Google Ads on YouTube

In an earlier post, I suggested companies to pay YouTube users who have viral videos in their early viral stages (while it's still spreading across the web at a very high rate) for advertising purposes. Google is now doing this. Google is using popular videos as an advertising space for online advertising.

I love this idea as they're really taking advantage of web 2.0, and making loads of money off the value that mass collaborations bring. A whole new route for online advertising has been built! I wonder how much money will Google make off this.

Random Thoughts on YouTube and E-Marketing

Top 5 Most Viewed, All Time (Official)

Two out of the top five are music videos, and the other three are obviously not professionally made. Out of these five videos, I can only find one remotely funny. Does this mean humor is an overrated factor for creating viral videos?

I am sure people and experts are more than capable of coming up with reasons for why these videos became viral, and especially after there are millions of views! The reasons can be: the dog is cute, the girls are attractive, and so on.

Can you imagine how many videos with these so called "viral videos making components" don't even get 500 views? Therefore, I have came up with a very unofficial theory. I know there are studies and researches done on how to create viral videos, but from watching these most viewed videos on YouTube, I truly believe that luck is still the single most significant determining factor.

1. Since June 12th 2008, "Sasha CHEER for Team U.S.A!!!" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ribqGr-yxw


2. Since April 5th 2006, "Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXdNnw99-Ic


3. Since August 8th 2007, "Brick & Lace: Love is Wicked (OFFICIAL Video..Standard DEF)" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrQ2SvjzIOk


4. Since May 28th 2007, "Powerthirst" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRuNxHqwazs


5. Since September 17th 2006, "Bring Me To Life - Evanescence" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TILCIRspO0

Two Amazing Channels/Personality (Personal Preference)

When someone develops a great reputation (and viewers base) on YouTube, they can really start using that reputation to make some serious money. There are people on YouTube who has thousands of subscribers, and millions of views for their videos, so what's the wait..Coca Cola, let's negotiate a deal.

1. Phillip DeFranco: A great speaker who talks about current hot issues and news in a very compelling and humourous style! http://www.youtube.com/user/sxephil


2. MRirian: the exact opposite of Phillip. She looks into the camera, and makes cute expressions, while she doesn't speak much. She has made 75 videos so far, and all of these have over a million views. http://www.youtube.com/user/MRirian

Twitter believes the best of them is yet to come

I mentioned about their search service in an earlier blog post, and how they plan to make money off it, but I didn't realize how special this search service can potentially be. People and companies can use the Twitter search service to find out about the buzz on a particular issue live, which is interesting, but not quite earth shattering. What's earth shattering is their future plan, which is to allow searches to go out to other Twitter users as a query. To rephrase this, Twitter users can soon get feedbacks and answers to their tweets from millions of other Twitter users...LIVE.

Unlike Google, the biggest search engine in the world, where search results will only show pre made documents, Twitter can get live customized responses from other Twitter users LIVE. For example, when you Tweet "what's good on TV at 8pm tonight?", there will be literally thousands of people tweeting back replies like "Simpsons", "the last episode of American Idol", or "the news". Another example can be a police Tweeting "if you see a Asian man in his 30s wearing a white t-shirt, please let us know", he/she can get hundreds of responses from people who see this man in a matter of seconds.

The scary thing about this idea is we won't know how far this can go. This can go way too far where there is no privacy for anyone at anytime. Imagine if you're lying to your wife about working overtime, but you're actually at a bar chucking pints of beer down with your buddies. In the past, you'll just have to tell your buddies to keep their mouth shut, but now, you'll have to get everyone in the bar and on the streets to keep their cell phones in their pockets, because you know what? They can be replying to your wife's Tweet, "let me know if you see someone wearing a Mickey tie", as you're chucking down that Corona. This is just one of a billion other examples. Imagine what can happen when you lie in the future!

We should be really concerned about how Twitter structures this service as it can not only change corporations' branding procedures quickly, it can also change our lives dramatically!

Source: http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=135016

Skittles New Website

This new website is definitely different from ordinary websites since it doesn't even have a domain! After you type in the url http://www.skittles.com/, you will be redirected to the Skittles group on Facebook and a navigation menu will appear. There are multiple buttons on the navigation menu, and clicking the buttons will lead you to Skittles pages on different popular web 2.0 websites.

