WebProNews

Tag: YouTube

  • YouTube Channels Get New Look March 7th

    Time is ticking to update your new YouTube channel. YouTube unveiled its new channels look in December, but are trying to have everyone caught up by March 7th. The update includes new templates for channels and new features across the site to connect users with their favorite channels.

    YouTube recommends the following checklist to get you up to speed:

    Featured Tab

    • Do you want a featured tab? If so enable it by clicking “edit channel” on your channel page.
    • Choose the right publisher template for your featured tab. If you have upcoming Live events we recommend the Live template.
    • Do you want to include a video player on the feature tab?

    Background Banner

    • Migrate your existing background or select another
    • If you previously had a separate banner image then merge it with your background image and reupload it.
    • Enter a pixel height to push down your Channel if you would like to expose more of your background image. Entering a height greater than 0 will immediately activate your image map code.
    • There will be no separate banner images in this new Channels design. Instead you will be able to push down your Channel (up to 150 px) to expose your background image. To push down your Channel use the Banner height section in the Appearance tab of your Channel editor and enter a number between 0 and 150.
    • To make the exposed area of their background image clickable, you can also apply image map code to the area. Image maps will be up to 970 px wide and will be the height you specified (between 0 and 150 px).

    Watch Page Banner

    • If you currently depend on a white background for your white mini banner than you might want to consider switching to a transparent background. The new watch page has a grey background making white banners look out of place.

    Default Landing Page

    • Choose which tab you want users to land on when they come to your Channel by selecting a default tab in Settings menu of the channel editor.
    • If you would like unsubscribed users to land on your default tab and subscribed users to land on your feed check the checkbox below the default tab drop down.

    Timing

    • When do you migrate your Channel?

    YouTube thinks this new update will help users browse your channel while keeping some of the old options viewers used frequently. Like the ability to feature content, which YouTube is expanding by offering a new “Featured Tab.”

    For those of you that fear change, YouTube encourages people to use the “Send Feedback” link and tell them what you think of the new look, and what they can do better in future updates.

    For an in depth look at how to create your own channel, check out the YouTube Creator Playbook:

  • YouTube: Rob Reiner Presents ‘8,’ Play About Marriage Equality

    Google has previously shown their support for marriage equality with their lovely Valentine’s Day Google doodle. YouTube will now be broadcasting a stage production on equal rights.

    Rob Reiner, famous actor and director, took to the YouTube blog today to announce that YouTube will be live streaming the reading of a new play titled “8.” The play is a dramatization of the Proposition 8 trial in California.

    The play was written by Dustin Lance Black, who has won an Academy Award for his screenplay for the 2008 film “Milk.” The play is “an account of the case filed by the American Foundation for Equal Rights in the U.S. District Court in 2010 to overturn Proposition 8, a constitutional amendment that eliminated the rights of same-sex couples to marry in the state of California.” The play is centered around the closing arguments of the trial in June 2010.

    Rob Reiner, George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Martin Sheen, Kevin Bacon, Jane Lynch, Matthew Morrison, Jamie Lee Curtis and other big names will be performing the play live from the Wilshire Ebell Theater in Los Angeles, California.

    The play will be live streamed from the AFER YouTube channel on Saturday at 7:45 p.m. PT. The pre-show begins at 7:30 p.m. PT.

  • The Second Avengers Trailer Is Online, and It’s Awesome

    This morning, we joined in the tease for the second full-length trailer for The Avengers, and now that it’s live, the anticipation meter is now getting close to an “off the charts” level, at least for this writer.

    The biggest fear surrounding The Avengers is, after four years of build up, coupled with multiple 2-plus hour movies that also served as primers for the movie about Marvel’s team supreme, could they pull it off? Would Joss Whedon be able to take all the potential the material offers and turn it into a blockbuster movie? While the jury is still out, and will remain so until the movie is available to the public, the trailers, especially the newest one, gives us plenty of reason to hope.

