Trial and Error

In my ongoing kid blog reports, I need to do a shout out today on behalf of Cartoon Network.

Here’s why.

My six year-old son has developed a Pokemon addiction. Trust me—I have done nothing to foster it. In the meantime, I am trying to break the addiction by reading Harry Potter to him. But for now, though he’s keen on tales of giants on motorcycles and boys who are wizards, he still likes Pokemon. I still don’t know what Pokemon even are.

However, I did let him visit the Cartoon Network Web site the other day to check out Pokemon. And here’s why Cartoon Network gets props—all I had to do was type in cartoonnetwork.com into the browser window. I walked into the other room and he figured out the rest. He was able to navigate the site, find the video player, locate the Pokemon episodes and get them to play all by himself.

And guess what? I don’t have to report on the ins and outs of how the player worked or if it was easy to find or anything like that. Because obviously it was. Obviously it did the job. So a big hand to Cartoon Network—you get an A + for ease of use.

What happens when you put the two biggest beasts in online video together? They get even stronger. Check this out.

Just last week, Google said it would start including YouTube videos in its Google Video search index.

A few days later audience measurement firm Hitwise reported that the integration is already paying off handsomely.

On Saturday Jan. 20th, the Saturday prior to YouTube’s inclusion on the Google Video index, YouTube lured 0.54 percent of all Internet visits in the United States. On Saturday Jan. 27th, the Saturday following the integration, YouTube’s share rose to 0.64 percent of all visits. Don’t let those seemingly small numbers fool you. They are actually HUGE numbers and the change represents a growth rate of 18.5 percent.

The day before the index integration Google Video was responsible for 0.73 percent of all YouTube’s traffic; by Saturday it was responsible for 8.68 percent of all YouTube’s upstream traffic (where visitors were before they came to YouTube).

So watch out. The big get bigger. The rich get richer.

Yesterday YouTube and its new corporate owner made a big to-do about how YouTube videos are now included in the Google Video search results. Let’s see if that news was worth the big to-do.

I pop over to Google Video. Let’s start big. I enter “YouTube” in the search bar. And I’m greeted with a list of YouTube videos. The first is for “Free Hugs Campaign,” and I click through easily to get to a video that generated more than 9 million views on YouTube. Next is a CBS News video on the iPhone that lured nearly 2 million views on the viral video site. There are also links for my favorite, “Dick in a Box,” as well as “Evolution of Dance” and OKGO’s music video “Here it Goes Again.” These are among YouTube’s all time most popular. So I conclude that when you simply search for “YouTube” on Google Video you get primarily the top viewed videos of all time, which makes sense.

But what if we look for something a little less popular? Like skateboarding dogs?

As it turns out, the top result on Google Video search is also the top result when you search for “skateboarding dogs” on YouTube—a clip from www.funnyanimalvideos.com.

So here’s my conclusion. This partnership appears to be yet another mechanism to drive usage of the already dominant YouTube. Google’s smart to marry its search tools with YouTube’s ease of use.

I really hate to admit this. It pains me to say what I am about to say.

But I must tell the cold hard truth. And the truth is that video plays better on Internet Explorer than Firefox.

I recently became a Firefox convert. After hearing my husband, a Firefox evangelist, berate me for years for still using IE, I officially switched this month. Firefox is easier and the tabbing function is just way cool.

So, I visited MySpace today to check out the first few episodes of this season’s “24.” I found the show easily, after navigating to the video page from the homepage. However, when I clicked play I was asked to download the latest version of some player or other. As I’ve written before, I’m fed up with new player downloads and the constant barrage of updates that various sites require.

But I soldiered on and opted for the download. And the download didn’t work. I barely remember why now. All I remember was I got some annoying message and then the browser just sat there with a tantalizing “loading…” teaser note for nearly an hour. Until I closed that tab.

So I reluctantly opted for Explorer and jumped onto MySpace. And everything worked. It just worked fine and dandy.

The video loaded. The video played. The video fast forwarded. The video paused.

Want to start a campaign on my behalf? One week and still no word from Netflix on setting up the Watch Now service on my account.

