Seesmic.com, Playcafe and Ustream discussed the integration of on-demand and live video in the Web 2.0 world and the place advertisers have, as the Internet is quickly becoming a destination for traditional TV viewers.

 

Seesmic is a videoblog Web site that enables users to create video conversations with friends on a social network. It creates a more personal connection that text-only comments (like those on Facebook and Myspace) do not offer.

 

With one topic, a user’s video blog can elicit numerous responses within minutes, and we were lucky enough to witness this first-hand, as Seemic’s founder Loic Le Meur uploaded a greeting to his friends directly from his seat in the conference. In minutes, over 20 video responses from around the world were made, showing the popularity of on-demand video in social networking even in its infancy.

 

Ustream enables live video streaming where users can gather in one place and experience shows, conversations, and various interactions in real time. Not only does it bring together groups of people from around the world, but in doing so it also provides a viable means of advertising.

 

With television content rapidly making its way online, the Internet audience is primed for advertising being lost to on-demand television and Tivo. Pre-roll ads on such live streams can generate a lot of revenue for companies like Ustream.

 

Playcafe combines both live streaming and on-demand for an online game show that can be played live at designated times or on-demand like traditional Internet trivia. It creates an interactive social experience to game shows that TV leaves out, and could signal a new way of broadcasting such shows both online and on TV.

 

With on-demand and live video emerging in Web 2.0, look out for these three Web sites and others like them to help develop the Internet into a prime destination for videos.

 

By Danny Scuderi

The Web 2.0 Expo featured many innovations emerging for the Internet, but two trends were featured prominently.

 

Corporate social networking and application development were featured regularly around the Expo, showing the direction in which Web 2.0 is taking the Internet.

 

Corporate social networking is emerging as a way to connect people in the same workplace while avoiding the massive, public communities of Myspace and Facebook. It lets companies create their own social network in order to share ideas, documents, and comments about the company for which they work.

 

One of the reasons for the rejection of large social networks is the discomfort it creates in employers who don’t want to share their personal lives with their co-workers. They provide a forum to share all things work related while keeping the private life private.

 

Ideas and suggestions can be immediately read by those who make the decisions. It increases the speed at which suggestions are realized instead of having them traveling through the hierarchy of the corporate ladder until they reach the one in charge.

 

Application development is becoming easier to learn and use, as companies are taking the coding out of the process by keeping it hidden and leaving simple features for users.

 

Applications can be used for a variety of reasons, one of which being advertising. With Facebook open to applications, companies are developing applications to engage users into discovering more about the product or company.

 

With the iPhone’s announcement that it is open to third-party developers, creating applications is emerging as a digital mobile technology, one of the big futures of the Internet.

 

The Web 2.0 Expo displayed many innovations, but corporate social networking and application development were two trends to keep an eye out for.

 

By Danny Scuderi

The Web 2.0 Expo conference describes the way in which consumers have adapted to the applications on Web 2.0, many times without even being aware of it.

 

Web 2.0 has transformed the way users interact with the Internet, with consumers finding more and more applications that provide two-way interaction between themselves and the content they seek.

 

It provides a “conversation” between the user and the product, and many times this conversation is the content the user speaks. For example, Mapquest is a Web 2.0 application whose function is to interact with the consumer in order to find driving directions to and from a particular place.

 

“Conversation” applications are also being accessed in more places than before, as phones are becoming a more common place to use the Internet.

 

Mobile digital content enables consumers to access the content they want from anywhere, which has transformed the consumer market. People can now research and purchase products from mobile phones, which in turn has transformed the way products are distributed.

 

Fragmentation creates multiple distribution possibilities for companies and their products, enabling them to be sold on multiple platforms, from PCs to mobile phones.

 

With fragmentation comes many opportunities to grab the consumer’s attention, but it also provides complexities in tracking whether marketing strategies work. It is difficult to tell whether search engine advertising influences a consumer’s decision outside of the internet, in the supermarket for example.

 

The major innovations to look forward to are in mobile devices, as the technology is still emerging and companies are finding new ways to take advantage of it.

 

These new innovations in Web 2.0 applications could mean another, new kind of interaction with consumers. Maybe a Web 3.0 is right around the corner.

 

By Danny Scuderi

 

Yahoo, Inc. and Time Warner are approaching a deal to fold AOL (minus its dial-up Internet access business) into Yahoo and form a combined company. The AOL-Yahoo merger would value AOL at $10 billion and involve AOL investing cash into Yahoo’s repurchase of shares at a price above Microsoft’s offer reported The New York Times.

 

The Microsoft Corp., on the other hand, revealed talks to unite with Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. in its offer for the Web giant. As of Thursday, April 10, no agreement had been reached; however, talks appear to be serious as News Corp. considers adding some cash to the deal. A deal of this magnitude would, in effect, unite three of the largest Web properties: News Corp.’s Myspace, Microsoft’s MSN and Yahoo. Furthermore, the partnership would create an all-in-one site for online advertisers, unite the largest social networking sites, as well as combine online news and e-mail.

