Bambi Francisco

Google's video exchange ambitions

Google is trying to get everyone -- and I mean everyone -- to create video advertisements.In fact, if you're a job candidate seeking to get hired by Google, you might consider creating a video ad about yourself and bid against other marketers to place your smiling face on those gazillion blogs and publications that write about Google. This idea was first mentioned to me by Ryan Money, who started HireVue.com. But Google's Gokul Rajaram seems to think the video resume idea will work on Google as well. My money is on HireVue.com since I believe Google will be too distracted to provide the contextual environment job seekers need. Plus, I don't believe job seekers will want to pay for everyone watching their video resume.

But I think there is a place for such pay-per-click video ads, partly because the inventory for news and entertaining video (where these ads typically are placed) is scarce. Advertisers are clamoring to place ads on rich media. I know since I've been creating online videos for MarketWatch since 1999. Google is creating liquidity for advertisers (with video ads) by giving them a cheap alternative ($5 to $12 per CMP) across the blogosphere, where there is inventory. And, when the supply of entertaining video increases, Google will have already amassed the inventory of video ads.

Publishers won't mind these video ads as long as the ads are relevant. And, I believe they have the potential to be relevant and entertaining. The possibilities of what video advertising will look like tomorrow, and who will be advertising are scary, exciting, on the verge of ridiculous, potentially profound, and almost limitless. 

Google's ad video project has had mixed reviews across the Web, with many skeptical about the viability of pay-to-click video commercials. For those who have any doubt about how much video advertising will be created and viewed, think again. Videos will come from people and places unimaginable.  Will Swedish nannies start creating ads about their services and target blogs that only attracts readers who can afford such luxuries? If the potential salary covers the cost of their ad spend for those clicks, which it might, why not? If I had property in Lake Tahoe, I might take my relatively cheap video camera and create a video to showcase the property and upload it onto Google and target lifestyle blogs. 

My Net Sense column - which includes the rest of my observations -- received a lot of responses. I hope those who responded to my column also post their observations here for others to read.

Read my Net Sense on MarketWatch

Video explosion

Michael Eisner just invested in Veoh Networks - one of the many Internet video channels populating the Web. If  you haven't noticed, there's been an explosion of video channels, to meet our most idiosyncratic interests, exploding on the Web.  Want to know about Zardoz, the 1974 science-fiction film? Go onto Revver.com, and you'll find 321 videos that were tagged with the label "Zardoz." Theoretically, those videos should have some relation to Zardoz. If those videos were streamed one after another, so an Internet viewer could watch the videos passively, those video streams would be akin to a channel purely devoted to Zardoz. For those with a broader with a broader scope of interest, say, soccer, there is a channel for that too. Nike on Monday unveiled a television channel for soccer-crazed kids. It's an online channel through which Nike will try to use entertaining content to subtly sell its brand and products. It's a form of "marketing entertainment," says Hilmi Ozguc, founder of Maven Networks, a four-year-old startup creating the Internet channel for Nike.

What are the implications of such diverse creative bottoms-up endeavors? Oh, where do I begin? There are a lot.  Go to MarketWatch to read my Net Sense column.

New York Times television

Recently I saw a video clip of New York Times reporter David Sanger talking about his report. Next to his article on the site was a link to his video report, just in case you preferred watching or listening rather than reading. I had known his name for years from just reading his articles. Now, I'm watching him talk about them. I can't imagine the video clips are super popular. But that's to be expected in these early days of Internet video. What's more important is that the NYTimes.com is creating the image of having news in multiple formats.  Oh, the lines are blurring.  Pretty soon it will be difficult to differentiate between TV and print journalists. The New York Times Co. is exercising its right to sell its 50% stake in digital cable channel Discovery Times to Discovery Communications, according to TVweek.com The company is exiting the four-year-old joint venture because it wants to invest more in Internet video. "There is strong demand for video streaming on our Web sites and advertisers are really coveting that," said NY Times Co. President/CEO Janet Robinson. Read story from TVweek.com

VC investing in search hits record

In 1999, a tiny unknown company received venture capital funding. Back then, 32 search startups received funding. It was the most active year for venture investing in the search space.

That was of course, until the last two years. Last year saw a record number of search startups get funded.In 2005, 47 search startups received an aggregate of $262.9 million in venture funding, according to VentureOne, a unit of Dow Jones. The dollar volume last year was the highest since 2000, when nearly $280 million was invested into 18 search startups. All told, $916 million has been invested in 130 search-related startups in the last five years, with 82 of those deals done in 2004 and 2005.

Last year's recipients include Feedster -- for blog, podcasts and news searches, X1 Technologies -- for desktop search, Onmeta -- a search engine focused on entertainment, and 4Info -- for mobile search, to name a few. 

Why are VCs pouring money back into search startups? Why not? As they say, "Let 1,000 flowers bloom."  Oh, and that tiny unknown search engine that received funding in 1999 was Google.

Read Net Sense on MarketWatch.

Let me know of any search companies you think I should review.

Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook

Can't read what Mark's shirt says? It says: "My mom thinks I'm cool." This is an interview at the MarketWatch offices in the fall of 2005. Facebook has come a long way from its $100 million valuation back then. Viacom offered $750 million for the startup earlier this year, according to someone close to the situation.

YouTube raising VC funds?

