Hughey (shughey@meevee.com) for more information.

Apparently, MeeVee has content deals with CBS and Viacom, and mixes a guide to offline TV with Web video. It’s been around since 2000, and its raised $24 mllion since then, but the press release says they’re down to seven full-time employees “all in product and engineering.”

Brightcove has announced support for the AdSense for video beta program, Google’s contextual advertising technology for online video. Brightcove’s support of the AdSense for video beta program hope to unlock a powerful economic proposition for the Web’s top media publishers. Serving ads based on both the content of an Internet video and the context of a web page, AdSense for video beta gives media publishers the additional ability to target tailored in-stream overlay ads from Google’s large base of advertisers. Publishers and content providers can control which videos get which ads and when the ads play in each video.

Like many popular video websites, TVtrip.com uses Flash technology to integrate video clips of the hotels into its web pages from XML feeds. This accounts for the TVtrip Player’s speed, interactivity, functionality and usability. The player also allows for the integration of useful features like the on-screen Hotel Information, Check Rates and Reviews, which can be clicked at anytime, while hotel videos are being viewed. They may be right.

As reported on eFlux Media:

Applying the well-known saying: buy or you’ll be bought, Yahoo Inc. got back to business Tuesday after rejecting on Monday, Microsoft’s $44.6-billion takeover bid and announced it had purchased a broadband video start-up, Maven Networks Inc., for $160 million. Six-year-old Maven Networks, in Cambridge, Mass. include customers as CBS Sports, Sony BMG and TV Guide and is specialized in helping Web sites show online video and insert advertisements in those clips. This will expand Yahoo’s existing relationships with web publishers. In fact, Calif.-based Yahoo is not at its first acquisition of this kind. It is already known that Yahoo also bought firms like BlueLithium and Right Media Inc., also online advertising networks.

Whew.. that was a nice — quick — ride!

LX’s slick LX.tv channel was founded in 2006 by former MTV executives Morgan Hertzan and Joseph Varet, originally known as Code.tv, and features high-quality production with professional anchors.. many of whom are MTV Networks veterans. Geared toward young professionals with a taste for luxury and a good dose of social energy, financial terms were not disclosed.

Webcastr.com has announced the winners of it’s Top 10 Videos of the Year awards. Webcastr’s viewers, along with it’s editors voted amongst over 2,500 professionally produced videos on the website to pick the best video clips of the year for 2007. Thirty finalists were chosen by the staff of the webbery with the final clips being voted Top 10:

– Heidi Loves Her Bazooms
– D*ck In A Box
– Led Zeppelin Reunion Concert in the UK
– Acting for the Greenscreen
– Bob Dylan Cadillac Commercial
– Britney Spears VMA Parody
– Don’t Taze Me, Bro
– Snoop Dogg in the UK
– The Chemical Bros. “Salmon Dance”
– Bush vs. Miss North Carolina

Plus an Honorable Mention going to:
– SUV Driving Through a Shopping Mall

According to the blurb, Webcastr features clips that come from licensed sources of professional and semi-pro content. “With so much of the user generated content out there being of questionable quality, we are happy to present these awards in recognition of the efforts of pro content creators who increasingly understand the value of the short form online video medium,” said Webcastr CEO, Tim Devine.

Gotta wonder.. what’s a “Webbery”.. something like a Shrubbery perhaps?

Should you buy one of Logitech’s new whiz-bang QuickCam Pro webcams? No, you should buy two. That’s not just because they’re far and away the best webcam we’ve ever used.

The reason to double-dip is that to take advantage of their superb “high quality video” mode you’ll need HQV-compatible webcams at both ends of the videochat. And only Logitech’s QuickCam Sphere AF and Pro 9000 desktop webcams, and the QuickCam Pro for notebooks, fit that bill. You’ll also need the latest Skype 3.6 for Windows (Mac owners need not apply), because HQV is purely a Logitech-Skype concoction. And a PC running an Intel Core 2 chip to handle the heavy video processing load. Plus a broadband line with at least a 384Kbps uplink speed.

HQV lets internet video calls scale up to a smooth 30 frames a second if the bandwidth is there at both ends, with a double-sized video window up to 640×480 pixels on the screen. You can immediately see far richer detail and truer colours and there’s minimal blurring during normal movement such as waving a hand.

Smells like a tech. reporter who got a couple of early xmas gifts?

