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YouTube have been testing HD videos for some time, and now it seems they are taking it to the next level and informing visitors when the clip is available in HD formats. I don’t know about you, but this is the first time I see this option below:

Not all videos have this option yet though.

Popularity: 33% [?]

First of all, this post is from Kuwaiti citizen, so please foreigns just keep a blind eye on the speeds, we’re paying a lot for them!

One of the things I noted when I upgraded to 512 kbps is I was able to watch YouTube videos without waiting. Downloading goes faster than playing, so you don’t get the annoying idle waiting time. Now is there a need for extra speed if you just like YouTube? For me there is more reasons than just that, but with YouTube testing new HD streaming, this extra bandwidth could sure come in handy. Why would I download few hundreds of MB just to watch a trailer, when I can just stream it on the fly? The link shows picture of the HD and normal streaming, and tips on how to stream using HD. In a nutshell, all you need to do is add a &fmt=6 to the end of the url, like this:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=CQzUsTFqtW0&fmt=6

Add the &fmt6 to the end of any video URL you like, and you may get the HD format. Then again, maybe not. It’s only testing.

By the way, Qnet is having special offer right now double speed for same price for 256 & 512 kbps valid until mid March. Could be the only good thing in Hala February. See if it fits you. And no, I wish I was getting paid to link it :)

Popularity: 55% [?]

OK this is completely non-technical, but I couldn’t resist posting it. I’m not sure how the guys managed to shoot such a video. I have seen many documentaries, non comes close to this one. Watch the whole 8 minutes.

Popularity: 29% [?]

This is the kind of tough decisions you have to make when you acquire a technology that conflicts not complements your own. After acquiring Flickr, Yahoo photos can only stand less of a chance, and it makes no sense to push for two different competing channels. Despite the co-founder of Flickr statement that Yahoo photo and Flickr will be two separate applications, with different access credentials and needs, the still leading Yahoo photos has been declining while Flickr keeps rising. The thing that led Yahoo to make the hard decision of killing it’s own app. To read more about the story details, click here.

What’s happening here is quite similar to Google and YouTube case, except that YouTube is already much largr than Google Video. Google are still trying to convince them selves and others that the two are separate and non-colliding. However you can only run but you can’t hide. Sooner or later, Google will have to deal with this conflict of interest. Both are video streaming communities, one is much larger than the other. Right now, Google video searches both YouTube and Google videos, and the majority of the results are from YouTube. In addition, even if you want to search Google Videos only, you have to manuall write site:video.google.com, as Google does not have an option to search within it’s site only. The acquisition has cost Google $1.65 billion, so why not use it and cut down the cost of your own I wonder. It’s bad and demotivating for the people behind it I know, but I think it’s hurts more when I keep adding to something that I think will fall any minute.

Another similar case now is the Yahoo acquisition by Microsoft. A deal that if made could be one of the biggest in history, and definitely the biggest in the web. For Microsoft this deal is a step back into the monopoly, and a quick jump ahead into the WWW which they have been lacking in for quite long time. This would also put them ahead of their worst enemy, Google. From Yahoo’s perspective however, let’s stop for a second and see what will happen. Not only for Yahoo it self, but for the whole Yahoo community who has been putting faith in the #1 site in the world.

• Yahoo Search: Which one will be pushed for? Live or Yahoo?
• Ads: Will Yahoo still deliver their own ads, or will Microsoft enforce their AdCenter on Yahoo network. What will happen to the advertisers as well?
• Yahoo Mail: This is a tough one. Will they be supporting two different competing services, or push only for the winner (Yahoo I mean)?
• Messenger: We know MSN and Yahoo are already collaborating for cross-messaging between the two, but not killing one of them over the other.

These are only quick points I can think of that will get affected. I really doubt this deal will make it through, but if it does, a hell lot of changes are going to happen out there.

Popularity: 15% [?]

After the Youtube acquisition by Google, Google Video started returning search results from YouTube along the Google Video results. With the massive community of YouTube, finding Google Videos has become a difficult task using ordinary search. If you are a Google Video fan, or for any reason want to filter out YouTube results, you can do so simply by searching Google Video like this:

your keywords -site:youtube.com

Example: monkey island -site:youtube.com

While searching, I came across this Monkey Island 5 movie, from the WoW world :). It’s not awesome really, but the intro was a bit promising.

Popularity: 25% [?]

Since the acquisition of YouTube and Google has been trying to justify, Google Video will not be killed. Few weeks back, Google started displaying YouTube results from within it’s Google Video search results. The result was that over 90% of the videos ended up with YouTube. I am not sure how the results are sorted however between Google Video and YouTube, but in general, you see YouTube results on top. So the question is, does people still care to upload their videos to Google Video? The answer could be yes if you want less competition over videos, your video can make it easier to top 100 on Google Video. If you are thinking about selling your videos there, commercial Videos seems to have fallen apart I can no longer see pay-per-view clips. It still seems people look at Google as a FREE service provider, what ever fee based service Google opens for the public fails.

The way Google are utilizing the service now seems to be different. The trend seems to be about finding application specific usage for it rather than community posting videos. Google Video Ads is one way they are trying to benefit from the service. It’s still brand new, but it is expected to take off as soon as they have the right content. I would definitely want to post game video ads on my site. I think it would bring higher traffic. Today also, I came to know that Google have started to deliver Video Ads on it’s Google Finance page. Reuters, Forbes and Standard & Poors are delivering the feeds. Theoretically, they could still use the YouTube service to power all their applications, but this is one company Google acquired and decided to let it run separately.

Popularity: 47% [?]

I was just reading about the HDTV and calculating my budget to see if I can qualify for nice latest high-tech home-theater when I saw this video.

The latest technology have finally achieved the Display by Air without requiring a screen. The display looks so 3D until you get closer to it. It’s also becoming interactive so you can move the objects on the screen as well. It reminds me of the Paycheck movie when he worked to reverse engineer the 3D Life View. The item is priced at $20,000 so it’s way out of my budget. Maybe if China can soon reverse engineer this thing I will get my hands on it before I turn 40. For now, I will keep calculating my savings for HDTV however.

Popularity: 11% [?]