Over the last six months I have been watching more video online, especially TV episodes which have been shown in the US but which we are waiting to air in the UK. Comscore has just issued latest research into how many Americans are watching video online.

Here are some of the insights into video watching online

• U.S. Internet users viewed 16.8 billion online videos during April, up 16%

• Google Sites once again ranked as the top U.S. video property with 6.8 billion videos viewed (40.7 percent online video market share),+ 15%
• YouTube.com accounted for more than 99 percent of all videos viewed at the property. Fox Interactive Media ranked second with 513 million videos (3.1 percent), followed by Hulu with 397 million (2.4 percent) and Yahoo! Sites with 355 million (2.1 percent).
• Nearly 152 million U.S. Internet users watched an average of 111 videos per viewer in April.
• 78.6 percent of the total U.S. Internet audience viewed online video.
• The average online video viewer watched 385 minutes of video, or 6.4 hours.
• 107.1 million viewers watched 6.8 billion videos on YouTube.com (63.5 videos per viewer).
• 49 million viewers watched 387 million videos on MySpace.com (7.9 videos per viewer).
• Hulu accounted for 2.4 percent of videos viewed, but 4.2 percent of all minutes spent watching online video.
• The duration of the average online video was 3.5 minutes.

Interestingly what I have found is the power of finding people who share the same interests as me - You Tube makes recomendations based on what I watch and I have connected with over a dozen people due to our shared interests.

Nielsen has produced the Three Screen Report for the 1st Quarter of 2009. The report shows that

“the average American every month watches approximately 153 hours of TV at home. In addition, the 131 million Americans who watch video on the Internet watch on average about 3 hours of video online each month at home or work. The 13.4 million Americans who watch video on mobile phones watch on average about 3 ½ hours of mobile video each month.”

It does show a general trend that teenagers are watching more and more video on their mobile, 18-24 timeshift their viewing and the desire to consumer ‘visual’ content remains strong, indeed growing.

There were events such as the inauguration of Obama that would have affected the numbers however when you combine that with You Tube being the number 2 search engine - number 1 if you realise that Google contains You Tube results!- then you can see the importance of video.

These are the social media conclusions I made from the report

• People love to consume content - and it is growing not declining.
• Time shifting is here to stay.
• Mobile internet is growing through the teenage generation.

As I was flipping through my feed reader this afternoon looking for something interesting to write about, Rick over at EyeCube caught my interest yet once again. He seems to manage to do that with just about every post he writes.

This one was about the GE Smart Grid site and the ever so cool video that they have up to promote their Smart Grid project.

See? Cool, right? So while I was looking at the video and playing with the Augmented Reality tools, I realized that GE gets it. They’ve totally nailed the whole idea of social networking and viral campaigns.

They’ve created this little tool, that is cool enough for people to send to their friends and say “hey, check this out, cool, right?” and it’s cool enough that each friend will then tell two friends and so on and so on (you know, like that old shampoo commercial). They haven’t hit you over the head with all the in depth information about the Smart Grid Energy Saving features, and instead have created a visually interesting little link that says “get plugged in”. That’s all there is to it.

Heading to the Smart Grid site, I found a wealth of information about energy distribution, how the Smart Grid technology will change that, and offers up resources for green living, as well as a whole whack of links for information on green related technologies. They’re offering detailed information for “energy professionals and enthusiasts”, which again, I just think is cool.

Without that cool, short little video however, I would have never seen the site, learned about some Green resources I wasn’t aware of or even think I could ever be interested in smart grid technology or energy distribution strategies. Instead, here I am, learning more ways to live my own life a little more greenly, and sharing their viral site with all of you.

The one thing about campaigns like this, that many people and businesses just don’t get, is that you can’t make something viral. You just have to make something cool and the viral happens.

Remember that the next time that you’re looking for a way to promote a new product, site or designing a new campaign. A little cool goes a very long way.

It’s looking like YouTube is about to be made a star. YouTube is this close to signing a contract with the William Morris Agency which would give the company’s clients another screen to be on - the really small screen: made-for-the-Web productions.

Much like the music industry underwent changes to the distribution model when the dust settled and the internet became such a powerful force for music; this deal will underscore the ways the distribution models for television and movies on the internet.

There’s several actors and other celebrities are creating their own content for the internet, avoiding the red tape involved in developing a show for a network. Not only will the distribution change, WM clients will get an ownership stake in the videos they create for YouTube; something that television networks don’t offer.

