A View on View

This Blog Has Moved!

Mark Evans — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 17:37:41 -0500

Just a friendly reminder that if you're looking for new and fresh content from Mark Evans, you should head on over to my new blog, Mark Evans Tech.

Online Video Embraced

Mark Evans — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 06:43:41 -0400

According to comScore, nearly 75% of U.S. Internet users watched an average of 158 minutes of online video in May - demonstrating that the couch potato is still alive and well but has just moved from the couch to the office chair.

comScore said Americans watched more than 8.3 billion video streams, and Google Sites once again ranked as the top U.S. streaming video property with 1.8 billion videos streamed (21.5% share of streams), 1.7 billion of which occurred at YouTube.com. Fox Interactive Media ranked second with 680 million streams (8.1%), followed by Yahoo! Sites with 387 million (4.6%) and Viacom Digital with 237 million (2.8%).

MySpace Co-Founder Moves into China

Mark Evans — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 10:59:14 -0400

Brad Greenspan, who co-founded MySpace, has moved into the Chinese video market by purchasing equity stakes in Mofile.com and Hubotv.com.

Check Out This Blog

Mark Evans — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 07:31:57 -0400

If you're looking for a good blog looking at the business of video, check out BusinessofVideo.com - really good insight about the key players, trends and news.

Video Bonanza

Mark Evans — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 20:27:52 -0400

If you ever wanted a complete lowdown on all the video tools out there, check out Mashable's list of 150 tools - everything from hosting, sharing, converters, editors, mashups and mobile video apps.

Google Launches New Video Search

Mark Evans — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 15:43:49 -0400

It has taken awhile following the $1.6-billion purchase of YouTube but Google has a launched a new video search tool. When your search is completed, you can rate the video, share it, and watch related videos. Google Video covers videos from a wide variety of sites, including Metacafe, iFilm, Grouper, Yahoo Video, MySpace, Break.com, Daily Motion, Vimeo, Veoh, AOL Video, Jumpcut, Revver, Guba and BBC - although the predominant result is, surprise, surprise, YouTube. Veoh, by the way, raised $26-million in venture capital recently.

Technorati Tags: Google

Oversi Raises $8-million

Mark Evans — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 10:55:58 -0400

Oversi, which provides peer-to-peer caching and content delivery for video, has raised $8-million in a private financing led by Cisco Systems. It's interesting to see P2P being embraced by "mainstream" telecom equipment suppliers given so many people equate P2P with free downloads. Oversi CEO Joav Avtalion said:

"We see Cisco's investment as an exciting milestone for our company, helping us to grow our business in line with the fast-evolving world of online video and P2P content distribution. With so much video and TV on the Internet, bandwidth is becoming the key issue. Using our P2P solutions, service providers can deliver up to 20 times more bandwidth using their existing infrastructures, instead of investing billions of dollars in expensive upgrades. We look forward to a fruitful and continued collaboration with our investment partners."

Technorati Tags: Cisco

Everyone's Doing Video

Mark Evans — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 08:28:12 -0400

I was walking along Queen St. in downtown Toronto yesterday afternoon and came across a film crew doing "streeters" for TV or the Web, which usually involve a pretty young girl asking people passing by what they think about something fairly simple (e.g. Are people in Toronto still polite? How do you deal with summer heat?). It used to be that seeing a film crew was a big deal because there weren't that many around. Like moths to light (or Cinderella to the spindle), you would find yourself mysteriously attracted to the "spectacle" even if was just some guy with good hair talking about weather. After all, this was TV happening right in front of you.

Today, everyone's doing TV or online video. With the barriers to entry lower than ever (lower-cost cameras; inexpensive, easy to use editing software, and cheap bandwidth), it's easier than ever to "do TV". Suddenly, the guy who interested in doing TV can do it and, if they're lucky like Ze Frank or Andrew Barron, become quasi-famous. Last week at the mesh conference, i watched 1938media's Loren Feldman walk around shooting video using a really small Casio camera with a 2GB memory card. In no time at all, he was putting 60 second to three-minute interview clips on the Web.

What I did learn was Loren was although making TV is easier and cheaper than ever, it's still a challenge to be able to do something in front of the camera that's worth watching. What Feldman and Ze Frank have is "presence", although their styles couldn't be more different. Feldman, an ex-actor, is clearly comfortable in front of the camera and has a unique and engaging view of the world. It works. That's why he can attract an audience.. The way I see it, the biggest challenge facing the video revolution is not the making of video but how consumers find the good stuff amid a sea of choice.

Technorati Tags: puppy

No-Frills Videos 101

Mark Evans — Tue, 22 May 2007 13:31:33 -0400

Jim Kukral has a good post on how to make online videos for less than $3,000. He provides a good rundown on all the things you need (camera, accessories, software, etc.) to make it happen.

Blinkx Jumps in Debut

Mark Evans — Tue, 22 May 2007 13:23:27 -0400

Blinkx, which operates a video clip search engine, had a stellar debut during its first day of trading. The company's shares jumped to 62 pence from 45 pence on London's AIM exchange after raising £25 million.

The Ultimate Online Video Service

Mark Evans — Mon, 21 May 2007 16:48:31 -0400

If you ever wanted a compendium of online video sites and services, Everyone Go To has compiled the "Ultimate List".

