It's impossible not to buy into the idea this is the year of video (much like 2004 and perhaps 2005 were the year of VoIP). Today, there were three different events that hammered home this reality home. First, YouTube is delivering a staggering 100 million videos a day, according to Hitwise. Then, IP Democracy reports more than $600-million has been invested in video start-ups such as YouTube, Slingbox (a personal favourite) and MobiTV in the past year. Finally, Montreal-based cableco Videotron said its Extreme high-speed Internet service will be boosted to 20Mbps from 16Mbps, which will enable consumers to do, what else, watch video.
   Of course, there's lot of excitement but plenty of questions. YouTube, for example, is still working on the details on how to turn 100 million videos a day into a business. In many ways, MobiTV's success is dependent on whether millions of people are willing to watch videos on a small screen. Slingbox is selling lots of cool units for $250 a crack to watch your TV while away from home but there are still questions about the size of its potential market and whether there is revenue/life beyond selling something once without any kind of recurring revenue. Meanwhile, Videotron is betting consumers are willing to pay C$79.95 for an ultra-fast broadband connection. No doubt, the excitement will carry on but there also has to be some not-so-good developments as some players fail to keep pace.
Update: In response to Videotron's claim to be the fastest gun in the North, Primus Canada touched base to point out it launched a high-speed service last month that offers speeds up to 22Mbps.

In a marriage that makes a lot of sense, FeedBurner has bought Blogbeat, which offers a user-friendly, statistics service for blogs. While many people are familiar with FeedBurner, Blogbeat has been a relatively low-profile player in the stats world behind MeasureMap (now part of Google), Mint, StatsCounter and, most recently, Performancing. I've been using Blogbeat for several months and, for the most part, it's a good service. That said, Blogbeat has been plagued recently by performance issues - perhaps caused by the growing pains of heavy traffic. As well, I'm not sure how successful Blogbeat's subscription service ($24 a year) has been faring. With FeedBurner's financial support, Blogbeat should have the financial resources it needs to improve. This deal is interesting from a big-picture strategic perspective because it offers insight into M&A activity within the blogosphere. Rather than mega-deals, you will probably see smaller transactions as players expand their service portfolios. A growing number of these deals will involve companies that have interesting technology but find themselves running out of cash.

Update: For more, check out the FeedBurner blog, TechCrunch and Likeitmatters.