YouTube and the Cosmic Panda

YouTube is testing Cosmic Panda; a new design.

• A new experience for watching videos and playlists
• More page designs and better editing tools to customize your channel
• Keep watching when moving between videos, playlists, and channels (Chrome only)
• Stylish new look and feel

Give it a try here.

Vwho - An Interesting Take On Online Video

I came across Vwho today and have been playing around with it. For being so simple it certainly brings a new vision to online video searching and watching.

Vwho is a completely new way to watch online videos. Unlike other video sites which provide you links to illegal and copyright infringed content, or even worse hosting the material itself, Vwho does neither. Vwho is a real-time search engine, and all searches are done in real time, and from your browser. In other words, search queries and search results, do not pass through our site or domain, and are completely unknown to Vwho - furthermore, no video content or links to video content are stored or pass through our servers, ever. Vwho is essentially a search engine, which searches the internet at the time you request the search. What you search for using Vwho is up to you and as such is your responsibility. Vwho is a search engine for videos, just as Google is a search engine for web pages.  

Vwho is designed to work and look like a television. So if you search for a subject, for example "science" , Vwho will go out and search the internet for videos which match the term "science" and begin playing what it finds. As one video finishes, the next video will begin, so there is no need to get up, just sit back, and watch videos one after the after - just like television. If you don't like the video you are watching, you can simply click the skip button to start playing the next found video.

Arrrrr!

TED's Ads Worth Spreading Competition Winners

TED launched their Ads Worth Spreading challenge last year and below are their winners.

In my mind their challenge was met; these are some amazing advertisements!


Batelco - INFINITY


The Clock  is Ticking


Chrysler Born of Fire with Eminem


Changing our Future


Target Fasion Kaleidoscopic


Dulux Walls


The worlds smallest stop-motion, by Dot.


The Chase Film


Selinah by The Topsy Foundation


The Infinite House by Hornbach

Amazon Instant Video is Live and Streaming

Amazon has launched their Instant Video service which is a re-brand and update to the VOD (Video on Demand) service. The service offers many movies and shows (about 5,000) at no additional cost to people who have paid the $79 annual Amazon Prime subscription. The movies and shows are still available at the prior cost (usually $0.99 - $3.99 per rental) for non-members. Prime members do not get to watch everything for "free" though so be sure to browse the list if you are considering signing up.

They have an uphill battle I think. From skimming the movies, most are on Netflix streaming and the annual (single) $79 charge is a hard sell. To at least be in competition they need to spread that out to monthly charge. For now, this is a nice additional benefit for Prime members but is not intended as only being a movie streaming subscription service. Knowing Amazon I am sure it will be in the future as they work on pricing and their catalog. Plus, the quality of the streaming service is excellent from my experience.

Don't forget that Redbox streaming is on the way also!

With all the streaming services the space is getting crowded and competitive. This can be a good thing for pricing, a bad thing for content scatter, and also make things very complex for new consumers. I see consumers having 1 or 2 paid subscription services. Let the battle begin for the number two slot as Netflix is clearly number one today with its massive library and its wide integration on so many devices.

Jeff Bezos on Amazon Instant Video