Paid Video is Doomed

Mark Evans — Mon, 14 May 2007 17:00:26 -0400

According to Forrester Research, the availability of free video is going to swamp the fee-based business. Forrester said while sales of online TV and movies will nearly triple this year to $279-million, sales will start to decline in 2008 as more free video becomes available. "In the video space, iTunes is just a temporary flash while consumers wait for better ways to get video. They're already coming," said Forrester analyst James McQuivey, who wrote the study and declared "free is going to win". Personally, I've never paid to watch a movie or a TV show on the Web but I've watched plenty of movies and TV shows on Web sites that offer just about anything you want for free. This means free may have already won, I guess. For more, check out Deep Jive Interest.

YouTube to Share the Wealth

Mark Evans — Sat, 05 May 2007 09:25:10 -0400

Nothing like selling your company for $1.6-billion to inspire generosity! YouTube, which was snapped by Google, said yesterday it will place ads beside videos produced by 20 to 30 of its popular contributors, and share the revenue. “In the marketplace, you often hear people talking about user-generated content in a disparaging way,” said Jamie Byrne, YouTube's head of product marketing told the New York Times. “This is content that really has merit and is of equal value to the professional content that is contributed by some of our partners.” Well, that's awful nice of YouTube to offer its content producers a piece of the action, isn't it!?

Vixy Rocks!

Mark Evans — Sat, 28 Apr 2007 19:30:10 -0400

An online tool that I have found to be really useful and valuable (In other words: I would actually pay for it) is Vixy.net, which converts online video from places such as YouTube and Metacafe into a bunch of different formats (e.g. MOV, AVI, MP4). When I'm preparing PowerPoint presentations, it's something that I use repeatedly. Check out this review.

Joost Attracts Advertisers

Mark Evans — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 21:14:27 -0400

Well, Joost now has something a lot of other video services don't: advertisers. The company, which was started by Skype co-founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, said today it has signed three month deal with 32 major advertising, including P&G, Coca-Cola and Visa. Joost plans to make it advertising-friendly environment by offering traditional 30-second mid-roll spots, as well as other formats. It remains to be seen, however, whether 30-second spots will resonate with online couch potatoes, who can change channels with the click of a mouse.

Another Video Service

Mark Evans — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 15:20:05 -0400

The world may not need another video service but Jalipo is hoping it can establish a foothold in the market by offering video and TV programming on a pay-as-you-go basis. The London-based company wants to break into the competitive video market by offering content owners and distributors a place to sell high-quality downloads in a way that meets their copyright and security needs. Another twist that Jalipo holds to capture the attention of consumers is selling video on a per-minute basis, which means users pay for what they actually watch as opposed to what they download. It's an interesting approach that may not appeal to consumers given most people want to download and pay for an entire show rather than bits of things. Then again, it's probably something a start-up needs to do these days to attract attention.

Update: Mashable has a post on yet another service, FlixFocus, that lets you upload photos, video and music to social networking sites such as MySpace, Friendster, etc.

Adobe to Unveil New Video Player

Mark Evans — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 07:53:01 -0400

Watch out Windows Media Player or Real Player, there's a new kid in town - Adobe. The company, best known for products such as Flash, Illustrator and Reader, is rolling out a new video player. The Adobe Media Player will be launched next week in Las Vegas at the National Association of Broadcasters Show, which is the gathering of the year for all those television and video types. AMP will work with Windows and Mac machines, and let people play Flash videos. It will also feature the ability to play and sign up for podcasts using RSS. What's particularly interesting for content makers is AMP will come with two security features: one will allow for video to be download but doesn't allow the user to remove any advertising, while the other feature will tie download content to specific computing devices or people.

Watch Online TV Shows for Free!

Mark Evans — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 14:09:31 -0400

If you're willing to tolerate commercials, you can watch CBS shows for free online. The U.S. broadcaster has created CBS Interactive Audience Network, which will handle the online broadcasting of shows such as ''Survivor", ''Late Night with David Letterman'' and ''CSI'' through sites such as AOL and MSN. CBS' plans are just the latest way the TV industry is trying to experiment with different financial/broadcasting models to see what works with consumers. Obviously, free TV could be a big draw for consumers not willing for videos on a pay-as-you-go-basis. ''I think what we're seeing is a transition from the Internet as being kind of an experiment... to something that's a part of (networks') hopes and plans for a new profit center,'' said Joe Laszlo, an analyst with Jupiter Research, told Cox News Service.

Let's Hear (and See) the Candidates

Mark Evans — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 10:26:41 -0400

In an effort to give politicians and voters another way to interact, YouTube will get U.S. presidential candidates to post videos on its news and politics site, and let the common folk post their own video responses. This is part of YouTube's "You Choose '08" plan, which hopefully will engage people and - even better - get them to vote. First up to the plate will be ex-Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who will answer the question: ”What do you believe is America’s single greatest challenge and what would you do to address it?”

iTunes and MGM Strike Deal

Mark Evans — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 19:38:04 -0400

If you're into classic movies - and are continually frustrated by the lack of selection at your local video store - you'll be happy to hear that MGM has stuck a deal that will see classic films such as The Great Train Robbery, Rocky and Dances with Wolves available to be downloaded on iTunes. For movie lovers, this is a major announcement as MGM has one of the largest film libraries in the world. Movies downloaded from iTunes will be in near-DVD quality at a resolution of 640x480.

