Online Video is Bright Spot in Dark Economy

The business of online video is growing. Numerous recent articles are pointing toward encouraging trends for those of us who are in the business of digital entertainment on the web.

Video advertising appears to continue to sell well according to a recent article in The Economist. Internet advertising will be relatively unscathed in the downturn.

A recent MediaPost article by Mark Walsh seems to support this. "Market researcher eMarketer maintains that video ad spending will buck the downward trend. It expects the category to increase 45% in 2009 to $850 million, or just over 3% of the $25.7 million total projected in online ad spending." See" Video Expected To 'Buck The Downward Trend'

Online Video Predictions for 2009

Mashable has published an optimistic set of predictions for online video in 2009 including the following:

• Record year for video content consumption


• Video monetization becomes reality


• On-demand video platforms gain as the economy slumps


• Mobile video finally breaks out

Check out the rest of the predictions from Alex Castro, CEO and co-founder of Delve Networks.

Analyzing, Indexing, Reading and Interpreting Online Digital Video Content

The advances in online video keep coming. It's a good thing, too, since video is quickly becoming one of the most popular online pastimes. As comScore notes, three out of four American Internet users regularly watch videos. In September, 146 million people watched an average of 86 videos each.

With so many videos online, new tools are popping up to help users sift through it all. For example, VideoSurf (see photo above), will actually analyze every frame of online videos from YouTube, Hulu and numerous other popular sites. The software analyzes faces and elements in the videos so that when users search for something like Johnny Cash, the results will bring the user right to the exact frames of video where Johnny appears. It works great.

Another spooky technology is from a company called called DigitalSmiths who describe themselves as follows, "Digitalsmiths is an innovative video indexing and digital content publishing technology provider serving major Hollywood studios, web video destinations, media companies and advertisers. The company’s proprietary computer-vision based video indexing, search and interpretation algorithms empower content owners and publishers to efficiently monetize their digital video content, and advertisers to automatically target ads to thematically relevant video content."

The New York Times has written a review of such sites called "Zeroing In On Your Favorite Video Clips".

Also, check out the video below from the PBS series Wired Science. Scientists are using facial recognition software to help Autistic kids learn how to interpret emotions by reading facial movements and visual cues. Wild stuff.

Viral Entertainment Shows How To Squeeze Creative Juices

This is quality online entertainment. Ever wonder where creative juices come from? Just squeeze a skinny designer. Watch this hilarious video "The Harvest" (above) created for The South West Regional Development Agency, a group promoting South West England.

The video was made by Bristol-based viral video gurus Rubber Republic. In addition to making the video, they sent 2000 bottles of "creative juices" (you'll understand once you watch the video) to London creative agencies.

Check out the Creative Juices microsite.

Pythonline: Why The Internet Was Invented

If you thought it was time to give up on the Internet, you were wrong. The immensely handsome and well mannered Monty Python crew has launched a website, social network and YouTube channel. Check out Pythonline or I will say "Ni" at you again!