UNESCO New Delhi will introduce an innovative web video encyclopedia site of India. Announcing the agreement, Minja Yang, Director of the UNESCO New Delhi Office, explained that one of the key mandates is to safeguard and promote the wealth of the world’s cultural diversity. “India is a vast country with an extraordinarily ancient and diverse cultural heritage. The unique objective behind this project is to develop an atlas of India that covers not just its geographical features but its cultural ones too.”

VideoFaces can be used for marketing, recruitment, corporate training, demonstrations and testimonials and the person talking can be one of their many professional actors or a representative of a company who wants a more personalized message. An ideal product for real estate agents, car dealerships, life coaches and any other business that sells by its people.

The companies suite of internet video products uses HD Quality video, full motion graphics, and crisp audio integrated with flash design technology. Its most popular offering is called the borderless Virtual Spokesperson, but they can also integrate the Virtual Spokesperson into Video Headers, Video Presentations and Video Banners.

The Ziff Davis Enterprise Web Buyer’s Guide announced it has launched a new Video Syndication Program designed to help technology marketers take advantage of the emergence of new media by syndicating and generating leads from their valuable promotional videos on the premier Ziff Davis Enterprise network of Web sites.

Developed and powered by the Web Buyer’s Guide, the Video Syndication Program helps technology marketers generate high-quality enterprise IT sales leads by hosting up to 3 of their valuable promotional and educational videos on the WebBuyersGuide.com and then strategically syndicating them across the award-winning Ziff Davis Enterprise network of Web sites including eWEEK.com, Baselinemag.com and CIOInsight.com. Video downloads are then generated via strategic and aggressive promotion across Ziff Davis Enterprise eNewsletters and Web sites, with qualified lead and video performance data being delivered to the client on a weekly basis.

Hotswap.com, a little-known internet video company, stole a little of the digital spotlight last week when Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak and Red McCombs, who co-founded Clear Channel Communications, said they would provide the firm with venture capital.

According to Wozniak, Hotswap’s solution to bring internet video into the 21st century is likely to yield results. “I like what they’re doing,” said Wozniak. “It’s definitely a step forward.”

btw: Hotswap lets people upload video of their stolen fancy wheels for sale!

via: iMedia Connection

Microsoft is getting renewed attention this week for LiveStation, an Internet video site co-developed by its research arm and Skinkers, a British start-up. LiveStation uses peer-to-peer technology to allow live video to be more effectively broadcast over the Internet. In this video, Skinkers CEO Matteo Berlucchi says that the company wants to do several months of more beta testing to see how the application performs and scales, with a goal of a broader 1.0 release by October.

However, in a response to an Ars Technica post, the LiveStation team says it is not aiming to compete with Joost, but is instead focused on using peer-to-peer networks to deliver live television.

via: WebWare

The Pixelodeon event will feature keynote addresses from speakers bridging the divide between traditional media and new media, and those dealing with issues such as copyright and file sharing. Two dozen curators, including notable new media content creators Amanda Congdon of ABC News, Veronica Belmont of C|Net, and Bre Pettis of Make Magazine, selected videos from the Internet to illustrate themes for one-hour theater screenings starting at 12PM until 6PM each day.

“The current media landscape is changing so fast that these up-and-coming creators have a chance to help define its new foundations,” said Ryanne Hodson, co-founder of Pixelodeon, as she announced speakers, curators, and a line-up of over 300 videos for Pixelodeon’s first annual Web video screening festival to be held at the American Film Institute in Los Angeles, California on June 9-10.

L.A. We Love It..

via: Social Computing Magazine

The Washington Post announced a relationship with video blog PrezVid.com, the latest production from blogger and media critic Jeff Jarvis and partner Peter Hauck, to provide the site’s “Politics” section.

Jarvis praised the daily (oh dear) for inventing a new relationship with an independent news blog; “This is an important experiment, showing how a news organization can expand by building a broader network of coverage through independent blogs.”

Slick Flash-driven front end.. the full program list is Here

“VeryFunnyAds.com is a website about–you guessed it–very funny ads. The TV commercials on this site are some of the funniest from around the world. We’ve got Super Bowl classics, the Daytona 500′s funniest ads, hilarious foreign finds–even a few that were too sexy to be aired in the United States. We’re adding funny commercials all the time, so keep coming back.”