It's fascinating to see the movie studios be so pro-active in striking deals to expand their distribution networks on the Web. You have to wonder what the music industry would have been like today if it had adopted the same approach. Of course, music and movies are completely different animals - one creates product that lasts less than five minutes and can be downloaded in seconds, while the other creates two-hour products that can taken a long time to download depending on your Internet connection. Another advantage the movie industry has over music is people tend to have a stronger emotional connection to movies as opposed to most music, which is here today and gone tomorrow.

Mobile TV: Steady as She Goes

Mark Evans — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 11:07:49 -0400

According to Instat, the number of mobile television networks will grow to 13 in 2007 from nine in 2006. There would be more television networks but the biggest problem is the unavailability of spectrum, particularly in Europe. Another issue - surprise, surprise - is the lack of handsets that can handle wireless TV broadcasts. Over the next four years, Instat expects the number of mobile TV subscribers will grow to 125 million. That may seem like a bullish number but a research report by ABI Research last year said there would be 514 million mobile TV subscribers by 2011 compared with 6.4 million at the end of 2005.

Simple Savings Service

Mark Evans — Sat, 17 Mar 2007 13:22:16 -0400

So, you've got a few bucks lying around the house and decide that putting it in a savings account is a practical, if conservative, thing to do. Then what? How do you make sure that you're gettting the best return on your money? After all, the interest rates on some savings accounts are just a tad better than keeping it under your mattress. SavingsAccounts.com, which bills itself as "Your Guide to Finding and Opening an Online Savings Account" hopes to meet the needs of consumers looking for the right savings accounts with a simple service that provides rates for different banks in the U.S., and links to the banks that are highlighted.

There aren't many bells and whistles at SavingsAccounts.com. There are, however, several articles within a resource center that provide information on how to reduce your debt, how to boost your savings, and banks offering new savings deals. From what I can tell, SavingsAccounts.com's business model appears to AdSense as the links to the banks on the site don't suggest there is a commission structure involved.

Over time, one would think SavingsAccounts.com would enhance the service with some more articles, tools, calculators, etc. but for the time being it's a basic resource for people looking to get a good return on their savings. For people looking for more tools and financial information Google Finance and Yahoo Finance would be good places to start.

Note: This a sponsored post.

Do You Have a Backup Plan?

Mark Evans — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 21:30:04 -0500

Backing up the data on your computer is something everything acknowledges as a necessary evil but, frankly, not enough people realize the value until disaster strikes and hundreds of megabytes of documents, photographs, music and video disappear into thin air.

Despite the obvious dangers, many people try to avoid backing up their data because it was difficult and/or time-consuming: nothing like having to burn a handful of CDs again and again again. These days, backing up data has become relatively painless as the Web makes it easy for people and companies to "outsource" the backing up of their data to online specialists such as iBackup, OmniDrive, Box.net and Mozy.

Some services such as Mozy are free (up to 2GB) while others such as iBackup offer a variety of secure packages depending on how much data back up you need. iBackup's plans, which serve the needs of consumers and small business owners, start at a reasonable $9.95/month for 5GB, and go all the way up to $299.95/month for 300GB. For customers willing to buy an annual subscription, the discounts can range from 10% to 16%.

Among the features within the iBackup service are multi-media streaming, browser-based file management and the ability to drag and drop files between your network drive and iBackup's iDrive feature. Last June, iBackup was ranked as the best online backup service during a review by PC World.

Note: This review is a sponsored post, which is part of the ReviewMe program.

Mark Evans has Left the Building!

Mark Evans — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 14:04:49 -0500

I'm happy to announced the birth of the new and improved Mark Evans, which can be found at markevanstech.com. It was designed by the very talented Ben Bleikamp, who did a terrific job moving my blog to Wordpress. Thanks, Ben! Note: If you're an RSS subscriber, please switch the Feedburner URL to http://feeds.feedburner.com/MarkEvans. (I've already made the change on FB so it should subscribe you automatically to the new blog)
Note: By the way, the move to Wordpress from Blogware should not be seen as a knock against Blogware, which has been a solid blogging platform and provided me with terrific customer service over the past two and half years (Thanks, Siobhan!). But since b5 is a Wordpress-powered platform, I had to make the jump to become part of the community.
By the way, I'm going to keep this blog "live" for awhile so the URLs still work in other peoples' blogs. I have been told, however, that Google doesn't like duplicate content so I'm not keeping the Blogware blog around for too much longer than makes sense. Thoughts?

All-You-Can-Eat SkypeOut!

Mark Evans — Wed, 13 Dec 2006 13:31:56 -0500

Skype - along with GMail, Ecto and the MacBook - is one of my favourite everyday technology tools. The ability to use talk and chat using such a ubiquitous tool is truly powerful and useful. What's been particularly nice is the ability to make free SkypeOut calls within North American for the past several months. Today, Skype unveiled a new SkypeOut calling plan that allows for unlimited calls within North America for $29.95 a year (anyone who signs up before Jan. 31, 2007 receives a 50% discount.) To me, it's a no-brainer. Sign me up right now!