    Or, as Geek Tyrant said, “The Avengers – New Badass Trailer Will Make You Cheer!” After watching The Hulk catch Iron Man in midair, I’m inclined to agree. Twitter does too:

    (image)@GodAwesomeHair
    Thor Odinson    I can’t hear you over the awesomeness of the New Avengers Trailer. #WeAreTheBestHeroesInTheGalaxy(image) 3 minutes ago via web ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    (image)@DanSlott
    Dan Slott    I’ve been wiped from existence. The new Avengers trailer traveled back in time & exploded my 8 year old brain w/ pure, unbridled MARVEL JOY!(image) 17 minutes ago via web ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    (image)@SuperHeroHype
    SuperHeroHype.com    The new Avengers trailer is simply incredible. Stay tuned…(image) 47 minutes ago via web ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    And now, May 4th can’t get here soon enough.

  • Rage Faces In Real Life

    Rage Faces In Real Life

    If you’re any kind of experienced Internet user, you’re probably awfully familiar with the rage face memes that permeate across a large number of platforms. While Reddit deserves a large amount of the credit for the growing the popularity surrounding these images, they’ve grown beyond just the fffffffuuuuuuuuuuuu subreddit.

    These faces have pretty much crossed over the mainstream; at least in relation to the Internet mainstream. While your local news may be confused by them; hell, maybe even the national media, too; if you’re any kind of regular Internet user, there’s little doubt you’ve come across some kind of rage face, be it accidentally or from a shared link on your social media platform of choice. Much like the “I Can Haz” group, the rage face community has created a “build your own” rage face maker, which only further indicates their popularity.

    But what would these faces look like in real life? Considering that most were inspired by real life facial expressions–Bruce Lee, anyone?–we have something of an idea, but now, thanks to the folks at Pistol Shrimps, there’s no mistaking what these kinds of rage faces would look like if you could pull them off in person:


    Creepy or awesome? Or both?

    As for the video’s popularity, since being upload on February 25, the Rage Comics In Real Life has acquired over 2.2 million views, with almost 40,000 likes. If that doesn’t clarify the popularity of this particular meme, I’m not sure anything will.

  • YouTube Adds More Caption Options

    YouTube began offering caption support in 2006. In 2012 over 135 million videos have enabled automatic captions. This is over triple the number from July of last year, when YouTube began offering speech recognition captions in Japanese.

    Automatic captions with speech recognition are now offered in Japanese, English and Korean, making it much easier for users to provide these services. Regular caption support is available in 155 languages and dialects, and YouTube is continually updating their features to make captions more accessible to viewers:

    To search for videos with captions add “, cc” to any search, or after searching, click Filter > CC to only see results with closed captions.

    You can change the look of the captions by clicking on the “CC” icon and then the “Settings…” menu item. This includes changing the font size or colors used.

    If the channel owner provides a video caption file in a broadcast format, you can now change its position and style information, just like you’d see on TV. This means the text can appear near the character who is speaking, italicized to indicate an off-camera narrator, or even scrolling if the original captions were generated in a real-time mode.

    Features for creators have also been improved to increase availability of captions on the site:

    Video creators will notice an increased range of supported caption formats typically used by broadcasters, and if you have captions you created for TV or DVD, YouTube claims they will handle the conversion for you.

  • YouTube Gets More Local With New Google Update

    As previously reported, Google announced its list of February algorithm/search quality changes. The list had forty changes. One of them was “more locally relevant predictions in YouTube’.

    The related part of the list says:

    More locally relevant predictions in YouTube. [project codename “Suggest”] We’ve improved the ranking for predictions in YouTube to provide more locally relevant queries. For example, for the query [lady gaga in ] performed on the US version of YouTube, we might predict [lady gaga in times square], but for the same search performed on the Indian version of YouTube, we might predict [lady gaga in India].

    Clearly better suggestions/predictions for YouTube users is an area of interest Google is very focused on these days.

