Trial and Error

For real news you can use, I like to turn to the Onion. Where else can you learn about how video games can prepare your children for the coming apocalypse with tips such as how to find ammo to barter, build shelters from abandoned cars and survive without sun for 500 years?

Are Violent Video Games Adequately Preparing Children For The Apocalypse?

Internet television technology provider Move Networks is picking up steam. It announced this week that it powered seven of the top 10 most-viewed broadcast TV shows online in December.

The company also streamed about 600 live events during that time, including events for ESPN and the National Football League.

Move said the top shows it powered were “Lost,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Desperate Housewives,” “Ugly Betty,” “Samantha Who?,” “Scrubs” and “True Beauty.”

Like Sunday night's Oscars telecast, Yahoo Movies garnered better ratings this year.

The site, with news, photos and other Oscar content, generated 10.2 million unique visitors yesterday, more than 441 million page views and a traffic increase to the dedicated Oscars site of 242% over last year.

You want more proof that online video is moving into the mainstream? Teachers are trying to figure out how to use YouTube, MySpace and Google more effectively in the classroom.

The Bay Area Interactive Group, the media agency McCann WorldGroup and the San Francisco Unified School District are partnering on a professional development day today to help teachers learn how to more fully integrate podcasting, Web video and blogging into the classroom.

Are you watching Joost at all?

Joost is busy reinventing itself as a Web destination rather than a download service. In the quarter since it has been in the market, the site has tripled its growth in unique visitors, video views and hours viewed, Joost said.

Joost.com drew about 3 million unique viewers in January globally and more than 7.6 million video views.

The site offers TV shows, Web series, films and music videos with programming partners including Sony Music, Warner Music, CBS, MTV, VH1, Comedy Central, Warner Bros., CollegeHumor.com, Onion News Network, Revision3, Next New Network and others.

So who’s watching Joost? Are you?

Ah, don’t you miss cheesy 1970s private-eye TV shows? Well, here’s your online video fix, Rhett and Link-style.

The online comedy duo have reimagined themselves as “Seaborne & Roach,” a pair of detectives. Just makes you want to stake something out sitting in a car all day…

Admit it: You don’t have the time or inclination to watch all the films that won the Academy Award for best picture either. But you still want to know why they won. Never fear-–check out online comedy duo The Fine Bros.' latest movie spoiler effort in which they reveal the endings of all the best picture winners in history.

Cable channel History recently launched its first Web-only series, “Great and Telling Tales.” It’s billed as an unconventional look at history from storyteller and historian Timothy Dickinson.

The Web show is a diversification for History, whose Web site traditionally has offered only historical documentary footage and clips from the network’s shows as short-form video.

In the new series, Mr. Dickinson tells an obscure story from the annals of history, but the story is accompanied by some cool animation. His show covers historical events such as the death of President Garfield and the “Great Moon Hoax.” The network is producing 12 online shows.

Television stations need to test anything and everything to win new viewers. Like training anchors in a little Three Stooges routine? Hey, whatever works.

Here is Chicago station WGN-TV’s effort to entertain the Web audience by showing what its anchors do during commercial breaks.

This has been a popular viral video for a month or so now and has logged more than 200,000 views.

George Carlin would have adored this news report. He would have worshipped it for its rampant use of the “seven dirty words” 70 times over.

Here’s the latest news report from the Onion on a new technical device from Sony.

Problem ghost haunting your attic? Got a Casper who’s bugging you? Then blast those vaporish creatures of the afterworld with your iPhone!

Yep, the hottest cell phone in the world is now a ghostbuster, too, thanks to a new application from A&E’s show “Paranormal State.” You can install it on your iPhone to detect electromagnetic fields, which could be a sign of the great beyond, A&E says.

Popular Internet celeb iJustine’s “Be My Valentine” video is the most tweeted-about video today. How do I know that? Because online video search site Truveo has a new section where it lists the most tweeted-about videos.

If you want to know who or what’s got the word of mouth mojo, check out this list.

This is what makes YouTube worth watching. I go to the site to look for a viral video of the week and I find this cool featured video—reportedly of the world’s smallest, still playable baby grand piano. Each key is only 4 millimeters wide!

Discovery is all the rage in video search. That’s why Blinkx today introduced a new feature on its video search site that lets users click buttons for “entertain me” and “Inform me.” The site then delivers you a playlist of the most popular entertainment and news stories from across the Web.

The thinking behind this new feature is: Consumers are increasingly inundated with Web video so they want video delivered to them. Rather than sift through a site—who has the time to filter through the more than 14 billion videos watched each month?—you click on a button and get a filter that way.

You tell me. What do you think of this feature? Will you use Blinkx more because of it?

If you don’t have an iPhone app, stand up!

OK, who out there doesn’t have an iPhone app? Veoh just released one yesterday, and the news made me wonder: Who’s left?

Who hasn’t introduced one? Should every Web site and service have an iPhone app? What shouldn’t be on an iPhone?

Alec Baldwin is right. What are you gonna do—turn off BOTH your TV and your computer? Never.

That’s where Hulu’s got you and your brain, which it will reduce to a gelatinous cottage cheese mush with its free delivery of TV.

Or so Hulu says in its first Super Bowl ad, which that ran yesterday.

Solutions Research Group predicted that Hulu’s awareness among all online Americans would rise from 24% to 40% after the ad ran.

What did you think of the spot?