While Skype has more than 130 million registered users, it's my belief the service is barely scratching its potential from a user and revenue perspective. Let's start with the revenue side of the house. Sure, Skype has been selling SkypeOut, SkypeIn and other premium services for awhile but the all-you-can-eat SkypeOut package is a step toward making Skype more of a mainstream service given it's an easier sell - and buy - than buying credits and the having to refill them from time to time. Of course, it would really rock is Skype unveiled an all-you-can-eat SkypeIn/SkypeOut package.
If you really want to bullish about Skype, 2007 could be the year that the registered user number really becomes relevant other than being a very big number. Let's assume Skype attracts 2% of its registered users to subscribe to the new SkypeOut package, that works out to $80-million in revenue (excluding the early-bird discount). Is that number realistic? Are there really 2.6 million Skype users willing to pay for all-you-can-eat SkypeOut?
Taking a strategic step back, the SkypeOut plan could also suggest how eBay is starting to put its stamp on the business (aside from the numerous management shuffles). Wit $4.2-bllion on the table, eBay is starting to make aggressive moves to leverage an investment that continues to puzzle many people. That said, the more Skype's revenue grows, the more the deal starts to look reasonable - something that was difficult to assume a year ago when the deal was unveiled.
For more thoughts, check out Alec Saunders, Andy Abramson, Jon Arnold and MakeYouGoHmm.

Then (Dot-Com Boom) vs Now (Web 2.0)

Mark Evans — Wed, 13 Dec 2006 12:05:16 -0500

This morning, I gave a keynote speech to the Toronto Venture Group about the differences between running a start-up during the dot-com boom and what's happening now. There was no earth-shattering advice but simply my contention that companies need to be smart about how they spend their money, and make sure they focus on doing things to grow the business as opposed to distractions such as swag and cool office space.
A major theme of my talk was chairs. In fact, if I had to re-name the presentation, it would have been "It's All About the Chairs". During the dot-com boom, companies were spending $1000 to $1500 for a Herman Miller Aeron chair as opposed to shopping at Staples/Business Depot and buying a chair for $30. In many ways, the Aeron symbolized how far too many dot-com companies spent their money in the wrong places during the dot-com boom...and we're not even talking about all the swag that was distributed and all those parties with open bars. You can find some more thoughts about the "then and now" on Sean Wise's blog.

Technorati Tags: Aeron Chair

Deep Thoughts About VoIP's Future in Canada

Mark Evans — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 13:20:18 -0500

With the Canadian government intent on de-regulating the country's $10-billion local telephone market and giving the incumbent carriers the freedom to set their own prices, it will be interesting to see the impact this decision will have on Canada's VoIP marketplace. To be perfectly frank, VoIP hasn't been overly successful in Canada. By this, I mean Real VoIP with all the bells and whistles that a Web-based service can offer. What Videotron and Rogers are offering right now is VoIP-lite because it's just plain old telephone service (POTS) with none of the online frills such as voice-mail to e-mail that rivals such as Vonage, Primus and BabyTel are offering.

Perhaps the reason the cablecos haven't rolled out the value-added features that makes VoIP such a compelling proposition is they haven't been compelled to do it yet. With the carriers being regulated in the local market and an unwillingness to become more aggressive with VoIP until the rules became more clear, the cablecos have been able to get away being an alternative option to attract consumers. In Quebec, Videotron has used ultra-low prices if you have a multi-service bundle, while Rogers and Shaw have been content to pick off customers pissed off with Bell and Telus respectively.

But what happens if Bell and Telus suddenly get more aggressive with their phone prices (both traditional and VoIP) to win back customers who may have strayed to the cablecos, Vonage, etc.? And what happens if Bell really starts to push Bell Digital Voice as a premium, multi-feature VoIP service, while cutting prices on traditional local service? This could become a strategic conundrum for the cablecos because they would have to determine whether to compete on price against traditional service, which looks and smells the same as cable telephone service provided by Rogers and Videotron. Or do the cablecos go upstream and go head to head with Bell Digital Voice by adding all the Web-based features of Real VoIP.

If I had to guess, the cablecos will go the premium route because it fits into their focus/obsession with disciplined pricing and ARPU. If this materializes, it would be terrific for VoIP and customers who want Real VoIP because the cablecos and carriers will have to compete on features and services - much like they do in the high-speed Internet access market where both sides are intent to increase speed and add more features as opposed to - heaven forbid! - drop prices.

Technorati Tags: VoIP

Wordpress Anyone?

Mark Evans — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 11:15:04 -0500

I've been dabbling with Wordpress but I really need to take a course or sit down with someone (in Toronto) to get a running start. If anyone can help, let me.

Can Anyone Say "Telephone Price War"?

Mark Evans — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 17:03:01 -0500

The deregulation of Canada's $10-billion local telephone market took a big-time move forward today when the federal government unveiled a new structure that will let incumbent carriers set prices however they wish to compete against new and fast-growing rivals such as the cablecos (Rogers, Shaw, Videotron, Cogeco, Eastlink, etc.) and independents such as Vonage.

The decision overturns a CRTC ruling earlier this year that stipulated carriers couldn't have competitive freedom in a particular market until they lost 25% of the market. This decision was badly flawed because it failed to take into account wireless customers - many of whom don't have a local line - and the reality cablecos could pick off the carriers' best customers to the point where they could have 30% or 40% of total market revenue while still staying under the 25% market share threshold (based on customers).