    Another example of evidence to that effect would be a letter the company recently wrote to Congress regarding its new (and widely publicized) privacy policy changes. In the letter, Google noted that the old policies have restricted the company’s ability to combine info within an account for web history (search history for signed in users) and YouTube.

    “For example, if a user is signed in and searching Google for cooking recipes, our current privacy policies wouldn’t let us recommend cooking videos when she visits YouTube based on her searches – even though she was signed into the same Google Account when using both Google Search and YouTube,” Google said in the letter.

    The privacy policy consolidation, and the merging of Google products into one larger Google product (for all intents and purposes) along with the new location-based recommendation adjustment indicate that Google is trying hard to keep people on YouTube for longer periods of time, which is really just a reflection of other YouTube announcements of late (the redesign being a primary example).

    The connected living room is becoming a reality for more and more people, and YouTube is still the big kid on the block for online video. It’s going to be more important than ever for Google to keep users not only coming back, but keeping them on site for as much time as possible.

    This other entry to Google’s list may be worth taking into consideration as well:

    Improvements to ranking for local search results. [launch codename “Venice”] This improvement improves the triggering of Local Universal results by relying more on the ranking of our main search results as a signal.

  • Facebook Video: Dad Shoots Laptop Followup

    Three weeks ago, when we did an article about the father who shot his daughter’s laptop in a Facebook video, little did we know the firestorm response that would result.

    The original video has been viewed on Youtube over 30 million times. Many people responded with comments of approval for the father taking a hardline stance in his home. In WebProNews comments alone, we saw statements like:

    [The following statements are all from separate commenters. Apparently they all just love exclamation marks.]

    GoDaddy.Com otta use this guy for a spokes person instead of Danicka Patric [sic]!!!!!!!!!

    Right on dad I applaud you…standing ovation even!!!!!! I was different with my boys. I would not buy them any technology until they earned it. They are are 22 & 23 and still do not have technology. They have to use thier friends computers and cell phones. If I had bought them thechnology then I would have been just like you.

    I am sending this to every parent I know, Yee HAH!

    I could not help but applaud (literally) when this video was over!!

    Now if more parents would do the same thing with their kids belongings then maybe just maybe our kids would behave better. We all need to go back to rising our children like our parents rised [sic] us.

    The entire video and the responses to it spawned discussion, even involving Dr. Phil McGraw on the Today Show, where he offered his opinion on the effectiveness and wisdom of these kinds of tactics in parenting.

    And, since then, there have been numerous parody videos posted about this. Here’s one of the best:

  • Stephen King Reads the First Chapter of The Shining Sequel

    When Stephen King announced his plan for a sequel to his smash hit, The Shining, the idea of psychic vampires perhaps scared some of King’s followers, especially in light of his criticism of Stephanie Meyer.

    While the wave of relief concerning Dr. Sleep hasn’t completely fallen upon us, the chance to revisit the world of Danny Torrance is still a compelling one. As indicated by Geek Tyrant, the sequel focuses on an adult Danny, who still has command of his considerable psychic powers, and uses them to help elderly patients cross over to the other side. It’s Torrance’s powers that evidently attracts the attention of the aforementioned vampire crew.

    Aside from that, the rest is speculation. Until now.

    To help build the buzz for his new novel, as if that’s necessary, King appeared at the Savannah Book Festival and read the first chapter of Dr. Sleep for fans who just can’t wait until the book hits the shelves, or well, until the ebook is available on the Kindle. Naturally, there’s video of King’s chapter recitation:


    The reaction on YouTube is a little mixed, as some are using this moment to declare King’s run is at end, while others can’t wait for the rest of the book. An example:

    • Holy shit, if this is only the first chapter I can’t imagine how amazing the rest is going to be!!!!uncageXtheXcolours
    • Stephen King – The Walmart of Horror. Cheap writing you forget minutes after reading. Once great, now just a “product” put out a few times a year to appease fans and people who read at a grade 5 level. Sort of sad… he has become the very ghosts and ghouls he wrote about. Childhood fright that barely entertain adults these days. Good thing greater writers today can be found. Too bad so many don’t go looking for them and instead grab King’s latest pulp offering on sale, at Walmart.rollstuhlwolf

    Any thoughts or reactions about King’s upcoming return trip to the world of Danny Torrance? Did the psychic vampires scare you off? If so, did the first chapter bring you back?