Here’s the deal with this online video age we’re living in. You can’t get away with anything anymore and that’s a good thing. By now, most of you have heard about how “Grey’s Anatomy” star Isaiah Washington denied at the Golden Globes that he had used a gay slur in reference to his out co-star T.R. Knight. Well, today it looks like Mr. Washington didn’t want to lose his job. After he was chastised by ABC and after thousands of fans called for his firing via an Internet petition, the star met yesterday with gay rights activists to discuss how he might “help educate the public about the cruelty of such language,” according to the Associated Press. Good. That’s what he should do. In the meantime, if you want to see an example of how an actor can graciously and thoughtfully handle being the subject of said slur, check out T.R. Knight’s appearance on “Ellen,” captured here on YouTube. He is awkward, he is heartfelt, he is real.

As many of you know, I’m fascinated by the emerging business of online video syndication. So when the news landed on my desk last week that online health education network HealthiNation had syndicated its health videos to consumer Web sites such as QualityHealth.com and Nubella.com, I decided to go online and test the experience.

I’ve tooled around on HealthiNation’s site before and have given it high praise for ease of use. I start my new test at qualityhealth.com. The video is easy to find; it’s promoted right there at the top of the Web site.

But, and there’s always a but it seems, when I click through there’s no video in the player, just audio. I can pause the clip, but the video player just features a blank screen as the audio chirps along in the background. At the end of the video a message pops up that I need to upgrade to the latest version of Flash.

This frustrates me. I feel like I am on this constant treadmill of always needing to upgrade players or technology or other assorted whatnot on my computer to play videos. It gets annoying.

But in all fairness, I decide to leave Firefox and try the service on Internet Explorer. The good news is the service works fine, the videos play easily and I can quickly scroll through the various offerings. But now there’s probably a virus or something from Microsoft on my computer.

As I was checking out viral videos yesterday on Youtube, I found one posted by NBC. The video is a great spoof on cell phones and the new iPhone from Apple. You can check it out at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xXNoB3t8vM.

Since the clip comes from “Late Night with Conan O’Brien” I hopped over to NBC.com to see if I could find the video there too.

And you know what? You guessed it.

Impossible to find.

The video player took forever to load. And when I clicked on the link for the show, I was unable to find a link for “Conan” clips. Nor could I find a promotion or link for the video on the main page.

The networks could learn a lesson from YouTube. It’s still the easiest site in the world to view video on.

So we don’t have the new Netflix “Watch Now” feature set up on our Netflix account yet. My husband logs in to the site and says to me, “What gives?”

I explain that Netflix is rolling the feature—that lets its users watch movies and TV shows online—out over the next six months.

Then I think—why should we have to wait? I just sent a note to Netflix PR asking to get the feature turned on so I can review it for Trial and Error.

Stay tuned!

MSNBC launched a new “World Blog” today with blogging from Baghdad coverage. Reporters, producers and staff will include text, video and photo entries not only for news in Baghdad but around the world.

I took a quick look at “Blogging Baghdad” this morning with contributions from NBC News’ Middle East correspondent Richard Engel. This is a great example of where a blog can be beneficial—it provides that intense behind-the-scenes, first-person style that can help a viewer connect with both a story and a network.

The site is located here.

But here’s the big criticism. The blog is really tough to find from the home page. What if I didn’t have the link? Well, I would go to MSNBC.com then. When I do, I look around the home page for some sort of promotion for this new feature and see none. Also, when I click on blogs I don’t see it listed under blogs.

It seems kind of silly to bury content this good.

CBS sent out an email blast promoting new offerings on its innertube service. I haven’t been there in a while so I figure this is the chance to take CBS up on its suggestive email.

I scan the offerings

“Jericho.” Eh. No interest.

“CSI.” Not drinking the kool-aid.

“How I Met Your Mother.” OK, I’m game.

Right underneath an ad for Victoria’s Secret (I can just feel the web clicks rising as I write this) is a list of recommended videos.

“Armed and Famous”. “Jericho”. “Numb3rs”. But no “How I met your Mother” video. I don’t even see a link for “How I Met Your Mother” in the thumbnails that scroll across the bottom of the page.

I go back to the email again and click through once more on the “How I Met Your Mother” video link. Same issue. It takes me to the site, but there’s no visible link.

Then I realize I have to allow pop-ups on my browser. The CBS site now takes me to the video. But it doesn’t play just yet. Nope—the site needs one more piece of data. Am I a Windows or Real kind of girl?