So far, reps from both sides declined to comment when the New York Times asked to get one for their article. Two people who are close to the deal spoke to Brian Stetler on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the deal, described the arrangement as “YouTube’s most sweeping attempt to date to add professionally produced videos to its Web site”.  [source]

Even better, including celebrity videos on YouTube would solve the niggling problem Google has about how to make some cash from the bazillions of videos they host for free.

By signing a deal with a talent agency, YouTube is shouting pretty loudly that they want to be the next destination for Hollywood content. That concert they sponsored in November, YouTube Live, said exactly the same thing.

I guess we’ll see what happens when the deal’s finally done and the ink on the contract dries.

For the gazillion of you that watched the super bowl and saw this ad, you will want to skip this post. Here, go read about some other people’s lives for a while and laugh at them.

For the rest of you, I’d like to announce that Alec Baldwin has finally come out - he truly is an alien.

Proving the adage that if something is important, it’ll come bubbling back up to your attention, is this video, that appeared at first on TechCrunch. I saw the headline  ("You Need to See This Video"), but it didn’t make me want to click through (hrm - something to note - give your posts descriptive titles that are sure to interest people!), but then when it popped up again on Eat, Sleep, Publish, I sat down to watch it.

And now, I give you, 1981’s prediction for the future of the newspaper:

Wow. Just… wow. Like Eat, Sleep, Publish, I just don’t even know where to begin.  To think about what they predicted and what the reality is now, is just astonishing. Thoughts?

Deepak Chopra is making use of Seesmic. Obama used video channels to assist with his nomination and furthering his message to those who couldn’t hear him speak in person.

Now the Vatican is learning that some of these tools can be used for their messages too, and they’ve started a YouTube channel.

In his inaugural YouTube address, Pope Benedict welcomed viewers to this “great family that knows no borders” and said he hoped they would “feel involved in this great dialogue of truth.”

Looks like the Pope joined YouTube in 2005, but hasn’t really started doing too much with it until recently, and for the last few days, they’ve been very busy! The Vatican has 20 videos available for review.

[image source: screen shot YouTube]

Millions of people are converging onto the city of Washington DC for the Inauguration of the 44th President of the United States. It’s a watershed moment - we all remember where we were at the end of Apartheid, the day the Berlin Wall came down, and, we’ll all remember where we were when President Obama was sworn in.

Nadia Nascimento, the head of Vancouver’s User Generated Video Contest Platform, memelabs, is in Washington DC for Obama’s inauguration. "I realized that we were part of a story." Nascimento came up with the plan to record users hopes dreams and allowing them to record for prosperity where they were, at noon on January 20th, 2009.

Here are some of the videos already uploaded, taken by Nadia, while in DC. This was my favourite from Japan:

Memelabs partnered with The Young and Powerful Group, Farmstead Wines, and JCM Entertainment to produce the campaign, which is a completely goodwill project. The four organizations have donated their resources, and there is no financial benefit or cost of participation.

[videos provided by Memelabs]

Tags: memelabs, Obama, Inauguration, User Generated Content

MemeLabs, the online video contest gurus, have a new contest, and one that sounds pretty cool. Chip Wilson, the Lululemon founder, apparently isn’t dead yet, and to commemorate that, he’s holding a walk/run/parade/party …thing.

This is the 2nd year for the “Chip’s Not Dead Yet!” one mile, uphill race where all proceeds support BC Children’s Hospital. This race is different; you have the choice to run, walk, or parade in one of the various ‘waves’ that go up the hill. If you want to run in your underwear, so be it. If you want to run in a bridesmaid dress, go for it.

On Friday, June 20th, 2009, a busy street in the Vancouver neighborhood known as Kitsilano will be completely closed to traffic and the event starts. You run in “waves” of themes - all the superheroes together, all the animals, the gladiators… well, you get it.

The fastest one up the hill will win $20,000, but, you’ve got a chance to win $1,000 right now! Memelabs wants to know what your ideal themed wave would look like. Dress up as your favourite superhero or even run in your underpants! Tell us what you think would make for the best wave and you will have a chance to win $1000 in cash and one of our monthly prize packs! Enter here!

For a quick sneak peek of the race, check out the video.

The New York Times is beating the bushes to generate more interest in their website, trying to get more eyeballs on the site in order to convince their advertisers that online really is a good thing!

I have to admit, the videos are pretty good. The site calls them “candid conversations with someone’s most interesting conversations about their passions, their lives and NYTimes.com”. They’re unscripted and are, for the most part, just pure fun. You can see them all here.

I think my favourite has to be the Ben Stein one, but that might just be because the dog is adorable.