  • Mario Brothers + Lana Del Rey Cover = Awesome Parody

    As Lana Del Rey’s ascension up the popularity charts continues — is she America’s answer to Adele? — her current hit, Video Games sports the kind of title that would attract the parody crowd, especially those who are fans of gaming.

    Enter Jenny Bede and her interpretation of Video Games; however, instead of being a melancholy love song that uses video games as a memory trigger, Bede’s version is a melancholy love song based on an incredibly popular video game. In the parody version, the question is asked, what happens when you merry the wrong Super Mario plumber? The result is yet another piece of great user-generated content/remix/parody/content creation for the new generation.

    First, Lana’s smash:

    Now the awesome parody:


    Personally, I’m a fan of the sad princess, which mimics Del Rey’s look quite well. While the video hasn’t quite hit the same YouTube numbers as its inspiration — Video Games has over 30 million views — the reception has been warm. From the YouTube comments:

    omg lol, dying at the spot on lana emotionless impression lol

    TradeChat

    what KILLS me about these videos that the girls are all way way better singers than Lana… oh man. love this.

    aalainaa

    I don’t know about all that, but it does support the warm reception idea.

    This has to be the most amazing thing i have ever seen. *pouty and emotionless*

    silentnoisesEMS

    And there you have it. I suppose this article could veer into a “this is why you should be against SOPA and ACTA” slant, but hopefully, you already know that by now.

    H/t to Dueling Analogs for pointing this out.

  • The Simpsons 500th Episode Intro In Slow Motion

    Last Sunday, Fox’s long-staying The Simpsons hit its 500th episode plateau, and one of the absolute treats of the milestone episode was the introduction segment. As you’re probably aware, each Simpsons episode begins with the group making their way to the family couch. The route in which the Simpsons arrive at their destination is up to the creators, and because there’s a different situation for every episode, that means there have been 500 different intros to the show.

    As indicated, perhaps the highlight of the 500th episode was the trip down memory lane intro, one that showed us snippets of the the previous 499, all in under a minute’s worth of running time. Because that’s a short amount of time to cram that much “data” into, YouTube user acjarsen08 had our collective backs and slowed the intro down to a little over four minutes, giving us the opportunity to catch some of the clips we may have missed when 500 aired:


    It’s clear ac’s efforts were appreciated. Out of the 13,000-plus views, the video has over 100 likes and only 2 dislikes.

    In other news, it’s hard not to wonder just how long this video will last. There isn’t a whole lot of “official” Simpsons content on YouTube, and considering Fox’s ironclad-like grip it keeps on its content, it wouldn’t be surprised to see this video get pulled, especially as it gets more and more views.

    With that in mind, get it while it’s hot.

  • Jay-Z Faces Competition From Rapping Russian Billionaire

    According to recent estimates, Mikhail Prokhorov is the third richest man from Russia and the 32nd richest man in the entire world. But all the money in the world can’t buy you rap skills.

    The Russian billionaire has gone viral with a performance he made as a guest appearance on a Russian comedy show called “Projector Paris Hilton.” The appearance actually took place a couple of weeks ago, but it was only recently that the video began to see wide circulation via social media outlets – and the YouTube views have climbed.

    Prokhorov begins with an awkward “yo, yo” and leads into a rap that’s probably not going to get him in the studio with Jay-Z (although Jay-Z is given plenty of mentions). But he does declare himself the real Russian Eminem, which gets no argument from this writer.

    Check it out below:

    Prokhorov, who owns the majority stake in the New Jersey Nets (Jay-Z owns a smaller share), is also in the news recently due to his political aspirations. In December, he declared his entrance into the Russian Presidential race as an independent.