Rumor has it that YouTube -- the popular, Napster-like, video-sharing startup -- is raising funds. I typically wouldn't write about such a rumor, but since YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley has twice cancelled a video interview with me in the last week, it sure seems that something is in the works.

It's not surprising that YouTube would be seeking funds given the traffic this site is receiving.  If activity accelerates, it'll be no time before YouTube burns through its $3.5 million in venture financing. To be sure, YouTube may not be spending as much as some think. Mike Gordon, co-founder of LimeLight, a smaller version of Akamai, says that because YouTube streams short clips, it may be spending between $50,000 and $200,000 to deliver its video. How does Gordon know? LimeLight helps to stream YouTube's video. Media companies would be interested in owning YouTube, but Sequoia Capital's venture partner Mike Moritz won't sell for less than a few billion, so I heard.

Some bloggers have said that Facebook should have taken the $750 million offer. ( I heard from someone very close to the deal that the offer was from Viacom.) Compared to what iVillage went for, it does seem that the prices are getting out of hand. But Facebook is a trusted source, with a very targeted pool of users in specific areas - colleges. That makes Facebook an easy sell to advertisers. 

More video interviews

A year ago or so, I said that Google's index of 8 billion pages was nothing compared to what would be created if tools were given to the people on the Web. Organizing this digital mess would present a big opportunity. And, it has. There are a number of companies trying to help us organize, including Plum. It's an invite-only service that will launch April 1. It's actually a great service, in my opinion. I asked Hans Peter how he plans to differentiate his company from the pack.
Watch interview with Hans Peter of Plum

Of all the media and Internet companies out there, I'd say Yahoo, Fox and CBS are the ones I'd consider aggressively trying to define the new media landscape. I asked Neil Budde of Yahoo news what his plans are for the service.
Watch interview with Neil Budde, head of Yahoo news

Managing the mob

I moderated a panel for the Information Industry Summit Wednesday in New York called "My Media: The explosion of User-generated Journalism." Jeff Jarvis, a prolific and outspoken blogger was among the panelists. I guess that's redundant, most bloggers are outspoken. Jarvis has suggested that I'm myopic and blind to the possibilities of user-generated and audience-generated content. Actually, I'm not. As I've written in the past... "ultimately the viewers/readers in charge of finding and promoting the talent from within their own ranks - so they can distribute the content through their social networks, blogs and connected links on the Web." Additionally, I'm a blogger too. Much as Google has its labs, my blog is my lab. It's a way to understand what readers and viewers are interested in, and how they interact with one another. Most especially, I like to see if I can start a conversation, walk away, and see if my readers continue the discussion. They do. I've learned about readers. One recently told me to keep my personal ideologies to myself. That was odd. It's my blog, after all. What did I learn? I learned that the audience wants to be heard, wants to control, wants to have some sort of authority and influence, even if it means kicking a blogger off their own blog. The panel discussion didn't really help me to figure out how to control this mob, though. How do you manage, organize and measure what is relevant?

Read Net Sense - Google Poker - on MarketWatch.

How do you manage, organize and measure what is relevant from the disparate voices across the Web?

The problem with media bundles

At a recent presentation, I held up two newspapers to illustrate a point. "This is what's wrong with old media," I said. "It bundles so much unwanted news with news I care about at that moment."

At the time, I wanted to get prepared for the presentation by reading up on the latest news on the topic I was interested in. (If I had my laptop,  I would have searched for news.) Unfortunately, all I received was what the editors of the papers felt was worth reading and it turned out that was no help whatsoever.

It was a reminder to me of how much we're really starting to dislike bundled media packages.

This mentality is killing the newspaper industry. It is also disrupting the music industry.  "Disaggregation of the album" is one of the biggest games changers in the music industry, Larry Kenswil, President of eLabs Universal Music, told me in a recent interview.  And, now this un-bundling problem is becoming a real challenge for TV show content owners. The problem is that they can't just throw in bad content in with good content, much like they do with their cable contracts today.

Read the column on MarketWatch and take the poll surveying Net Sense readers on which way they'd like to pay for their digital video. The options are: 99-cent, 24-hour rentals; $1.99 purchases; $20-a-month unlimited rental, a la Netflix; $50-a-month "all you can eat" content, including on-demand programs; Free content, but with built-in commercials.

I cast my vote for the Netflix rental model (It's just too bad it doesn't exist today).

Read Net Sense on MarketWatch

 

My media trends

How do you grow up from being a niche content site to one that reaches a larger population? One way is to be part of a larger media company. The other way is to host a bunch of content sites. AlwaysOn-Network founder Tony Perkins is open to both.

Watch Perkins on outlook for AlwaysOn

Calling all podcasters

Nearly 90% of  Internet users don't know what a podcast is, suggesting there may be a lot of resources - talent and money - expended by the early pioneers of podcast-related companies devoted to an audience that's just not there.  Yahoo just launched a new podcasting site, where would-be podcasters can make and search for podcasts.  I asked Yahoo's head of products, Geoff Ralston, how Yahoo plans on not overspending time and resources on this project.

Watch interview with Geoff

Why do we need record labels?

GarageBand.com CEO says 150,000 artists have put their songs up on the site.  Their songs are ranked by fellow musicians. With podcasting, GarageBand.com hopes the independent songs that many of his users are creating will hit the consumer market.  If the cost of producing and distributing music has declined dramatically, why does anyone need a record label? Ali says budding musicians still need record labels to promote the best artists. 

Watch my interview with Partovi