Written on May 7, 2008 – 8:00 am
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
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You might have read about this on Mike Butcher’s TechCrunch UK: Hobnox, a Germany-based start-up that aims to become the next big thing for people in the creative industries. It’s an online music and video platform where users can watch, connect, collaborate and create. Co-founder David Noël sent me an invite so I decided to give it a shot, as his plans sounded very ambitious. What struck me the most when testing the service were the über cool flash-based audio and video Noxtools. I’ve made a screen shot of the audio Noxtool to give you an idea:
Once you’ve figured this tool out it’s possible to upload your masterworks to a personal library. You can then create a playlist that you can publish to the stage for everyone to see. There are also three Channels which are maintained by Hobnox’s own editorial team and streamed in high quality. This team is screening the work of the community to find some hidden talent.
It’s an original concept, yet I’m afraid it’s not original enough to function as a closed platform. To me it sounds like MySpace on steroids. The only part of the service I haven’t seen on the web so far are the super sophisticated Noxtools that bring the music and video editing to the browser. Therefore, the guys from Hobnox should work on integration with other services. I don’t feel like starting another blog, I’d rather import one. Same goes for pictures (Flickr), movies (YouTube), songs (MySpace), and calendar (Upcoming). If you want to show your ‘old work’ on Hobnox you’ll have to upload it all over again, or link to it from your blog.
I’ve e-mailed David to ask whether this will change or not. He replied: “Good point. We plan to add API’s to sync with other services but they haven’t been created yet. We’re still working down the list of features. Users can simply upload their content into a Hobnox profile.”
They’d better hurry, since David also told me Hobnox will launch a rather impressive marketing campaign this summer, aiming it UK, US and main-land Europe. “We will start a contest in the early summer with which contestants can win a 25K€ artist development package. We are also looking for other means of directly approaching creative people. Bar camps, trade fairs, events etcetera, all centered around music, film, and culture.”
Hobnox is one of the coolest start-ups I’ve seen lately - the design, high quality Web Tv and Noxtools certainly make an impression. If they take the walls of their garden down, I’m sure they can attract the creative crowd they’re aiming for.
Written on April 18, 2008 – 4:18 pm
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
Google has just announced another step towards Google Video’s end destination: becoming THE search service for world’s online video content, irrespective of where it may be hosted. The first move was including YouTube movies in Google Video’s search results last November. Now they’ve given the video service a face lift to enhance the users’ video browsing experience.
You can choose any of three ways to view your video search-results: a traditional list view, a grid view and, for those of you who like to maximize your video-watching efficiency, a TV view, where you can watch an embedded video while continuing to view your search results next to the video for a more seamless browse and search experience.
But there’s one change that is more interesting: the timeline view on the homepage. You can look up what the most viewed, most blogged, most shared, hottest videos are, and there’s a Movers & Shakers page. This is the most blogged-about video of today:
Improving video browsing is a smart move, if you ask me. Although Google has to put some effort in integrating other video services if they want to gain some street credibility. Yet they’re probably not interested in that, since their large audience couldn’t care less about Dailymotion or Vimeo. That’s just us, Web 2.0 geeks…
Written on April 5, 2008 – 9:39 pm
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
With the online music business heating up - MySpace created an online music venture with three music giants to start a battle with iTunes - YouTube also wants a piece of the action. They’re aiming for the baby boomers by partnering up with one of world’s most legendary rock bands. Together they’ve started the entertainment channel Living Legends.
Although there might be some exceptions (like me), most of the Rolling Stones fans tend to be somewhat older than average. And now the Google-owned company wants to lure them into the endless archives of videos. The news came out yesterday, though I was then busy conference blogging. However, I didn’t want to risk the possibility that one of you guys missed the news about the web-moves of this British band.
So considering YouTube to be a film-focused site there must be some connection with movies or other forms of visual expression. And of course there is, since fans can upload questions about the Stones documentary Mr. Scorsese is working on - called “Shine a Light“. Either Keith Richards or Mick Jagger will answer the best questions - especially the “burning ones”:
Although Keith Richards looks like an I’m-really-still-rock-’n'-roll grandpa in the video, the gentlemen apparently like to keep up with new technologies. Or when being a bit more cynical: they just want to promote their new documentary whatever the medium. Anyhow, YouTube will find it’s way to the growing group of people in their fifties and sixties who are exploring Web 2.0.
By the way, watch “exclusive footage” of Shine a Light on Jason Calacanis’ blog
Written on March 25, 2008 – 12:30 pm
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
If I remember it well, one of the first interactive parts of the web I was confronted with was a poll. I used to paste them in my sites, to see how many visitors actually paid attention. Since then, the web evolved to web 2.0 and polls are quite old-fashioned. We don’t want to express our opinion by just saying ‘yes’ or ‘no’, we rather write a blog post or shoot a short video. Yet the quick voting systems seem to get more popular again. Today I stumbled upon two fancy polling tools: Strawpoll and YouPop.
Polls on Twitter
Some people say Twitter is a waste of time. I dare to differ, but of course there are plenty of ways to turn it into a time-wasting tool. One is Strawpoll. Everyday, Rob Goodlatte and Dan Romero post one of life’s most important questions on Twitter. An example: Better Harrison Ford performance: Star Wars (1) or Blade Runner (2) ? Followers can reply by sending: @strawpoll Blade Runner. I’m a replicant bird! . Yet what makes this tool earning the label ‘fancy’ is their website. They track the results in a ridiculously good-looking way:
Video polls
So Strawpoll gives a good overview of what Twitterazi are thinking about mr. Ford’s career, yet it feels like something is missing. Maybe the voters have forgot about the heroic performances of Rick Deckard in Blade Runner and are just blinded by George Lucas’ movie branding skills.