Seems more like a typical corporate stunt from the folks over at Turner..

With over 18months left to go.. no doubt things are gonna get ‘nasty’

The creator of a widely circulated Web video portraying Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Clinton as an Orwellian Big Brother was identified Wednesday as an employee of an Internet consulting firm that works for one of her opponents, Sen. Barack Obama.

Phillip de Vellis, a strategist with the Washington-based consulting firm Blue State Digital, which hosts the Obama campaign Web site, acknowledged he was the creator of the ad shortly after his role was disclosed by HuffingtonPost.com, a liberal-leaning news and opinion Web site.

“I did it. And I’m proud of it,” de Vellis said in a response posted on the Huffington site Wednesday night.

Via: Chicago Tribune

Prizm, a Kansas City-based online video company, added the video elements to the site. “This compassionate video provides a solution to a very sensitive matter that has been prevalent among consumers for decades,” Loos added. “Now, families can explore their options in the privacy of their own home without the pressure of a funeral consultant.”

Considering our post last week about BabyTV this one seemed a logical follow-up to cover the streaming niche span from cradle-to-grave..

TheNewsRoom is the hub of Voxant’s viral syndication network. Voxant is dedicated to creating an open, global syndication network for rich media news content on the Internet. For news organizations, Voxant’s network opens new markets around the world, getting their content found, played, and paid for on the Web. For advertisers, the network creates new inventory and a targeted way to reach consumers throughout the “long tail” of the web. Website publishers benefit from having access to thousands of free, fully licensed news stories that can be published on their site, as well as earning money through sharing advertising revenue. If you are a website publisher who wants to earn money by embedding quality news on your site, simply join TheNewsRoom and start mashing.

Using its nearly ubiquitous AdSense network, Google is going to start delivering video ads from The Wall Street Journal, Life/Style Television and others to a small group of sites that choose to test the new program. Like their standard text ads, the video ones will be determined contextually. Of course, we can expect this relatively small-scale “experiment” to expand dramatically over the next year.

Via: Gizmodo

Maxim Magazine have released this video of their photo shoot with Lucy Pinder. Besides showing off her awesome body in the video, Lucy gave some insight on her favorite feature. “My favorite part of my body would probably have to be my boobs because they keep me working”.

Via: Kineda.com

iStockVideo has an interesting proposition if you are a pro or semi–pro shooter with some decent video content that might work well as stock footage. Built on iStockPhoto, this new site just launched in September and functions as a clearing house for those who make — and for those who need — great looking video. Credits are sold at $1 each and video clips run from 5 – 50 credits per download. A quick look through the latest upload section (nice mouse-over Ajax widget function) doesn’t seem to show that anything there has actually sold yet…

YouTube has created a new advertising concept called participatory video ads. Each day at YouTube’s home page, one video ad will be featured. It will rise and fall based on its own entertainment merits, judged by users. The participatory video ad, which visitors must click on to view, is one way the company is demonstrating how it plans to do Internet advertising differently.

To understand the power of the new medium, Kingdon points to this sample Sony commercial for its new TV, which has had more than 3 million viewers.

“How much money do you think advertisers would pay to get 3 million people to see and comment on your advertising?” said Kingdon, who declined to say how much. “Where else can advertisers get that immediate feedback? This starts to leverage the full potential of what is very new on the Web, which is a video community site.”

Paris Hilton has also launched a participatory video commercial advertising her debut album. People who click on it will be lead to her own channel which she will update with new videos and added features such as interviews and scenes behind making videos.. hmmm. They can subscribe to her channel and find out videos that she likes.. Hmmm!
Via: Mercury News

BusinessPlanPosting.com recently unveiled their new digital video elevator pitch service which offers entrepreneurs a new approach to introducing their business ideas to investors over the internet. As part of the American Venture Network, the service allows SME’s seeking venture capital to upload and store, free for the first 30 days, a two minute digital video file to accompany their business plan.

Via: DV Guru

A certain dot com agency went (way) out on a limb and is taking a beating for what might prove to be one of the most lame, and comment thrashed, attempts at creating a ‘viral’ web video to-date. The real proof of any concept is in the pudding and this one def. did not deliver. So, now they are getting rightly slammed for an obvious effort to appear hip and cool (Warning; it’s like watching a traffic accident in slow motion). There are plenty of people flaming about it so we won’t pile-on anymore than that. It was actually this unsolicited response which ‘does work’ that prompted us to post the drama via Madison Ave.