 

Also in the mix, Yahoo announced on Wednesday, April 9, an experiment to outsource its search ad sales to Google. The trial partnership is part of Yahoo’s planned three-way alliance to combine Yahoo with Time Warner Inc’s AOL and hopefully fend off absorption by Microsoft.

 

With the announcement, Yahoo shares rose nearly 3 percent on Thursday to close at $28.59, while Microsoft rose 0.8 percent to $29.11.

 

Microsoft’s current offer values Yahoo at $29.33 per share, which the Web company turned down as too low.  Until Wednesday, Yahoo appeared to be without a choice other than Microsoft, which has threatened to lower its bid if not accepted within three weeks.

 

Many analysts and investors expect Microsoft will ultimately win its bid for Yahoo. However, Yahoo’s efforts aren’t completely without merit since Yahoo may now be able to negotiate a higher asking price from Microsoft.

 

By Kathleen Clark

Zivity.com, a San Francisco-based start up, is revolutionizing the way social networking companies are profiting. Interview with co-founder Cyan Banister.

 

By paying a monthly $10 fee, users are opened to an adult networking site with professional photography, amateur and professional models, and some nudity.

 

Members are given five votes to cast for the models and photographs they like best, and with each vote the models and photographers split royalties. And, there is no limit to how many votes someone can receive.

 

Therefore, there is no limit to how much money a model or photographer can make as long as their work remains popular.

 

Unlike broader social networking sites, such as Myspace and Facebook, Zivity is capitalizing on the popularity of sharing photos online and giving royalties to the content producers. It is the company’s way of celebrating female beauty while giving back to those who drive in the traffic.

 

The subscription model for the site also frees it from the pressures of advertising. By charging members a fee, Zivity has total control over its Web site content; whereas Myspace and Facebook do not.

 

Zivity is not scheduled to go live until 2009, but it has already accrued $8 million in the first and second rounds of investments.

 

In the Beta stage, Zivity has a waiting list of over 25,000 people. Members join by invite only.

 

Co-Founders Jeffery Wescott, Scott Bannister and Cyan Bannister see the incremental growth as a way to enable them to shape the company as it grows instead of dealing with the problems that arise from growing too quickly.

 

Zivity.com is already popular and will become profitable after its first 100,000 users.

 

By Danny Scuderi

Yahoo! introduces Shine, a Website for and about women between the ages of 25 and 54. Shine, whose content takes direct aim at women, will feature lifestyle and entertainment articles from major US media firms Conde Nast Publications and Hearst Corporation. 

Furthermore, the website will showcase popular blogs and has an in-house news staff to write stories daily. Shine will showcase nine categories touching on fashion and beauty, health, parenting, and money, actively engaging women with issues important to them.

"We’re executing on Yahoo’s starting-point strategy by ensuring that women who start their day with Yahoo are offered a more relevant experience," said Scott Moore, senior vice president and head of Yahoo Media. "Yahoo Shine adds an important piece to our media portfolio, which already includes sites that are number one in the news, sports, finance and entertainment categories."

 

Yahoo expects to tap into the buying power of women with this specific vertical and further distinguish themselves from main competitor Google. The female age 25-54 audience (considered the “Chief Household Officer” by Yahoo) is especially sought after by most advertisers. It is made up of heavy Internet users who are frequently the household purchasing decision-makers. Yahoo believes Shine creates an opportunity for advertisers to reach this audience in an environment relevant and meaningful to women.

 

In particular, Yahoo anticipates the site will attract advertisers in the consumer packaged goods, pharmaceuticals and retail categories, where combined online advertising spending is expected to exceed $1.8 billion this year, according to a competitive-spending analysis by TNS Media Intelligence.

 

The only criticism noted so far is that Shine is a subdomain of Yahoo. Rather than the more resonant Shine.com, the URL is actually www.shine.yahoo.com, instilling weaker brand potential for Shine.

 

By Kathleen Clark

Wikimedia, the non-profit organization behind Wikipedia.org, received its largest donation ever of $3 million from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation yesterday, March 25, 2008.

 

According to the announcement, the donation “will support Wikimedia’s organizational development and help to increase the quality of its content and the reach of its services.”

 

One program funded by the donation, called Flagged Revisions, will enable editors to publicly grade articles on Wikipedia. It will also fund the Wikipedia Academy, an outreach service aimed at teaching academics, older people, and other groups how to contribute to the website, further improving the content.

 

The Wikimedia Foundation also plans to produce DVDs and books in order to reach those who are not connected to the internet.

 

Wikipedia.org is the 7^th most popular website in the U.S. according to comScore. Consequently, most of the Wikimedia Foundation’s $4.6 million budget covers the servers and Internet bandwidth to handle such traffic.

 

Even with so many viewers, the Wikimedia Foundation does not fund Wikipedia and its other projects through advertising, relying instead on donations.

 

The Sloan Foundation’s contribution is a big leap in the increase of donations to the Wikimedia Foundation over the years. Last year, the sum contributions reached $2.2 million, an increase from $1.3 million in 2006.

