YouTube Nets $10Grand from Video Rentals
YouTube conducted its first test of a video rental service last month with five independent films from Sundance Film Festival. In the ten days of the test, the rentals received a total of 2684 views, according to the New York Times. At $3.99 a pop, YouTube brought in $10,709.16.
If YouTube could sustain both of those rates on rentals at large, they’re looking at more than $390,000 a year in revenue. That’s close to offsetting the largest loss estimate from last year and more than enough to turn a profit if more conservative loss estimates are correct.
The original blog post announcement doesn’t say how much of the revenue, if any, will be shared with the independent filmmakers. The additional exposure may be worth the money to the filmmakers, of course.
But to expand the program with large studios, YouTube will doubtlessly need to share revenue, cutting into their profits. YouTube first has been rumored to be discussing rentals with major studios (or free showings) for months. They already have a number of content deals in place with studios including Disney, MGM, and Lions Gate.
As always, we’ll end with the question: Do you think this is the way YouTube will make the big bucks?
Using the Same Login Across Multiple Sites? You’re Not Welcomed at Twitter!
Do you use the same username and password across multiple web sites?
Then you’re not welcomed at Twitter!
That may sound like an exaggeration, but read this statement from Twitter, then you tell me if I’m exaggerating:
The takeaway from this is that people are continuing to use the same email address and password (or a variant) on multiple sites. Through our discussions with affected users, we’ve discovered a high correlation between folks who have used third party forums and download sites and folks who were on our list of possibly affected accounts. While not all users who were sent a password reset request fall into this category, we felt that it was important to put this knowledge out there so that users would know of the possibility of compromise of their data by a third party unrelated to their Twitter account. We strongly suggest that you use different passwords for each service you sign up for…
The front-end of this story is that Twitter is forcing many users to reset their passwords after it concluded that evil torrent sites were harvesting login credentials. Although, at least one person suggests that the issue goes beyond this.
Now, here’s the thing, BILLIONS of people use the same username and password across different sites. Just think about your parents–do you really think they could handle using a different login for each site that requests one? I think not.
Perhaps it’s time to rethink the “login.” Maybe Twitter et al could lead the way in developing a new system of authentication. One idea, ask users to provide their IP address and whitelist it. Any changes that appear to take place from a different IP–say the rapid increase of Twitter accounts followed–could be “rolled back” to a previous state–one that matches the whitelisted IP, perhaps?
I dunno. You tell me. Is there a better system for authenticating social networking users?
Google Wants to Suck Your Blood!
It looks like more people want to join the anti-Google chorus because it is the cool thing to do. Of course, if you want to be unique you can’t just use regular old curse words because Steve Jobs took that one. Rupert Murdoch doesn’t really call Google names but he does think that their business is taking advantage of his hard work. So what to do?
Enter Mark Cuban and if history is any indicator he’s good for a quote or two right? Well as MediaPost reports he didn’t disappoint at a new York OnMedia event.
Outspoken billionaire cum provocateur Mark Cuban charged Google and other content aggregators Tuesday of being freeloaders — or worse. “The word that comes to mind is vampires,” he said. “When you think about vampires, they just suck on your blood.”
Cuban, who some might call a futurist and heads HDNet, said aggregators are effectively making money off others’ expensive news-gathering.
He urged newspapers and others to block Google News from linking to their sites. “Show some balls,” he said.
So how do you really feel, Mr. Cuban? Bashing Google is a favorite pastime of many business people these days so maybe he couldn’t resist. It’s hard to tell if Google is really evil or if others are fed up or just jealous. Either way it makes for interesting reading when the news is slow. Of course, not everyone thinks that Google has them over a barrel.
After Cuban delivered a keynote address Tuesday, he sat on a panel along with Huffington Post Chief Revenue Officer Greg Coleman, who said his company will be the anti-Murdoch. It has no intention to do anything but remain a fully ad-supported operation. “One hundred percent advertising,” Coleman said.
Coleman said the company is not daunted by a free-content world, and has “a huge wonderful business with Google right now.” Huffington Post has some cost advantages in a lean staff and no legacy distribution expenses.
Since this whole conversation has been going on long enough maybe Mr. Cuban’s call for publishers to “show some balls”, while not exactly common business terminology, is on point. If paywalls and Google blocking are the wave of the future maybe it’s just time to give it a shot and see if the idea has legs.