    Some have accused Prokhorov of been a part of a government-backed charade. According to the AP, to some, his candidacy is “viewed as a Kremlin-approved effort to add legitimacy to the election and channel public discontent highlighted by massive protest rallies.” But he denies that he’s in it for any reason other than to fight for the Presidency.

    According to recent polls, Vladimir Putin is set to win the March 4th election by a substantial margin. I’m pretty sure that this charming little rap performance has endeared Prokhorov to more than a few people, however.

  • Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, AOL, Hulu & Digitas Partner On “Digital Content NewsFronts”

    Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, AOL, Hulu & Digitas Partner On “Digital Content NewsFronts”

    Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, AOL, Hulu and Digitas are partnering on “Digital Content NewFronts“. During a two-week period from April 19th to May 2nd, each partner will host an independent event in NYC to connect brands with content. The events are invitation-only.

    “We’re really looking forward to meeting with our clients in May, to talk about brand building opportunities across Google and YouTube,” said Lucas Watson, VP of global video sales for YouTube. “We think this series of events will be a great forum for important industry discussions and we look forward to advancing the conversation.”

    “We are excited to see the major players across the competitive landscape make native digital content a priority,” said AOL SVP, Sales Strategy, Marketing & Partnerships, Janet Balis. “Given AOL’s deep commitment to original, high impact digital experiences, we feel this is an incredibly valuable opportunity to showcase the creativity of our ideas and solutions.”

    “There is an urgency to invest in quality content at scale,” said Colin Kinsella, CEO, Digitas North America. “The DCNF is established as a direct result of the growing impact of digital content on consumers, and therefore brands, their investments and agencies. We are thrilled to participate in this collaboration-first that will chart new territory in digital content and media.”

    According to data from eMarketer, online ad spend is expected to grow 23% in 2012 to $39.5 billion in the U.S. Online video ad spending grew by 52.1% in 2011 in the U.S., and by 2015, it’s expected to reach $7.1 billion (up from $2.16 billion in 2011).

    Hulu’s event will be on April 19th. Microsoft and AOl will both hold their events on April 24th. On the 25th, Yahoo will hold its, followed by Digitas’ on April 26th, and Google’s on May 2nd.

    Additional events will be announced in the coming weeks.

  • YouTube Is Now In Four More Indian Languages

    YouTube Is Now In Four More Indian Languages

    YouTube is one step closer to becoming a global video content delivery site by adding four new languages to the site – all of them being regional languages in India.

    Aditi Rajwanshi, YouTube India partner manager, announced today in a YouTube blog post that the site can now be browsed in Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam and Telugu. YouTube has been in India since 2008, but India’s size and vast amount of languages has made it hard for them to make the site friendly to all the people who live there.

    Previously, YouTube has added support for Hindi, Urdu, Marathi, Bengali and Tamil. Considering that India has 30 regional languages, YouTube only has 21 more languages to go until they can account for the entire country.

    YouTube just isn’t getting more language support. The video site is also working with creators to produce content in these languages.

    For speakers of Telugu, YouTube has more than 100 films of Tollywood Cinema and a vegetarian cooking channel. Speakers of Kannada can look forward to music, drama and comedy content. Malayalam speakers can get Malayalam cinema videos from YouTube. Finally, Gujarati speakers can access TV9 for news.

    YouTube has provided some entertaining and eductional examples of YouTube videos for each language. Check them out below:

    Gujarati:

    Kannada:

    Malayalam:

    Telugu:

  • YouTube Publishes New Creator Playbook

    YouTube makes a Creator Playbook that seeks to help YouTube producers and directors make the best videos possible. YouTube has changed though and the site has updated its Creator Playbook to reflect that.

    The new Creator Playbook features all the information that was in the original, but now it’s been updated to include entries on important new features that should help any content creator take advantage of the new tools that YouTube has been adding to the service.