YouPop takes away this problem by offering video support in polls. So now voters can watch the two trailer to revamp the feelings they had with the movie, in order to make a good judgment:
YouPop co-founder Robb Knie suggested on ReadWriteWeb that YouPop can also be used for deciding what movie you want to watch with your friends. You just embed an YouPop with two trailers on your Facebook or MySpace account so your friends can make the call.
Functions like that make me think that this rich-media tool defines the future of web polls. We want to be better informed, visually triggered and entertained, before we make a decision. Videos and pictures create a more intense experience which not only leads to more engagement (= better monetization) but will also generate some viral magic. Especially when it comes to the category ‘chicks‘.
To support the last statement: the most popular YouPop isn’t using any videos, just cleavage pics of Lindsay Lohan. How typical..
Written on March 24, 2008 – 7:03 pm
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
We wrote about the YouTube warp before on The Next Web. It is a visual way of browsing videos on Youtube. Cute but not very useful and well hidden from most users. But now there is a way to link to the Warp browser in your blog or website. A simple how to, link to this URL:
http://youtube.com/warp.swf?v=
If you put the alpha numeric part of the video behind the ‘=’ sign, your hyperlink will be enriched with some warp magic. An example: http://youtube.com/warp.swf?v=2v4p4CpPRwI, makes one beautiful warp about warps.
It can be useful if you want to guide your readers or visitors through a video tour on a specific subject. Wanna tell people where it went wrong with Britney Spears? Or do you prefer to tell them what Easter is all about? No problem! The warp creates an easy and attractive way to show related videos. Although there’s always the risk of some totally inappropriate computer-generated link…
Written on March 16, 2008 – 2:07 pm
Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten,
There is an interesting viral coming up on Youtube. A guy calling himself Eric Brody started a video blog a few weeks ago and has been uploading simple video’s about his new job, how bored he is and how he hopes to meet women online though his blog. Then, yesterday,in an angry post he told his audience he was fired from his job and was sent home with a box with his belongings. So far nothing exciting.
But today he uploaded a video titled ‘case 1017′ which he says he found in his box with personal belongings. It shows a weird scene, filmed in secret, of an apparent cover-up, somewhere in the US. There is the usual muffled sound, gunshots and shaky camera movements. As noted in the comments the video looks just slightly too good to be a home video so we can assume this is a viral video in the style of Cloverfield or even The Blair Witch Project. Or maybe it isn’t. Check it out yourself.
The ‘Fired from work, found a disk’ video (watched only 120 times)
The Case 1017 video (watched 120.000 times):
What I find interesting is that the movie industry is turning movies into something bigger than just the experience of going to a theatre for a 2 hours. George Lucas was one of the first, or most prolific, directors embracing merchandising which turned his movies into a starting point for a lot of kids who then spent years playing with their star wars inspired toys. Making up new episodes in their own heads along the way.
Now the movie becomes ‘just’ a part of a story. One day the characters in movies might start their existence years in advance with virtual characters on Facebook, fake movies on YouTube and real Google Ranks and online identities. The movie will then look and feel more like a documentary which will make it less clear where reality ends and fantasy begins. With Cloverfield and maybe ‘Case 1017′ we will see this movement begin where the Internet is not just used as a promotional medium but as a way to tell a cross-media story.
Written on March 12, 2008 – 12:27 am
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
A few days ago, Boris pinged me that YouTube was showing a maintenance sign and that I should keep an eye on it. Turns out he’s right, since I noticed a video on Mahalo showing that YouTube did add higher quality. The guide note says:
Quality refers to video on YouTube that has a higher resolution than the standard YouTube resolution. In November of 2007 YouTube announced that they would feature higher resolution videos in 2008. It has been speculated that YouTube will announce the official launch of this feature in March of 2008, but it has not been confirmed. Higher resolution versions of most of the videos on the popular video sharing site can be seen on the site using an address bar trick that accesses the higher resolution versions.
Simple research show that it actually is true. (more…)
Written on March 7, 2008 – 10:48 am
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
When Google acquired YouTube in 2006, some guys in the Russian city of Oriol were pretty excited about that. I know I was as well, especially when I saw the video shot by the happy founders Chad and Steve. That’s just a web-savvy’s dream. The guys from Oriol - Oleg Volobuyev, Mikhail Paulkin, Askar Tuganbayev - agreed with me and created their own YouTube: Rutube. So instead of bluntly calling Rutube a rip-off, I’m going to express my admiration for the guts of its founders to just start working on making that dream reality.
They bootstrapped the online video community for two years and turned it into to largest independent video site of Russia. According to the Quintura blog, RuTube has 400 thousand daily users and more than 40 million video views per month. That didn’t go unnoticed by the leading Russian media holding Gazprom-Media. Yesterday business daily Kommersand reported that the media giant acquired a majority stake in RuTube, valuing the business at 15 million dollars. Moreover, they will pump millions into RuTube. Quintura reports that Gazprom-Media has already started broadcasting video shows on RuTube.
Gazprom-Media was founded in 1998 as a subsidiary of the world’s largest natural gas company and is famous for acquiring independent media outlets such as Vladimir Gusinsky’s Media Most holding. Apparently they’ve decided to shift their focus to online media. Considering Gazprom-Media is not afraid of changing editorial policies to their needs, I don’t think this recent acquisition will be beneficiary for the freedom of speech in Russia.
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