I select Windows, but now I’m getting annoyed with all these steps I have to go through. I know. I know. It’s not that many. Still.

But then the video starts and the show is actually pretty good. I’m not a regular watcher, but I must admit that “How I Met Your Mother” is now on my waiting list for The Next Regular Show I’ll Add To My Regular TV Watching Schedule When And If I Find The Time Or Inclination.

Yep, pretty impressive accolade.

I’ll admit it. I’m a closet “Dick in a Box” fan.

I often sing the song in the car, and even in front of the kids, making sure to bleep myself out at those 16 spots that need bleeping.

I have watched the “Saturday Night Live” uncensored video easily more than a dozen times since it premiered online on Dec. 16, doing my part to drive up those 10 million-plus views on YouTube of what’s now the 7th ranked video of all time on the site. Thus begins my campaign to make this video the most viewed of all time because I think it might possibly be the funniest piece of video from 2006.

I know by heart the best parts, like when Justin Timberlake points to his forehead when he says “gonna give you something so you know what’s on my mind,” or towards the end when the singers begin their fast riff: “every single holiday a dick in a box, over at your parent’s house a dick in a box, mid-day at the grocery store a dick in a box.”

But I’m torn between the two best parts and here’s where I want your help. Which is funnier—when she mouths “thank you” or when they give the 1,2, 3 instructions on how to make a “dick in a box?”

Watch it again and then weigh in here.

At the Consumer Electronics Show this past week, cell phone video was one of the hot topics, with competitors at MediaFlo and Modeo demonstrating their broadcast TV quality services.

Before I left for the show though, I actually checked out cellular TV from a different source—the local CBS affiliate here in San Francisco. The station’s spokesperson visited me, wanting to show me the stations’ news, weather, sports and traffic clips on her Verizon phone. KPIX launched its mobile TV service in April 2006 with 68 subscribers from Sprint and Verizon combined. In October, the station had grown that to 552.

Small potatoes, for now, to be sure. But, the station is getting money from this venture since it’s a monthly subscription service at $2.99-$4.99.

The cell phone actually pulls videos from the station’s Web site, which is a pretty cool notion in and of itself. Think about it—that little phone is somehow communicating with a Web site to grab its videos and display them on a little screen. It almost reminds me of that neat thing called TV. How does that work after all? Transmitting video through the sky?

The quality was good, without the herki-jerkiness cell phone video can have. Navigating around the videos can be a bit clunky and one or two didn’t load, but by and large if I were a local news junkie, I’d pay the few bucks a month.

I had the good fortune to land some Blinkx tips while at the Consumer Electronics Show earlier this week. In my continuing efforts to track the evolving and critically important world of video search, I learned about a cool feature on the video search site. Go to Blinkx.com and type “Skateboarding Dogs” into the search bar. The first thing you will see is the coolest dog ever, who can carve with the best of ‘em. Then click on the “Wall It” button right next to the search bar. Watch the left hand side of the screen fill up with thumbnails of pooches who shred. Then mouse over that video wall and watch the videos pop up. It’s totally cool and a great way for TV executives to pass the time. A little psychedelic too when you move the mouse really fast.

P.S. No, I don’t work for Blinkx either.

In my ongoing quest to report on developments in video search, I am taking the temperature of three of the leading video search engines this week— Truveo, Clipblast and Blinkx. I want to see how easy or hard it is to find videos from various networks on their sites.

I start with Truveo at searchvideo.com. I plug in A&E’s “Criss Angel Mindfreak” and the results bring up an episode on AOL Video. That’s good news since it’s a network-sanctioned version, not a pirated one. I click on a Truveo link to find the show on iTunes too, but I get some funky error message saying Truveo can’t locate iTunes on my computer. Well, we all know I have iTunes.

Next, I try Discovery’s “Mythbusters.” That search brings me directly to the Discovery.com page on “Mythbusters.” Discovery should be quite pleased.

I move to ClipBlast. I decide to look up “MTV Unplugged,” but I only find Bob Dylan videos from 1994. Next I try “Laguna Beach,” but only get results for local CBS stations’ news clips on the California locale. Then I spot a link near the bottom of the first page of results for MTV Overdrive, MTV’s broadband service. MTV probably wants that link to be higher in the results, but at least it’s there.

