Andy Plesser

Kosmix, the search engine designed to organize pages around specific interests including health, travel and automobiles, can now be configured to personalize search on any topic.  The few functionality was reported this morning by Mark Hendrickson at TechCrunch. Earlier this month, I interviewed Kosmix co-founder Anand Rajaraman.  He spoke in general terms about the new […]

Vint Cerf, a computer scientist who is most often called the "father of the Internet," says that the popularity and demand for online video will mean that the distribution will eventually be done "in download mode," not streaming, which is pervasive today.

NEW YORK — Earlier today at the Personal Democracy Forum, we spoke with Stanford law professor Lawrence Lessig.  Lessig is spending a great deal of time on congressional reform movement called Change Congress, an organization he co-founded with Joe Trippi. Handling the interview was our colleague Caroline McCarthy of CNET News.com who filed a story […]

CULVER CITY, CA — The success of digital entertainment will result from true interoperability between consumer devices, says Mitch Singer, Chief Technology Officer of Sony Pictures.Earlier this month I visited him on on the Sony lot.  He is among a group of entertainment executives and academics who are working to create new standards in downloadable […]

Rich widgets for consumer smart phones will represent a significant new platform in the digital advertising world and one worthy of VC investment, according Tim Chang, a partner with Norwest Partners, a top-tier venture capital firm in Palo Alto.  He is looking to invest in this area along with analytics companies which track engagement of […]

It’s been a year since Vator.tv launched.  The company was co-founded by former Marketwatch columnists Bambi Francisco and backed by Peter (PayPal co-founder) Thiel and others prominent investors. Bambi’s co-founder is Cyril Brignone. Initially a place for aspiring entrepreneurs to pitch business ideas to potential investors, it is transitioning into an online video news platform […]

BEVERLY HILLS — The OVGuide indexes and highlights some 1800 episodic online video programs.  It is powered by a staff of editors and a video search technology.  While it has operated largely under the radar, it has become quite popular.  According to Chad Cooper, editorial content manager of OVGuide, the site will have 10 million […]

In a remarkable reflection of how the creative process of video production is changing the advertising agency world, Rob Schwartz, the top creative officer at TBWA/Chiat Day in Los Angeles, told me he is going to buy Flip cameras for everyone in the art and creative department at his agency’s  LA office. The office is […]

HOLLYWOOD — Here on Wednesday night at the Henry Fonda Theater, YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley kicked off YouTube’s debut of a new showcase for long and short-form films.   Beet.TV was on the scene. The YouTube Screening Room has attracted several highly regarded filmmakers — and not just for the online exposure of the mega video […]

MySpaceTV tonight introduced a Flash-based "carousel" of related videos displayed across the top of the MySpaceTV redesigned home page.  When logged in, members find unviewed videos from friends’ feeds or subscriptions. Giving such a prime location to showcase video is part of the big site redesign and reflects the major efforts surrounding video including the […]

Just read that Joshua Schachter, founder of Del.i.cio.us whose company was acquired by Yahoo! in 2005, has departed the company, TechCrunch is reporting tonight. I’ve reposted my interview with Joshua that I did on the MIT campus in September of 2006 when he received MIT’s Technology Review Innovator of the Year.  (Separately, I produced a […]

Veoh has some 100,000 content producers whose videos are watched by 28 million unique monthly visitors, founder Dmitry Shapiro told me in this interview I conducted in Los Angeles last week. He said that key to success of the monetization of online video is an engine that connects video content with related advertising.  He says […]

Pioneering video blogger Amanda Congdon has a new show, producer, studio/backer and her own production facility in Venice, California. Last week in Los Angeles, I caught up with her and her producer Mario Librandi for update on Amanda’s new show "Sometimesdaily" along with some pointers about video bloggging. — Andy Plesser

HOLLYWOOD — YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley is speaking tonight (photo above) at the YouTube kick-off event for its new film program featuring shortform films from filmmakers from around the globe.  He told the audience of Hollywood insiders gathered at the Henry Fonda Theater a few minutes ago: "It is about expanding business opportunities for filmmaker… […]

Kosmix, the new search engine company well-funded by Jeff Bezos, Accel (Facebook), LightSpeed and others, creates popular informational pages around the topics of health and travel. It will soon allow individuals to create search-powered sites of virtually any personal or professional interest. I spoke with co-founder Anand Rajaraman in New York last month.  He told […]

ThePlatform, the Seattle-based video distribution platform for large online video publishers, has been at it for eight years, long before most of us were talking about this business.  Just last month the company announced an agreement with PBS and its member stations to power online video distribution. The company was acquired by Comcast two years […]

The New York Times has just launched the public beta of TimesPeople, a social networking platform for visitors to the site who want to share and recommend content. The new program, which only works on the Firefox browser, can be downloaded here.  In addition to sharing within the Times site, the program allows users to […]

LOS ANGELES — TMZ, the extremely successful celebrity gossip site and syndicated television show owned by Time Warner, is getting traction with online live streaming. A live streaming video of a parking lot, where Britney Spears was expected, grabbed thousands of viewers for nearly two hours. A recent courthouse appearance by Hulk Hogan’s  son captivated […]

Great to see original content by clever independent online video producers like Hayden Black move up the mainstream.  According to Kara Swisher’s report today, the director/writer of "Goodnight Burbank" is getting his show up on Hulu. Congrats! I’ve pasted Kara’s interview above. — Andy Plesser

Earlier today, Brightcove, the big video distribution platform for publishers, announced a major development.  It is providing a number of enhancements including a high quality Flash stream for long form videos and a means to generate metadata around content, making it more discoverable. It has been in beta with some customers and will be fully […]