This is how the new Skittles website works. When you click:

• HOME, it leads to the Skittles group on Facebook

Update March 5th 2009: HOME now leads to Wikipedia instead

• PRODUCTS, it leads to the different products page on Wikipedia


• MEDIA, it leads to either the channel on YouTube, or the photos on Flickr


• CHATTER, it leads to the search result on Twitter


• FRIENDS, it leads to the Skittles group on Facebook


• CONTACT, it finally leads to a Skittles page with a simple contact form

If you have no clue what I am talking about, check it out yourself.

Actually a similar approach was taken a year ago when Modernista, an advertising agency, created their website. David-Michel Davies, executive director of the Webby's Award, discussed the reason behind this approach and said, "...all these great tools out there, you're just not going to be able to come up with a better way to share photos than Flickr or a better way to build community than Facebook". On top of the above reason, I guess this kind of innovative website is also saying, "I KNOW WEB 2.0".

My Thoughts

This kind of website might take a while for it to become popular (if it would become popular) as it is far from intuitive to navigate. It's also nothing I would expect to see when I go on a website to check out a new product. I personally would rather have these popular web 2.0 websites embedded nicely on an actual domain with multiple pages, which makes navigation much more easier. Because I don't know how many people will leave the website due to the unexpected and unintuitive navigation, I would much rather have this new website idea as a complimentary piece to a more traditional website. This will just make lives easier for everyone! Update March 5th 2009: This kind of website is more suitable for produts with a well structured brand, because it's hard to use this kind of website to create a solid brand since the contents are created by many different users.

Source: http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=134946

Twitter Doesn't have a Revenue Model

Yes, what the title says. Actually, Twitter has made it public that they are in no rush to come up with a revenue model.

I know their funder want Twitter to focus on growth instead of revenue, but shouldn't they at least hire a team to focus on potential revenue models. What if Twitter dies down? What if another version of Twitter emerges? You just never know what will happen, esepcially when the economy is so volatile.

Twitter! Here is my suggestion. Just do your research on the two possible revenue models you've been talking about (and hire a few more employees in the process since you only have 60 employees working on a product with 6 million users), and start collecting the cash before anything goes bad!

For those of you who are too lazy to click on the link below to read about the two potential revenue models:

1. Charge corporations or even regular users a fee to use the service.
2. Charge companies a fee to utilize the Twitter search service, which allows them to find out what Twitter users are saying about their products.

At least Twitter understands selling advertising space is not a strong revenue model anymore!

Source: http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=134954

New Gadgets!

Can you find the three new gadgets on my blog?
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Yes, it's the "I Power Blogger" logo on the top left, the stylish clock on the top right, and the wikipedia search at the bottom. Hope this enriches your experience on my blog!

Internet Is Killing Our Economy?

I am sitting at the library, and this thought just came up. It's a really interesting (or devastating) thought. Here we go, sit tight, and read on.

The internet offers us everything we can think of, for free! There is free streaming (Justin TV), free chatting softwares (msn), and even free kisses (kiss me in 3D). We are not going to get out of the economy crisis by having everyone watching TV shows, gossiping with friends, and kissing monitors at home.

Disagree? Think the websites that offer these free services will keep the economy rolling by making a lot of money? Let's look at this closely.

The common business model for web base businesses is to generate lots of users to create expensive advertising space, and rely on the sales of these advertising space as the only source of revenue.

Sounds like a good plan, but in the year 2009, this business model doesn't work anymore! Why?

First, we have to understand that these online advertising spaces are often ignored due to the excessive use in the past. Second, some of these ads might be advertising for a service that other websites are offering for free! These two reasons alone can explain why online advertising is not that effective nor attractive, and it just can't be relied on as the only source of revenue anymore.

So let's summarize this. Web base businesses that offer free services have an unattractive business model, and moreover, offline businesses are negatively affected by the free online services as well.

All these things will only slow down the economy.

Does anyone disagree? Please provide me a dose of optimism.

PS: Next time you wish for a free web base service, wish at your own risk, because more free services lead to a bad economy, and a bad economy leads to a smaller salary...for you.