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Ovi, Nokia’s online platform for sharing information from mobile devices, just expanded considerably, reports John Biggs over at CrunchGear.  He writes: "The first and most important update is their file sharing system. After installing the Nokia Ovi Suite on your PC or laptop – it doesn’t work with Mac although there is some talk this […]

The success of leading personal finance Web site Mint.com since its win at TechCrunch40 last year gives some idea of what might be in store for this year’s winner, Yammer. The real prize, or course, isn’t the $50,000–it’s the publicity.

The anticipated news that will presented at the TechCrunch 50 conference in a couple of hours has just been released.  Google is organizing archives and feeds of newspapers around the globle. This new data will be served up on Google News and Google News Archives. The first phase is U.S. newspapers which have been offline […]

YouTube has introduced rich metadata into select videos, which will significantly impact how online video is discovered and consumed. Announced in June, we have found the technology is very useful.  Last week, we got an update on this from Steve Grove, head of news and politics at YouTube.

comScore just came out with the stats for May and Americans watched 12 billion videos during the month, up 45 percent from last May.  Fox Interactive, owner of MySpaceTV ranks number two with a market share of 6.4 percent, up 1.3 versus April. Last month I visited MySpaceTV in Los Angeles to interview Jason Kirk.  […]

The interoperability of consumer electronic devices is essential for the entertainment industry, but it is not yet a reality, says Steve Abraham, who is co-head of IBM’s global media and entertainment practice.

As time-shifting viewing habits of cable TV by consumers increases, there is a big challenge for the cable operators and advertisers to effectively insert relevant advertising. BlackArrow, a San Mateo-based company, apparently has a solution.  The company has  been heavily funded by some key strategic investors including Cisco, Comcast, Intel and top  VC’s  Mayfield and  […]

LOS ANGELES–JibJab Media, widely known for its political parody This Land, created the first viral Web video way back in 2000.  Having established a recognized online brand, the company has evolved into a subscription business with customized e-cards and other forms form branded mash-ups. Evidently people are willing to pay for the service. JibJab’s Sendables […]

LOS ANGELES–The multimedia "playable" search engine Seeqpod has attracted 5.5 million unique monthly users over the past year, according to internal numbers provided to Beet.TV. Through affiliates and an API, that number will likely double this year, a company spokesperson told us. The search engine technology was developed at the Lawrence Berkeley National Labs.  It […]

Seesmic, the new company headed by French blogger Loic Le Meur,  provides a technology for threaded video comments on various blog platforms, is up and running on MovableType blogs.  Plans are underway to integrate Seesmic into TypePad blogs, also a SixApart platform.  I’ve reposted my interview from May 7 with Seesmic evangelist Cathy Brooks.  Cathy […]

There might be a record number of video cameras in Beijing this summer, but the vamped up restrictions on digital rights the International Olympic Committee announced earlier this week will leave squadrons of TV teams and citizens journalists with a lot less to cover. NBC paid a record $894 million for rights to broadcast the […]

msnbc.com and NBC News have expanded its relationship with MySpace with a new initiative to find "citizen" journalists from MySpace to cover the presidential conventions. MSNBC on-air talent, along with MySpace executives will select the journalists.  The judges are Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski and Willie Geist from MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” program, along with Tom Anderson, […]

While the vast majority of online video advertising is inserted into streaming Flash videos viewed in a Web browser, this inevitably will change as more video will consumed via download. Although paid downloads have become a big business, thanks largely to Apple’s iTunes, advertiser-supported downloaded videos are only now beginning to emerge.  Big hurdles exist: […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]