So what does it mean? For carriers such as Bell and Telus, they will now have much more freedom in markets where there is another facilities-based network (aka a cable network) to use price as a competitive weapon to retain and attract customers. Of course, carriers are scrambling to grow/maintain revenue so they may be somewhat reluctant to reduce prices. Then again, when Videotron is winning major amounts of market share in Quebec with prices as low as $16.95 a month, Bell may have little choice but to fight on price.

Nevertheless, the decision will level the competitive playing field between the carriers and cablecos. The winners could be consumers IF a price war breaks out (that's a big if given the cablecos have embraced pricing "discipline" in the VoIP and wireless markets). You have to remember local phone service is seen as the key element within a consumer bundle so if you have/can keep a local phone customer, you'll likely be able to sell them lots of other services.

Now, let the games begin!

More thoughts: You can argue until the cows come home whether there is healthy competition within the local market, and whether the non-carrier players will be able to survive/thrive now that Bell, Telus, et al have more pricing freedom. Truth be told, the cablecos are well armed for battle so there's no reason not to let true competition happen. Who knows, maybe competition will lead to benefits other than lower prices such as new, innovative services as the cablecos, carriers and others battle for customers. For other thoughts, check out Mark Goldberg.

Pre-Rolls Are Not Dead

Mark Evans — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 07:45:57 -0500

Fred Wilson has come to the conclusion pre-rolls (ads before a video starts playing) are dead on arrival; while post-rolls (ads played after a video are promising because they're "well targeted and entertaining". He's wrong because its way to early arrive at this conclusion given we're arguably only 11 months into the online video revolution.
To date, pre-rolls have failed to resonate because advertisers are approaching video clips in the same way they approach traditional television. This is misguided because consumers are willing to watch a 15-second or 30-second ad if it's before, during or after a 30-minute or hour-long program. In the online video world where clips last 30 seconds to five minutes, showing a 15 or 30-second ad using a traditional approach before a short video is a disconnect with the medium.
What the advertising industry needs to do is re-calibrate its approach to online video (and pre-rolls and post-rolls) by realizing ads need to be shorter, punchier and more aligned with most video content, which tends to be bubble gum-like entertainment. Look at the way that Rocketboom has made post-rolls part of its modus operandi by creating its own ads, which also tend to be entertaining. The ad industry needs to embrace an edgier and shorter approach to online video spots. They - and Fred Wilson - will discover that pre-rolls work if you do them right.
Note: One more thought about online advertising in general. One of the challenges facing advertisers and advertisers critics is getting their head around the fact it's still early, early days, and there's still an awful lot of experimenting and testing happening. This makes it very difficult to come up with a sweeping generalization about many of the things happening online.

Technorati Tags: Advertising, Video

The Poor Prognosis for Portals

Mark Evans — Sun, 10 Dec 2006 16:19:32 -0500

Edgeio has one of those blogs posts that forces you to take some time to digest it. It's a post based on the idea the gap between the giant portals (Yahoo, AOL, et al) and the rest of the world will shrink/has been shrinking - and we're entering an era of de-portalization (a term coined by Fred Wilson). For bloggers and blog networks, it's a thought-provoking thesis because it suggests that people will consume information in different ways and go to different places to do it. The question is if it's not the portals where people are going to get what they want, then will a new mass market vehicle emerge to supplant them, or will the audience disintegrate much like the TV universe has splintered in 500+ channels? For more, check out Scott Karp (who's back in the blogging saddle after being strangely quiet for awhile) and Mathew Ingram.

Is HD the New Bluetooth?

Mark Evans — Sun, 10 Dec 2006 08:09:43 -0500

I was talking to a friend last night at a Christmas party about how he had been approached by a start-up doing high-definition television but turned them down because he couldn't buy into their business prospects. In today's New York Times, there a short piece on why HD hasn't seen anywhere near the kind of pick up as large-screen TVs that have become all the rage as prices tumble. For all its benefits, HD continues to be a difficult sales proposition. For one, it is seen as a premium service by consumers, who still don't grasp the reason to have it other than being able to see a blade of grass in glorious detail while watching football or golf. That hardly seems worth the $10 or $15 that ARPU-hungry cablecos are trying squeeze from consumers. If the HD industry isn't careful, it may see itself in the same boat as the Bluetooth folks, who were crowing a few years but have disappeared. I'm not suggesting HD isn't cool technology or that Mark Cuban's HD dreams are misplaced, it's just doesn't seen cool enough right now.

Technorati Tags: HD, TV

Can the MSFT Titantic Change Directions?

Mark Evans — Sat, 09 Dec 2006 11:02:28 -0500

Can a tiger change its stripes? Can you turn water into wine? Can Ray Ozzie and Steve Berkowitz transform Microsoft into an Internet company from its Windows/Office roots? This is a question highlighted by the New York Times, which looks at Microsoft efforts to beef up is online operations through initiatives such as Live. At the risk of under-playing the dominance of Internet Explorer and the popularity of MSN.com, Microsoft isn't an Internet company and, frankly, it will never be seen as anything else other than a giant software company with some interesting side projects (e.g. Xbox).