What will be interesting to see in the coming weeks is the defamation law-suit from Subway.. unless they actually approved that file – with their brand front and center – to be uploaded and ridiculed in such a manner.

Yahoo, in contrast, has focused on its own video content, while AOL carries content from Time Warner’s Warner Bros. and cable channels Nickelodeon and the History Channel. The popularity of YouTube, which doesn’t insert ads into video uploaded to its site but soon plans to, has forced its competitors to carry user-uploaded video on their sites as well.

Via: Seeking Alpha

The folks over at Texterity.com have been doing some good work migrating mainstream media publishers content into web ready e-zines. We just noticed they put together a Great Example for Sports Illustrated 2006 Swimsuit issue which includes several of their famous (and popular!) behind the scenes video clips. Tough job searching for cool video #_#

According to the site; Published Web Format (PWF) provides a flexible approach to presenting information using standard HTML and Javascript, with underlying SVG and XML data structures.

The future of rich-media digital publishing would seem up for grabs and we are looking forward to see what the Adobe absorbed Macromedia divison will finally roll-out someday soon.

About.com is making a bigger commitment to original video content and is offering new video ad formats through its new video player, developed by online video firm Brightcove. As video ad inventory demand increases, the new player gives About.com the ability to produce its own video content as well as to offer advertisers video ads with interactive components.

The new player will allow About.com to “significantly increase” the number of advice and how-to videos produced by its expert guides, according to About.com president and CEO Scott Meyer. Noting the system’s robust publishing platform, Meyer added, “‘This technology needs to scale to 500 or more guides all over the world.”

The publisher aims to produce at least 500 original video clips by the end of the year, featuring its current guides as well as “experts” with more television experience. About.com currently offers 56 of its own video clips and partners with Web video distribution company GoFish to provide thousands more videos. Video on the site is offered in the Style, Home and Garden, Gadgets and Health channels.

Via: Clickz

Internet video content has fragmented into three tiers that are defined by production value. User-generated content presents both the greatest challenge and the biggest opportunity for advertising and promotion executives.

Background
In 2004 Mitsubishi produced an ad called See What Happens. It turned into a remarkable success. “They cut off the end of the commercial so that the only way you could see it was to go onto their website,” remembers Ari Bluman, the CEO of 24/7 Real Media, an ad services network that brings video content and ads together.

Mitsubishi was targeting the sophisticated video consumers who took the time to research their auto purchases before buying. “They drove the users to one of the two places where they could do that research–the dealership or the web–to see what happens,” Bluman continues. “It was a phenomenal success and the sales followed.”

Get the free whitepaper at Media Think

“We continuously seek out new technologies and marketing opportunities that let us engage with our customers” said Laurie Blum, senior media strategy manager at Best Buy Enterprise. “VOD is the ultimate environment to reach people that are highlyengaged, and we’re looking forward to extending our partnership with CNET as a charter sponsor.”

Via: Smartbrief.com

Joga.com is an online community created by Google and Nike for anyone anywhere in the world who shares a love for soccer, the world’s most popular sport. Joga is about getting to know your fellow fans; creating games and clubs; accessing athletes from Nike; and enjoying video clips and photos (you can even upload your own). You can strengthen existing friendships and begin new ones, join a wide variety of professional athletes and soccer communities, and even create your own to discuss soccer, exchange tips on the coolest moves, browse through various pitches worldwide, and plan your next game.

Joga is about “Joga Bonito” — Portuguese for “play beautiful.”

Advertising.com announced a new video ad network it says will supply about 61 million impressions per month to reach-starved media buyers. “It’s a combination of really large portal-like sites and some smaller sites with great content,” said Mollie Spilman, Advertising.com’s chief marketing officer. “What we’re finding with advertisers is they really want the content. In most cases we’re buying as much as we can get. There’s so much demand and there’s a lot of publishers adding this kind of content.”

Advertising.com is only the second high-profile in-stream video ad network to emerge. The first, called Instream, was beta launched by online video enabler Lightningcast last year and has over 50 participating publishers.

Via: Clickz

Discovery Communications is teaming up with Google to offer online video clips of historic sites and popular landmarks. Silver Spring-based Discovery has been working to expand distribution of its content beyond television. The Internet video links will be integrated into the Google Earth mapping software. Initially Discovery will provide clips of ten U.S. national parks, including Yellowstone and Mount Rushmore.