Next I go to Blinkx to try “Rachael Ray.” As you can imagine, a search for Ms. Ray is bound to yield a wide range of results. But I am curious which of her ventures will appear first. The first result is a clip for “30 Minute Meals.” But it’s from MSNBC, not Food Network. Weird.

The good news is that results are improving. The same search conducted in August would primarily have yielded links to unauthorized clips of these shows on YouTube or other sites.

Here you go—the photographic proof of me hanging with my homegirl, Amanda.

We could be sisters, right?

Well, duh. Of course, I am the older one. By like nine years.

Programming executives from Turner, A&E, ABC, MTV and other networks are getting ready to take a VIP tour of the show floor and check out companies such as Samsung, Motorola, Microsoft, Pioneer, Qualcomm, Intel, Sony and LG. The National Academy for Television Arts and Sciences Advanced Media Committee is sponsoring the event. The goal of the tour, said Advanced Media Committee Chair Shelly Palmer, is to help programmers better understand technology.

“Since the dawn of civilization, man has demonstrated a fundamental desire to gather,” a voice boomed from the stage at CES.

During CBS CEO Les Moonves’ keynote at CES, he turned the stage over to a prepared CBS video that claims that audience interactivity in today’s digital age stemmed all the way back to Roman days of old when audiences voted on whether the gladiators in the Roman Coliseum got to live or die. The video then fast forwarded in time to the Salem witch trials, apparently another great moment in the timeline of audience interactivity.

How do these epochal events portend our digital desires of 2007? Mr. Moonves said, “These days if we join together to watch the effect of Mentos on diet coke, the bridge between content and community is strong and developing faster than at anytime in history.”

I guess we’re all just doing our part to turn modernity into history when we post clips on YouTube. Or something like that.

We’re best friends now. I have the picture to prove it. I’ll post it later once I can get back on a decent wireless connection to send it.

But seriously, folks, I just met with Amanda Congdon outside the iRobot booth in the Sands Expo that showed short round dirt devil cleaning devices.

ABC had reached out to me wanting to change my perception of her. I’m a convert now! I’m on the Amanda bandwagon!

Just kidding.

However, I am impressed to learn about her lineage. Her Dad performed in the original cast of “42nd Street” on Broadway as Sawyer’s love interest, Amanda said, and since that’s my favorite musical of all time, Amanda gets points.

We also discussed what I don’t like about her video blogs on ABCnews.com and starringamandacongdon.com. They’re kind of dull and all over the place. She took the criticism well, was not defensive and simply explained her approach. For ABCnews.com, she said, “What I am trying to find when I write the show is something that interests me, a little gem.” Tomorrow, look for a video blog on four interesting products from CES and an interview with Dell Chairman Michael Dell.

As for StarringAmandaCongdon.com, she describes it as more of a free form project. “I’m not putting any controls. It’s more of a scratchpad to get ideas out. There’s not so much a goal, but it’s really an exercise,” she said.

Maybe I am just too old. I’m also not a 25 to 40 year-old guy.

Want to know what TV and advertising executives are up to at CES? Well, they aren’t going to the sessions, that’s for sure. They’re doing VIP tours of the show floor.

I crashed a tour today that The National Academy for Television Arts and Sciences Advanced Media Committee hosted. In the group I piggybacked onto was none other than the WPP CEO himself, Sir Martin Sorrell. His top lieutenant Rino Scanzoni, chief investment officer with Group M, attended, along with several WPP executives.

Mike Bologna, the digital guru with Group M’s Mediaedge:cia company, said he arranged for his clients Paramount Pictures and Pizza Hut to take the tour and learn more about new devices on the show floor. He then reached out to Mr. Scanzoni, who apparently decided it would be good too to kick the tires on companies like LG, Samsung, Sony and Microsoft.

I hitched onto the group to visit Qualcomm, which demonstrated its new mobile TV service MediaFLO, slated for a launch on Verizon phones later this quarter.

After the MediaFlo demonstration, executives from our group, asked about battery life (4-6 hours), whether the MediaFlo service is separate from VCAST (it is), and if you can toggle between video and calls (you can).

Paramount Pictures Alexander Fragen, senior VP of domestic TV distribution, said he signed up for the tour to see what the devices look like that are carrying programming from studios and networks in new ways.