This isn't necessarily a bad thing but it is what it is even though Microsoft has been struggling to convince people otherwise for the past decade. If you take a step back, Microsoft's track record beyond Windows and Office has been, at best, mediocre. A good example is television where it has toiled for years and spent billions of dollars to establish a foothold in the living room. Microsoft has acquired stakes in cable companies, purchased start-ups (anyone remember WebTV?) and, most recently, tried to developed an IP-TV platform for carriers. But after all this time, money and effort, Microsoft only has a modest presence in the TV or video markets.

Microsoft's problem - and challenge - is the Internet isn't part of the corporate DNA so it's hard to really be a vibrant and innovative Internet player when it's not really who you are. A part of this reality is Microsoft continues to make billions of dollars from selling Windows and Office. It's the business so Microsoft's lack of success in diversifying into other businesses is no different than what many other companies have faced over the years. Microsoft, however, is fortunate its core business continues to rumble along as opposed to being forced to diversify because the core business is eroding.

What Microsoft and investors need to accept is Microsoft will continue to be a software company with a Web presence as long as its continue to operate in its present form. If, however, the company decided to break itself into independent operations (Windows/Office, Xbox, MSN/Internet) then it might be a different story because each entity would have its own core mission and raison d'etre. In the meantime, Microsoft will attempt to fight the good Internet fight while chasing after dyed-in-the-wool Internet rivals such as Google and Yahoo.

For more on Berkowitz, News.com recently did a Q&A with him. By the way, read what you will into this quote Berkowitz gave the NYT about life at Microsoft compared with his previous employer, Ask.com: "I’m used to being in companies where I am in a rowboat and I stick an oar in the water to change direction. Now I’m in a cruise ship and I have to call down, Hello, engine room!. Sometimes the connections to the engine room aren’t there."

Technorati Tags: Google, Microsoft

We're Talking Tech..and Nortel, Yahoo and Holiday Gifts

Mark Evans — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 15:39:24 -0500

Another week, another Talking Tech podcast. This week, we've actually got a live guest - technology analyst Duncan Stewart, who has been part of Canada's tech landscape for the past decade as a fund manager and equity analyst. In a spirited roundtable discussion (fueled by some Starbucks java), we talked about Nortel's decision to end a 92-year-old auditing relationship with Deloitte Touche; Yahoo's decision to appoint Susan Decker as chief operating officer; the start-up landscape within Canada's technology industry, and the hottest holiday gifts (Wii, Zune, Xbox, etc.)

Google Brings New Approach to Radio Advertising

Mark Evans — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 12:08:34 -0500

It's still early days but I think Google's move into the radio advertising business could revolutionize (or perhaps evolve) the way the industry does business. In a test project, Google is providing 20 AdWords customers with access to more than 730 stations, which run ads in more than 260 U.S. markets. The AdWords system is linked through Google's dMarc, division, which was acquired for as much as $1.13-billion earlier this year (it was Google's biggest deal before YouTube came along). According to CNet, the 20 selected customers will see a new "audio ads" tag when they log into the AdWords system, which allows them to bid on air spots and target their ads by geography, station type, listener demographics and time of day. Given that the radio business has operated in much the same way for decades, Google is trying to implement a huge new approach to selling advertising. It could be the wave of the future or it could fall flat on its face. Nevertheless, give Google credit for trying something that could potentially be extremely disruptive. As well, the beta test and Google's deal with BSkyB are more evidence of the company's strategic thrust into new markets beyond the online paid-search business.

Apparently, I'm a Mover and a Shaker

Mark Evans — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 11:19:34 -0500

According to Pierce Mattie Public Relations, I'm one of the blogosphere's movers and shakers - along with Jessica Coen, Steve Rubel, Corynne Steindler and Robert Scoble, which is awful flattering company. The criteria for making the list was using a blog as platform for landing a job in the blogging industry. Truth be told, I started to blog in early-2004 as an experiment to see what all the fuss was about. From there, it took on a life of its own before b5media emerged on the scene. (Note: the list was compiled by Shannon Nelson, who writes a few blogs for b5).

MetaCafe Snapped Up for $200M

Mark Evans — Thu, 07 Dec 2006 17:22:55 -0500

According to YNet, Metacafe - one of the more popular video sharing services not called YouTube - has been acquired for $200-million. So who's next? Who's going to be left without a seat when the music stops playing?

Private Radio Thriving Amid Competition

Mark Evans — Thu, 07 Dec 2006 13:56:29 -0500

The Financial Post's Sean Silcoff has an interesting column looking at how Canada's private radio industry is thriving at a time when other media - newspapers, television, magazines - are struggling with the Internet's growing popularity. Silcoff points out radio listenership has remained steady at 532 million hours over the past six years, while sales have climbed by 5.6% a year over the past decade. Meanwhile, operating margins climbed to 21% - 3.5x the level in 1995.

So has commercial radio in Canada managed to thrive at a time when competition has increased from the Web, satellite-radio and the iPod? Maybe, it's the local nature of radio - the fact it provides people with local weather, traffic conditions and news; stuff that the Web and satellite-radio struggle to provide. While local search is all the rage these days as Google and others such as Ask.com look to expand, the job of providing local information has continued to effectively handled by local-based media.

This is something newspapers need to grasp as they look for a new recipe for success. Rather than trying to compete with Google.com or CNN, newspapers should put a lot more resources on local coverage in their print and digital publications. It's this kind of content that will keep them relevant to readers and advertisers. In Toronto, the Toronto Star's efforts to provide even more local coverage has been abundantly evident in recent months. This is a strategy more newspapers will have to embrace going forward.