Internet users who click on the Discovery links will be directed to a Discovery Web site with advertising. Discovery senior vice president Donald Baer says it will be a big money maker. Under the deal, Discovery will get to keep all ad revenue.

Via: ABC News

Sports events have been shown on the Net in the past, by CBS, ESPN, and others. But the audiences have been limited, since they typically cost viewers money or are niche events. Since the Webcast will be paid for with advertising, it could draw the biggest online viewership ever. The NCAA Basketball Tournament could also showcase how the Internet can provide a better experience than television, in some ways. While TV viewers have to watch whatever game the local CBS affiliate shows, Net viewers get more control and choice. They can follow their favorite team wherever it plays or switch between games when the action flags. They can even pop open three windows and watch a trio of games at once.

Since first-round games go on through the workday on Mar. 16-17, its software is designed to let people view games while keeping bosses from knowing who’s goofing off. Click on the video player’s “boss button” and a spreadsheet pops on-screen. “Not that I recommend watching during work hours, but I understand that people do,” deadpans Sean McManus, president of CBS News & Sports.

Via: Zatz Not Funny

When users click on a Revverized ad, the advertiser pays for that click. All advertiser income is split 50/50. If there’s an affiliate involved, they get 20% off the top, and the rest is split 50/50. It’s that simple, no hidden charges, and total transparency. You’ll never wonder how well your video is performing, you can monitor it in real time.

NBC is significantly expanding its Olympics video offerings for the internet and mobile phones, a sure sign of its increased comfort with technologies that erect geographic boundaries online, however the video access will be limited to internet users in the United States.

The network’s official Olympics site, NBCOlympics.com, will show for free, on a delayed basis, the complete runs and routines for the top finishers and for all U.S. participants in almost every event. None of the video will be live; in most cases it won’t be available online or on phones until the end of NBC’s broadcast day, generally 11:30 p.m. ET. By contrast, the BBC is simulcasting five television feeds, though only to U.K. residents.

We count at least 5 major ad. brands on the home page including AT&T, Coke, Sun Microsystems, Samsung and Intel. It would be very interesting to see the cost / benefit data once this project is finished. Via: Wired

UPDATE: NBCOlympics.com Sets Record, Makes Money

In the past, NBC worried that putting Olympics video online would eat into TV ratings. Those worries are starting to fade, as this year’s decision to run video online just after they air has paid dividends. By Feb. 22, NBCOlympics.com served up 6.4 million video streams, with 72,000 hours of video watched. Plus, the site had 278 million page views, shattering the old record of 251.4 million page views from all of the 2004 Summer Games.

NBC Universal’s Dick Ebersol told AdAge that this will be the first time NBC has turned a profit with its website, projecting it would bring in about $5 million to $6 million for its entire run. Ebersol said that by 2012, even more people will be watching the Olympics online or on other platforms. “To this point, the money that pays for the Olympics, for our rights, is still largely money coming from TV advertising,” he said. “As soon as we see significant money start to come in from fields like the Internet and wireless, we’ll adjust our policies even more.” Of course, NBC isn’t the only game in town for following the Olympics. News.com notes that Yahoo, ESPN and various blogs and podcasts have also made hay with Olympic coverage online. Via: OPA

With a title like that what more could we say. The Miller Lite “Tastes Great vs. Less Filling” one was funny..!! Head over to iFilm and see them all.. if you’re not too busy.

If you want to see the whole line-up of the TVCM’s that did make the final cut this year, Google has them all set-up to watch one after another Here. Total run-time 30mins

Rocketboom is a three minute daily videoblog based in New York City and is one of the most popular video shows on the internet. For the highest bidder, we will create five original, fifteen second (minimum) – one minute (maximum) post-roll commercials that will span five days of programming, Monday-Friday, March 6 through March 10, 2006. Each day that week a different commercial that we create for your company will be played at the conclusion of the Rocketboom episode.

The five unique advertisements, along with hyperlinks to your website, will also become a part of our archived web pages. They will remain freely available, searchable, index-able, re-distributable, and on demand. Additionally, direct links to each commercial will be available for at least one year.

Top bid came in at a cool $40k.. Congrats!! Via: Ebay Auctions