    The YouTube blog outlines the major changes coming to the playbook:

    New channel & homepage section
    With the launch of our new channel pages and updated homepage, we’ve created a new section on how to organize your videos for different audiences, and how to program your channel to help you make the most of the feed on the YouTube homepage.

    Go global
    Your channel reaches a global audience, so we’ve added a new section to help creators create, program, and optimize for audiences around the world.

    Updates to annotations, playlists, publishing and more
    Your feedback and new features helped us update much of the playbook on topics like annotations, playlists & video responses and call to actions.

    Glossary
    If you’re new to YouTube or the Creator Playbook, we’ve included a glossary to help you quickly learn all the site’s features, and the strategies, terms, and topics used in the playbook.

    For those who want to learn more about what’s new in the Creator Playbook, the YouTube staff will be holding a Partner Meet-Up Livestream today at 5 p.m. PT today.

  • YouTube Hires Bing General Manager To Be New VP Of Marketing

    Google has hit Bing where it hurts by hiring away its general manager of marketing.

    AdAge is reporting that Google has hired Danielle Tiedt, former general manager of marketing for Bing. She led the recent “Bing is for Doing” ad campaign and was around when the search engine first launched. What will she be doing under Google? She’s going to become the VP of marketing for YouTube.

    What will Tiedt be doing for YouTube? Google says that she “play a pivotal role as we move forward into our next phase of growth.”

    Bing has definitely grown into its own and is now the second most popular search engine on the Web. If Tiedt can bring that kind of growth to the YouTube brand, we can expect some big things from what is already the biggest video service on the Web.

    As YouTube becomes more of a content delivery service instead of just a place where I can upload videos of myself complaining about the world; the video site is going to need some heavy marketing to convince more people that they can rival television and other professional video content.

    YouTube is already heavily invested in creating new content and channels with the recent announcement of a sports channel. With this new hire, expect YouTube to grow more into a service that can challenge the big boys.

  • Compare Your 40 Time With Rich Eisen, NFL Draft Prospects

    The NFL Scouting Combine begins today (2/22) as teams get ready for the meat market-like approach to evaluating future NFL prospects, in preparation for the upcoming NFL Draft. The Combine is popular event in the sports world, getting almost as much attention as the NFL Draft itself.

    When you hear NFL pundits say the season never ends, this is what they are referring to.

    One of the more popular/important activities of the NFL Scouting Combine is the 40-yard dash. Entire careers are made (or broken) based on the amount of time it takes these prospects to travel 40 yards as quickly as they can. Not only have careers been made, but the NFL Scouting Combine also offers the opportunity to create a legend. Just ask Chris Johnson after his 40 time was posted.

    There is, of course, video of Johnson’s monumental dash:


    Another legend that was born from the Combine’s 40-yard dash involves NFL Channel personality, Rich Eisen. In 2005, Eisen famously tried his luck at the infamous dash, complete with a suit and tie. His time? Well, let’s just say Chris Johnson’s legend is still safe. Now Eisen’s dash has become a yearly event, something the following video indicates quite well:


    Now Eisen, along with the rest of the NFL family, is inviting you to do the same. His post has the details:

    At any rate, the good folks at the NFL Network came up with this idea to have you to run in your work clothes at your work place, roll a camera on it and post the video. The best ones will air on NFL Network before I lace ‘em up again and make another molasses-like run at glory. Please, do not hurt yourself. And also do not cost yourself your job.

    But, wherever you are, foreign or domestic, the one thing that you absolutely must do … is run.

    Once the video is posted, Eisen recommends tweeting a link to his account (@RichEisen), the NFL’s (@NFL), or to the NFL Network (@NFLNetwork). Be sure to use the hashtag #RunRichRun.