Google Video vs. YouTube

Mark Evans — Thu, 07 Dec 2006 11:33:42 -0500

I was watching a YouTube video (another funny take on Weird Al's Canadian Idiot) last night, which made me wonder how and/or if Google Video and YouTube are going to co-exist.
Let's start with YouTube given it's more popularity (23 million unique visitors a month can't be wrong, right?). Obviously, Google is probably going to implement AdSense throughout YouTube as a way to generate revenue. There will also be high-revenue banner ads to capitalize on the traffic. Then what? Does Google create a YouTube Premium section for people who want to download/buy videos such as TV shows and movies? If so, how would this affect YouTube's image/mojo given it's the place on the Web to access free video, albeit most of them amateur productions that leave much to be desired. If YouTube tried to make money from selling videos, would this potentially drive people away.
Then, there's Google Video, which has been a modest success since its launch. After all, Google would not have bought YouTube if its video strategy didn't need a $1.6-billion jump-start. Does Google stay upstream by mostly focusing on the sale of TV shows and movies, or does it continue to attract user-generated content as well.
Assuming YouTube pursues a premium strategy, and Google moves deeper into the user-generated content world, at what point will the two services start to look the same? If that happens, does it really matter as long as both businesses as thriving?
News: Google has signed a deal with BSkyB that will see Google provide its user-generated video, e-mail, search and targeted advertising tools to customers of BSkyB’s broadband internet service. “This is a really, really big deal for us,” said Google CEO Eric Schmidt. “If it works, it will become our most lucrative deal from the get-go.”

Technorati Tags: Google, Video

Canada's YouTube!

Mark Evans — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 20:37:55 -0500

South of the border, they get YouTube; up here in the great, white north, we get....blogTV.ca, a video sharing service from Alliance Atlantis that's just for us Canucks. Check out Mathew Ingram's take on YouTube North, which apparently claims it owns all content uploaded to the Web site. Hah! Here's a riddle: why is it that Canada ranks second behind South Korea when it comes to high-speed Internet penetration yet we lag when it comes to e-commerce, social networking, user-generated content, etc. Why?
For more thoughts, check out Global Nerdy, who believe blogTV is neither a blog or TV.

Crap, Spam is Back!

Mark Evans — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 09:18:49 -0500

I thought it was just me receiving hundreds of e-mail messages over the past few weeks featuring the subject line "It's me, xxxx" that featured information about some yet-to-be-discovered stock but it turns out I'm just being caught up in the new spam onslaught hitting inboxes around the world. According to spam-filtering firm Ironport, the amount of spam has doubled over the past year, and it now accounts for more than 90% of e-mail messages.

Clearly, something needs to be done because all the efforts to filter out spam and shut down spammers isn't doing the job any more - if it was doing the job at all. So what needs to be done? Is there an effective way to pursue spammers other than convincing different governments around the world to make it illegal? One of the many challenges in shutting down spammers is the tools they're using to deliver their payloads, which include using other people's computers through downloaded viruses, malware or spyware.

If spam (including splogs and comment spam) continues to proliferate, it could choke the Internet and threaten innovation. After all, it's difficult to drive a Porsche down the super-highway if most of the lanes are bogged down by slow-moving jalopies, right?

Deck the Halls With Susan Decker

Mark Evans — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 07:49:54 -0500

In a press release ("Yahoo! Re-Aligns Organization to More Effectively Focus on Key Customer Segments and Capture Future Growth Opportunities") that could become a classic case study for public relations students, Yahoo has cleared the decks for Susan Decker to become its new COO by firing Dan Rosensweig. You figure a media company such as Yahoo would figure out a more elegant way than issuing a 1,500+ word press release. Of course, Decker's ascension to COO has been the word's worst kept secret so you figure Rosenweig isn't too broken up about getting canned less than three weeks before Christmas. Tom Foremski raises a good point the speculation Rosenveig was the one who leaked the "Peanut Butter Manifesto" a couple weeks ago, while Paul Kedrosky wonders why co-founder David Filo's name is missing from the press release. Yahoo's biggest challenge right now appears to be figuring out what it wants to be. Does it want to be an Internet services companies or a media company? And how long does CEO Terry Semel stick around?

Yahoo's Stab at Community Journalism

Mark Evans — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 22:58:18 -0500

Disclaimer: I'm not a big fan of community journalism. Sure, there's an argument to be made about having citizen journalists using their cellphones, Blackberrys, PDAs, etc. to "report" the news as it happens but it's not really news as much as raw material that real news organizations can squeeze some snippets of value from. So far, community journalism has been, at best, disappointing. Dan Gilmour tried to make a go of it with BayoSphere but it fizzled out despite his best efforts.

Despite the lack of traction, Yahoo and Reuters have jumped into the citizen journalism market with a service called YouWitnessNews that will user-generated content on Yahoo's news site while Reuters will distribute the content to newspapers, magazines and Web sites. "This is looking out and saying, 'What if everybody in the world were my stringers?' " said Chris Ahearn, president of the Reuters media group.

