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1 out of 5 American internet users watch online videos

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Pew Internet1 of 5 Americans view video over internet everyday, a study made by Pew Internet and American Life Project says.

Essentially, this Pew study shows that on a typical day, 19% American adults watch some form of video, news being ranked number one followed by comedy vids. According to Mary Madden, senior research specialist at Pew, people have gotten comfortable with the idea of using the Internet for video, especially news outlets which are among the first to deliver online video.

Also, about 50% of video viewers within the 18-29 age bracket watch clips on YouTube, 15% view MySpace, in contrast with only 7% who turn to a cable or network TV site.

Apparently, having a high-speed internet access is an important element in accessing video sites. It turns out that 25% of those with broadband connection watch video on a regular day, while only 9% with dial-up connection do so.

This telephone survey of 1492 internet users was conducted Feb 15 to March 7.

Originally posted on July 26, 2007 @ 4:11 am

YouTube’s former finance chief named Facebook’s new CFO

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FacebookYouTube‘s former finance chief, Gideon Yu, was hired by Facebook as its new CFO.

Yu, 36, has been the chief financial officer of video-sharing giant YouTube even before it was acquired by Google September of last year. He will be replacing Mike Sheriden, who’s leaving Facebook for an undisclosed reason. “My heart is first and foremost with venture-stage companies and consumer Internet companies,” Mr. Yu said. He will be leaving Google this quarter. “I’m hoping this is my last job for a long time,” he added. Before joining YouTube last year, Yu was treasurer of Yahoo Inc.

This recent changes on Facebook’s executive ranks raises speculations on the company’s next moves. “We’re not looking to sell the company, and we’re really not looking to IPO any time soon,” Mr. Zuckerberg said. “Our board and we believe it’s probably best to push some of these things off as long as possible.”

Originally posted on July 25, 2007 @ 5:28 am

Tagged closes third round worth $15M

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TaggedWhat are the chances that two high potential social networks would close their own round of funds on the same day? Earlier, it was Hi5, now, it’s Tagged.

Sources say that Tagged raised $15M worth of funding from a still unknown investor, their third round of financing over all — the first amounting to $1.5M, and the second, $7M. Interestingly, Tagged was reported to have garnered 350,000 users per day in May.

With millions of web startups rising with social networking elements, one can expect social networks to sell like hot pancakes, even if they’re not Facebook or Myspace. So.. which network is next?

Via TechCrunch.

Originally posted on July 24, 2007 @ 9:21 am

iRazoo launches people powered, points driven search engine

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iRazooWhile social networks sprout like mushrooms around the web, it’s refreshing to find out that some netrepreneurs would develop startups that are not mainly social networks for a change.

iRazoo, the “world’s first people-powered, points driven, search engine”, launches today with it’s unique function of giving users the opportunity to register and earn points whenever one uses the engine. So think Google or Yahoo, only this time, you have to register to earn points. By performing a regular search query, you get search results that are real-time compilation of the top search results from the best search engines, and for each search, you receive 2 points. You can also receive points by referring a friend, which will earn you 10 points each referral.

Here are the benefits of iRazoo, as stated on their site:

  • You get excellent search results (we aggregate all the data from the best search engines on the planet!)
  • You get to help further refine our excellent search results for others as well as benefit from other’s refined search results
  • You get points for each search you peform, each website you recommend/not recommend, and each referral you make
  • Best of all, you get to exchange your points for fantastic prizes!

You can view more about the process and the technical explanations of iRazoo here.

Originally posted on July 24, 2007 @ 8:24 pm

Microsoft Live Search enhances privacy protection features

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Microsoft Privacy ProtectionFollowing Ask.com’s efforts to ensure online privacy protection, Microsoft launches enhanced privacy protection features for Live Search, giving users control over what information they give to personalize web search.

Among the steps Microsoft plans to take include anonymous search query by permanently removing cookie IDs, IP addresses, and other identifiers.

“We have been thinking deeply about privacy related to search and online advertising and believe it is critical to evolve our privacy principles,” said Peter Cullen, chief privacy strategist at Microsoft. “We believe our enhanced principles should be part of the industry dialogue on this issue and that keeping these issues as simple as possible for consumers is the best approach. For instance, on search data, anonymous should mean anonymous.”

With Ask.com and Live Search responding to privacy related concerns of various users, one can only hope that Yahoo and Google, as well as the other search engines, will follow suit.

Originally posted on July 23, 2007 @ 3:16 am