    Of course, the best and worst videos will be shown on the NFL Network, shortly before Eisen once again hurtles himself down the 40-yard distance. With that in mind, get to posting those 40-yard dash videos, if, for nothing else, to see how you stack up against future NFL pros, and, well, Rich Eisen, too. Considering how Eisen compared to Julio Jones (upcoming video), don’t get too discouraged if you’re miles away from Chris Johnson’s epic time:

  • Twitter Helps Man Sell Home For $135,000 Above Asking Price

    A tech-savvy Melbourne homeowner used social media to go all out in selling his home and was rewarded with $135,000 above his asking price. Not bad for a little extra work around the house. Real Estate agents, neighbors and most everyone in general is impressed with the 33% increase Kurt Opray received above median home sales for his Northcote neighborhood.

    Does this mean Real Estate prices are on the rise? Not necessarily. What it does show is that when a seller includes social media in the process of marketing their home, the extra effort is proving to be very fiscally rewarding and well worth it. The Real Estate agent, Rob Elsom of Hocking Stuart Northcote, hired by this homeowner was blown away when 80 people (30% more than expected) showed up for the auction.

    So what did Kurt do to get so much for his home? In tandem with his Real Estate firm and a website, he employed the use of free, easy to use online tools available to everyone. He set up a Twitter account and used it to promote his auction and feed traffic to his blog about the property. He created his blog in WordPress, posted his photos on Picasa and hosted videos on YouTube.

    @NorthcoteHouse
    Northcote house sale    Amazing Northcote house for sale by auction Feb 11 2012. Visit http://t.co/Iaz4qKEb for pics & owners blog. 44 days ago via web ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    Homeowners know their properties better than anyone and can share the interesting, emotional stories and details through social media to engage and excite potential buyers. This added value can help turn a property into a home and take the seller all the way to the bank.

  • Borderlands 2 Gets Its Launch Date Trailer

    The hyperbole is coming hard and fast from Gearbox Software has they are prepping to release the sequel to their fun hit, Borderlands. While the rumblings about the sequel picked up speed in 2011, thanks in large part to the teaser trailer, the hype is getting ready to kick into overdrive now that the release date has been revealed.

    Before that however, the text contained within the trailer which comprises the hyperbole is well done. Besides the “joypuke your face off,” which I used in the article’s subtitle, other examples include gems like “87 BAZILLION GUNS JUST GOT BAZILLIONDIER” and “EQUIP, RELOAD… DO VIOLENCE.” This should give you a pretty good indication of, well, a number of things. First, it’s pretty clear Gearbox had a blast creating this game, and that attitude stands out quite well in the trailer. Second, it should give you an idea of what kind of game Borderlands 2 will be — that is, a first-person shooter that takes creative license with, well, just about everything it can in relation to gun-related combat.

    Of course, my descriptions don’t do the trailer any justice, so enjoy:


    As indicated, the new trailer was released to announce the game’s launch date, which, for all of you waiting impatiently, is September 18.

    As you might expect, the Twitter crowd is excited:

    @Espio1
    Andy Robinson    Borderlands 2 looks absolutely awesome 43 minutes ago via web ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    @SammBones
    Sam Waldman    Borderlands 2 you guys #wubwubwub 2 minutes ago via web ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    @notch
    Markus Persson    I am very excited about Borderlands 2. Very. #VERY 2 hours ago via web ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    How about #Very, very? And then there’s this very subtle gem of a bait and switch attempt:

    @Saltarellizcojv
    Janina Saltarelli    free ipad scam Borderlands 2 http://t.co/c45s8dX8 5 minutes ago via Mobile Web ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    Hot chick? Check. Trendy tech toy? Check. Hey, at least the account is smart (dumb?) enough to acknowledge it is indeed a scam. With that in mind, sometimes, it would be nice if I could turn one of Borderlands 2’s “870 Gajillion guns” towards all these spam accounts, but I digress.

    What say you? Are you hyped up about Borderlands 2? Let us know what you think.