To be honest, I don't think big media organizations can effectively do citizen journalism. Why? I don't think citizens feel an enormous affinity or loyalty to large conglomerate such as Yahoo or Reuters. Sure, there's the glory of seeing your content within a Yahoo or Reuters story but I don't see that as a sustainable or vibrant activity.

This isn't to suggest there's no room for citizen journalism to thrive. A good example is NowPublic.com, a Vancouver-based start-up that has steadily grown its traffic and the number of contributors. NowPublic has a chance to thrive because it's a small player dealing with individuals so there's a bond that a Yahoo or a Reuters can't attain.

Who's Doing it Right?

Mark Evans — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 16:35:43 -0500

I've spent quite a bit of time recently talking about how newspapers need to get their acts together if they want to survive/thrive the growing popularity of the Web. The Bivings Report puts the spotlight on some U.S. newspapers that are doing it right. For the bloggers out there, the best blog network belong to the Boston Globe, which the Bivings Group aid "has an enormous network of journalist and citizen blogs that cover a wide variety of topics. Definitely worth checking out, especially if you live in the Boston area." How about The Bivings Report coming up to Canada to do a review of the newspaper landscape? I'd be happy to help them out...:)

I Want Om-TV

Mark Evans — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 07:53:09 -0500

GigaOm is expanding again with the launch of a new blog, NewTeeVee, that will cover the online video industry's hot start-ups, talent, technology. With online video booming, it's actually been somewhat of a surprise these type of blogs haven't already flourished. Still, it's early days and there will more than enough news to keep an army of bloggers busy as YouTube, Google, Yahoo, Brightcove, DailyMotion, etc. become even bigger players in the video business. Nice work, Om.

Technorati Tags: Om Malik, TV

LinkedIn Love

Mark Evans — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 14:10:36 -0500

Ever since I made the leap from tech journalist to blogging executive, my inbox has seen a rash of LinkedIn requests. Maybe this has something to do with the fact few people want to network with a journalist. In any event, LinkedIn is one of those companies that has quietly become one of the more successful players in the social networking market. In the past year, its membership has doubled to more than eight million people, and the company expects to hit $100-million in revenue by 2008. Business 2.0 has a profile about the Palo Alto, Ca.-based company and its co-founder Reid Hoffman in the latest issue.

TinyURL A Big Utility...but the Next YouTube??

Mark Evans — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 07:40:17 -0500

Have you ever come across an extraordinarily long URL and wondered: why does it have to be that long and is there a way to shorten it so it could become more user-friendly in an e-mail or blog post? (Wow, that's a long first sentence could be shortened!).
The answer to the second question is TinyURL.com, a small online utility that quickly squeezes URLs to a much more manageable size. For whatever reason, ZDNet's David Berlind believes that TinyURL has the potential to be the next YouTube because...well, I'm really sure other than his theory that anyone who squeezes a URL must be really interested in that particular Web site, which could be extremely valuable data for marketers. Berlind tracked down TinyURL's developer, Kevin Gilbertson, a podcast. The interview reveals Berlind's theory is way ahead of what Gilbertson thinks, including the idea a big Web player could come along and snap up TinyURL for big bucks.
MakeYouGoHmm.com, which developed a rival URL utility called tdurl.com in 2004, doesn't understand why Berlind is so excited about TinyURL.com, which has squeezed 28 million URLs so far, and generates revenue from Yahoo ads. In fact, he's surprised that ZDNet doesn't own its own URL shortening service.

Gripe o' the Day

Mark Evans — Sun, 03 Dec 2006 10:50:40 -0500

In my office, I have more than a dozen AC/DC power units for a variety of electronics devices ranging from cell phones and MP3 players to radios. The problem is most of them are totally useless because the devices they're supposed to power have been lost or been broken. And if I still have the device, the power unit has been lost or its broken. How comes the consumer electronics industry can't create a single standard for power units - a one size fits all approach? I mean, if the high-tech industry can agree on USB standards, you'd think something as established as electrical power units would be a snap.

Hitwise on the Block?

Mark Evans — Sun, 03 Dec 2006 08:13:58 -0500

The Web metrics market is a hot space these days - hot enough that Hitwise has apparently decided to sell itself for about $350-million, according to The Telegraph. The company, which was started in 1997 by Australians Andrew Barlow and Adrian Giles, is one of the leading Web site monitoring services along with ComScore and Alexa. This industry has received more attention as the growth of the online advertising market has driven the need for accurate traffic data. The problem, however, with the Web site monitoring market is there are no standards so you're dealing with an apples and oranges scenario many times. This has become more of a challenge as spiders, bots and splogs troll around pinging Web sites and skewing traffic numbers. That said, there has been plenty of M&A interest in the stats business what with Google buying MeasureMap and FeedBurner acquired BlogBeat.
For more thoughts, check out Mathew Ingram and Joe Duck. For some insight into the controversy surrounding the accuracy of Web statistics, check out this recent BusinessWeek story, as well as Webanalyticsbook.com.

Technorati Tags: ComScore, Web Traffic

Rogers' Down Under Customer Service

Mark Evans — Sat, 02 Dec 2006 09:05:10 -0500

While drinking coffee and reading the newspapers this morning, the telephone rings (who calls before 9 a.m. on the weekend anyway?) and it's one of those automated customer service messages reminding me that I haven't paid by Rogers bill yet. The weird thing is the computerized voice had an Australian accent!