Have you had enough of this already?
Google Searches Follow To Your Mobile Life – If It’s An Android
Google continues to bring more and more functionality to the Google experience and in a huge coincidence the latest improvements only run on Android phones. Hmmm……wonder why they would do that?
In a nutshell, Android devices can now access searches made on your computer or other devices. If you do a search query on your desktop then hit the road with your Android phone you can now have that search available on the go. The Official Google Mobile Blog states
If you often use both a computer and a mobile phone in your daily routine, it can seem like a hassle when they don’t stay in sync. You might spend time on your computer looking for a great used bookstore, only to forget the name of the place when you are ready to get directions from your phone. Sure, you could print directions in advance, but we believe smartphones are “smart” because they save you time. That’s why today we’re making your phone a bit smarter with the introduction of personalized suggestions and synchronized starring in Google Maps for mobile on Android.
Google continues to make these kinds of updates aimed directly at the market that is making smartphone choices. If there is a chance to jump ship from say, Verizon, it can be tempting to go over to AT&T for the iPhone. In my case, I have a BlackBerry Storm that needs to be replaced. I have thought about an iPhone forever but Android phones are looking like a strong choice because of my near dependency on Google services. My iPod Touch can do the app thing but carrying two devices kinda sucks. Honestly, though, it may be worth the hassle if Google is going to just do more on the Android phone.
The blog gives a scenario where this feature could come in handy
Personalized suggestions make it easy to find places you’ve previously searched for. For example, imagine you’re on your computer and you come across the Place Page for Mario’s Bohemian Cigar Store Cafe. After reading reviews, you decide to stop in for lunch. When you’re ready to go and want to get directions, just open Google Maps on your phone, start typing “mar,” and you’ll quickly see a suggestion – saving you from re-typing a long query and making it easier and faster to be on your way.
The fight is definitely on between Google and just about everyone else. It gets some people like Steve Jobs pretty riled up. What’s more important though is that it gets customers fired up to have a smartphone that helps them be more efficient with the tools that they already rely on for efficiency.
This is only going to get more intense so fasten your seat belts and be ready for the fireworks should be created that the rest of this year and many more to come.
Do Search Engines (Google) “Harm Minority Owned Businesses”?
Yesterday WatchdogWatch.org, which monitors NGOs (”watchdogs”) found and blogged about a filing with the FCC in the larger context of its proceedings on net neutrality. The filing is by an organization representing minority owned media and business. The issue raised is whether the concept of “net neutrality” should be expanded to include search engines and [...]
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Google Logo For Norman Rockwell Saturday Evening Post
If you visit Google.com today, you will see a special doodle, aka logo, with a boy and a girl sitting on a bench together. The painting was one of Norman Rockwell’s most famous, which was on the front cover of the Saturday Evening Post on April 24, 1926. It was known as the [...]
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Organic Search Strategies For Driving Traffic To Channel Partners
B2B brands are often reliant on channel partners to sell products and services to end users. And while manufacturers and others offer traditional co-branding marketing tools, they often fail miserably at driving traffic to distributors, dealers, and other channel partners through B2B search marketing. Optimized channel partner landing pages, bulk uploads of locations to Google [...]
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Shake Up In-House SEO By Adding Social Media To The Mix
Mixing Social Media into your daily in-house seo routine is not the easiest thing to do, nor is it simple to merely add it to one of your strategies. You already have enough on your mind to stress and worry about with regard to seo, adding Social Media into the mix could make it a [...]
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Bruce Clay’s Advanced SEO SMX West Dream Agenda
Experienced seos understand the need for keeping up on changes in the constantly evolving search space. That’s why I’m so passionate about continuing seo education and training. The upcoming SMX West conference taking place March 2-5 in Santa Clara, CA, is one such opportunity I recommend to fellow advanced-level seos.
The advanced-level content that will be [...]
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He Calls Google A Vampire, But Mark Cuban’s Mahalo Is Doing The Sucking
Yesterday, Mark Cuban warned media owners in a keynote speech that Google is a vampire trying to suck them dry, giving them nothing back and daring owners to block it. This is the same Mark Cuban who is an investor in Mahalo, which touts to advertisers how it taps into Google to generate page views. [...]
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