 

Jimmy Wales, a board member of the Wikimedia Foundation and a leader of the Wikipedia project, hopes the newest donation “will pave the way towards more donations as it is a signal that a major foundation sees good in what we are doing."

 

The group has been looking for more stable means of support in order to ensure its long-term survival. Hopefully the newest contribution will help keep alive the world’s largest and most popular encyclopedia.

 

By Danny Scuderi

 

Marketers are proportioning as much as 20% of their advertising budgets to online marketing, and they, as well as their clients, are interested in how online ads compare to TV advertising and affect brand image.

 

While TV ads are long, disruptive and easily avoidable, most of the online advertising is concise and must be watched, whether it is a banner ad on a website or a mini-commercial before an online program begins.

 

Also, using targeted ads online means that different viewers see different advertisements on the same page.

 

Marketing research companies like IAG Research and ARSgroup have developed different methods to gauge how effective ads are in TV and the Internet.

 

IAG uses incentive-based internet polls to see what TV ads viewers remembered, and they place “cookies” on hard drives so they know when panelists are exposed to an online ad. ARSgroup tests how engaging ads are in TV, internet and movie theaters.

 

The use of these tools is still in its infancy, but recent research suggests online advertising is more effective.

 

NBC conducted an online survey of its NBC Rewind viewers and says its internet ads elicit higher brand recall than those on TV. They found that the ads are more entertaining, engaging and, most importantly for the viewer, less disruptive.

 

Peter Naylor, senior VP of digital media sales at NBC Universal said, “These research results show that when the right message is tailored to the right medium, this engaged audience really responds and our advertisers win.”

 

These results combined with the Internet’s growing presence in everyday life may lead to online advertising becoming more important than TV ads.

 

By Danny Scuderi

Food delivery has gone hi-tech in Chicago, San Francisco, and Boston thanks to Chicago-based GrubHub.com.

 

Born in 2004 from the creative minds of Matt Maloney and Michael Evans, GrubHub provides online access to restaurants that deliver in Chicago, San Francisco, and more recently Boston. All you need to do is type in your address to discover who delivers in your area and to access menus.

 

GrubHub’s easy to use searchable interface includes a comprehensive database of restaurant information that is younger than 120 days. To order, you need to set up a free account with GrubHub.com. Within your account, you have a virtual menu drawer with Past Orders, Favorite Menus, My Reviews, and Account Info. Even better, you can provide the restaurant with special instructions on food preparation, such as pepperoni on only half of your pizza; or you can provide the delivery driver with special instructions for accessing your building.

 

GrubHub also allows you to rate and review service and guide other registered users of the site.

 

GrubHub.com has advertising deals with restaurants whose logos appear on the site, and this is how they make money. However, GrubHub still lists restaurants even if there isn’t an advertising partnership in place.

 

According to Matt Maloney, one of the founders of GrubHub, the goal of GrubHub is to provide consumers the easiest and “best consumer interaction” for food delivery and also to get rid of those pesky paper menus.

 

San Francisco-based Extreme Pizza has had a relationship with GrubHub for over 2 years. Jimmy Ryan, one of the partners of Extreme Pizza, says that online orders are at 20 percent and growing; most, if not all, come from GrubHub. 

 

The future of GrubHub is to scale up in multiple markets, one market at a time. “It’s not one-size fits all,” says Maloney. “Each market is different. Consumers in San Francisco, for instance, are “extremely tech savvy, so they got it quickly.” Boston has a promising market of hungry college students that attracted them. 

 

Still deciding where to move next, GrubHub has its eye on New York, Seattle and Washington, D.C.

 

By Kathleen Clark

 

Bebo, a San Francisco-based Web site, is the third-largest social networking service in the US behind MySpace and Facebook. 

 

Along with the UK, Bebo.com is ranked the number one social networking site in Ireland and New Zealand. With approximately 40 million unique users worldwide, Bebo only has 4.8 million unique US visitors.

Acquiring Bebo is a big win for AOL in the popular social network domain. Now, AOL has an edge in the business of targeted advertising, especially internationally. Bebo’s plans to expand into European markets may give AOL the reach it lacks outside North America. The deal is also part of AOL’s larger goal of transforming from an Internet-access gateway to an online advertising giant competing with Yahoo! and Google.

Once considered for acquisition by Microsoft and Yahoo!, the acquirement by AOL does not come as a surprise. 

Randy Falco, Chairman and CEO at AOL, a unit of Time Warner Inc., explains the move:

“What drew us to Bebo was its substantial and fast-growing worldwide user-base, its vision of a truly social Web, and the monetization opportunities that leverage Platform-A across our combined global audience. This positions us to offer advertisers even greater reach and marketers significant insights into the desires and needs of consumers.”

Bebo President, Joanna Shields, says the AOL acquisition is a “natural progression for Bebo” and adds that they “look forward to working together to continue to expand the online social experience globally.”

The addition of Bebo could ultimately breathe new life into AOL’s sluggish advertising growth. AOL ad sales have continued to fall from a low13% in the third quarter of last year to 10% in the fourth quarter.

By Kathleen Clark