  • Google Video Indexing Videos

    Google Webmaster Central has released a few Youtube clips describing the best methods for indexing video content, to supplement their Webmaster Tools dialogue. Google states that when video content is marked up in the body of the page, search engines and other sites can recognize it, and may use it to improve the display of video content on a page or in search results. Marking up content provides information about videos that allows Google and other sites to index them. Along with a description of common video indexing mistakes webmasters make, Google also added tips on video indexing markup, as well as a clip on video platform restrictions.

    Google also added a clip about schema.org, a set of standards that Google, Microsoft and Yahoo have jointly initiated.

    Search engines are utilizing on-page markup in a number of ways. For example, Google uses it to create rich snippets in search results. Not every type of information in schema.org will be surfaced in search results, but over time, one can expect that more data will be used in more ways. Google currently supports rich snippets for people, events, reviews, products, recipes, and breadcrumb navigation, and the new schema.org markup can be used for these types.

  • comScore January 2012 Online Video Rankings Yields No Surprises

    comScore January 2012 Online Video Rankings Yields No Surprises

    The rankings for online video sites for January 2012 have been released by comScore and, what will come as a surprise to few (if any), Google remains the enormously well-fed king in the mead hall of online video traffic. Behind the driving popularity of YouTube, Google’s stats remained relatively the same from December although the number of actual videos watched on Google sites and total unique viewers dwindled a little bit. That’s not entirely unexpected, though, since December’s video traffic might be slightly inflated due to the increase of free time of Internet users thanks to the holidays (also, all those new computers and hand-held devices people received for Christmas probably helped boost December’s numbers). Other than the exchange of NBC Universal for Turner Digital at the tenth spot, the rankings of the top ten video sites remained identical in January.

    Whether or not Viacom’s recent partnership with Amazon Prime will affect the media company’s rankings in the future remains to be seen.

    As certainly as people are going to watch tons of online video (1,355 minutes per viewer, in fact), so then will advertisements continue to stalk the people. Granted, that’s what makes so much of the video content viewable for free, but it’s still a nag when you see the numbers laid before you like this. In January, Americans watched nearly 39 ads a piece in order to enjoy their online videos, which in the context of an hour of network television probably isn’t much more than what anybody is used to. Americans did somehow manage to watch a lot less of those ads, though: 5.5 million ads for January, down from 7.2 ads in December. Hulu remained the biggest ad pusher in January with 1.5 billion video ads viewed.

    On YouTube, VEVO continues to be the page to go to among the site’s partner channels. The channel boasted 50.6 million viewers in January, dwarfing the second-closest partner channel, Warner Music, which attracted 29.7 million viewers.

    One last fun fact: almost 85% of online Americans watched some kind of online video. That’s a lotta “Sh*t _____ says” memes you’ve been making (and watching), America.

  • Iran Blocks Email, Social Networking Sites Again Ahead Of Elections

    Iran is once again cutting its citizens off from the internet in advance of the country’s parliamentary elections. According to reports circulating this morning, the country has blocked most secure socket layer – SSL – connections. That cuts off anything that uses “https” protocols, including most email services, YouTube, and social networks like Facebook and Twitter.

    According to a Reuters report this morning, VPN software, which is commonly used by Iranians to bypass the country’s censorship efforts, have also stopped working. Early last week, reports started surfacing that Iran had been blocking access to several email and social networking sites for several days. Google (including Gmail), YouTube, and Facebook were among the sites that were cut off, while Twitter seems to have been left alone, for the most part. The restrictions were apparently lifted just a few days later.

    This latest outage appears to be related to the upcoming parliamentary elections, which are scheduled for March 2. This will be the first time Iran has held national elections since the presidential election of 2009. That election, which current president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won by a suspiciously large margin. Suspicions of fraud prompted Mir-Hossein Mousavi, the rival candidate, to call on his supporters to engage in non-violent protests. The resulting demonstrations were massive and widespread, lasting several weeks. Social networking sites like Twitter played a major role both in organizing the protests and in getting news about what was going on in Iran to the outside world. It is likely that the current round of internet blockage in Iran is geared toward preventing a repeat of those events.