BlogAllAlong » YouTube

Ruins of “Friendster” Civilization Uncovered by Internet Archaeologists

Bashar — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 11:35:24 +0000

I really sit down and ask my self from time to time, how would future generations if we get wiped out uncover us?

Clicker – What’s On Online

Bashar — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 06:37:19 +0000

Lots of online TV shows are being broadcasted, and lots of other movies, documentaries, and other video material. Clicker.com is the place to “find the right show, right now”. It will group the shows for you, and then show you the sites showing the specific show/episode you’re looking for.

Now ofcourse for most of us living outside the US, there will be a lot of disappointment, for lots of shows are from sites like Fox and HULU, which are US only. But I can still find other material available from public open sources. And while you can filter your search results by source, it would be more neat if I could get results available for my geographic location, or to say the least, US, UK, and Other category might do just as good.

[via All Things Digital]

Finally, a possible good YouTube revenue model

Bashar — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 05:41:03 +0000

When Google acquired YouTube for $1.65 billion just 3 years ago, many argued about the value of this purchase, with YouTube’s high running costs and the lack of any revenue model. And it did fail to stop losses for the past 3 years as well, and all Google got from it was new lawsuits, now that the video service is under the big G umbrella.

Eric Schmidt wasn’t showing any concerns, to the press at least, claiming YouTube monetization is not really a big problem. But when they started their attempt, this is how the YouTube page looked like:

First, most people going to YouTube are mostly interested in watching videos and won’t click non-related ads on the side. Second, this ad popping at the bottom of the video is more than annoying, and people are less likely to click it (intentionally). Not to mention Arabic ad text is unreadable as it’s showing disconnected characters.

But now finally, YouTube is offering YouTube video ads on the side of YouTube search results, thus enabling YouTube publishers to delivery targeted ads and spread the word about their videos. Now as to why people might wanna do that, I bet many would love to have their video spread and are willing to spend few bucks for the sake of it. Others are trying to reach for wider audience to attract attention to their skills through this media.

I hope this really picks up as it will eventually mean better YouTube service, and result in removal of those silly ads showing above the videos we see now. See the video below to familiarize with the service.

Monkey Island 2 Special-Uber Edition

Bashar — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 20:20:09 +0000

I can’t believe I call my self Monkey Island fan and I haven’t heard about this proof of concept for Monkey Island 2 Special Edition with 3D environment. And I haven’t even played the Tales of Monkey Island yet. I shouldn’t blog about this or else… Err, what do you mean I just did? Umm… back to topic.

Enjoy the videos.

Hiroshima Atomic Bomb Reenactment

Bashar — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 13:12:30 +0000

This is a reenactment of the Hiroshima Atomic Bomb. It ofcourse it has some disturbing scenes so do not watch if you don’t have the heart.

He should be named mayor!

Bashar — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 20:08:46 +0000

This guy took the game a bit too seriously!

Quite amazing huh?

Steven’s RCT3 Page

Watch your iPod movies in large with MyVu

Bashar — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 18:27:42 +0000

A friend sent me this link for MyVu just now. $300 is a lot for this, but I’m sure some would want to spend it. I mean, think of all the free time in Government job, and I don’t think the new elections are the best way to spend it :). Just kidding. Enjoy it.

This is an awful lot of fun!

Bashar — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 13:32:11 +0000

Further to the YouTube Blocking Story

Bashar — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 10:05:52 +0000

Following up on the massive protest yesterday against what seems to be an individual irrational decision, coming from an immature person at the Ministry of Communications, Al-Jarida is providing us more details on the story. My doubts about the letter yesterday turned out to be true. The letter, which seemed very unprofessional sent by a single person, was sent by the head of control department directly to all ISPs for immediate execution, by passing the minister for approval.

The blocking was freezed yesterday for further discussions, which while good, pretty much surprises me even more. First of all, you don’t fire up an official letter to the ISPs and then reconsider. Secondly, if the letter was not signed by the minister, this letter has zero legal value, and belongs to the trash. The person who is on purpose, and still defending his ground, by passing all legal procedures, to block the third largest popular site in Kuwait, from an individual thinking (if that’s what you wanna call it), considering him self probably so smart with this crap, should be punished and blocked from his position, stripped out of all responsibilities, after showing such immature level in his management.

Kuwait is a multi-million nation, and if one small individual unkown person thinks he can run the country as he likes, think again! If you don’t like YouTube, don’t use it. However I am hundred percent positive, when this chaos is over, you could see this very same person using YouTube for his own interest.

YouTube is sorry “this video is no longer available.”

Bashar — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 07:27:11 +0000

YouTube for most parts of the world is the magical mirror on the web. You tell it what you want, and it will show it. I stopped downloading clips to my computer but in rare cases, cause they are all on the net ready for quick streaming anytime/anywhere.

Recently however, this message started showing gradually more often:

At first, I would go to the top left, click on Worldwide -> Worldwide (All Regions) and it would work. It would solve it, it’s a bit annoying, and it would make embedded videos mostly useless but as links to original video url. Now, even that Worldwide option is not working, and more and more videos are being blocked. And I’m not talking about offensive content, or even debatable content. Regular trailers, video game music play, such as the one above, and many such similar things. If those videos are banned for all regions, then why am I able to see them using a proxy? Because those videos are only not availale in Kuwait, and I’m not sure on what basis and on who’s request are those videos being blocked. Is MOC hiring full time employees just randomly picking videos to be banned! This is seriously making YouTube non-usable, or else so annoying to use. Another thing is, why wouldn’t YouTube be clear with their message “This video is no longer available in your area”. Their message is kind of decieving.

People who were not aware of it, anoter big video streaming site, VEOH has also blocked all Kuwait traffic as well.

My first guess was, maybe it’s porn flooded video site, but the main page shows nothing more than youTube does, perhaps even less offensive in some cases. Does it have porn videos? I would bet yes, same as all other video sites. But it’s also a great place for video games videos. Why would the site stop all traffic from Kuwait, and not even response to my inquiry about it. They probably got sick from us they don’t even care anymore. Does MOC have that strong influence? Why wouldn’t MOC just block it through our ISPs then?

Beware China, here we come.

UPDATE: As some people suggested in the comments, the YouTube problem does seem to be related to Qnet only. Problem seems to be cleared now. Let’s hope.

YouTube Promoting HD Videos

Bashar — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 09:43:36 +0000

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.

Is it the right time to upgrade your connection?

Bashar — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 08:53:18 +0000

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 :)

The best wild life clip I’ve seen

Bashar — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 06:57:31 +0000

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.

Yahoo Photo Off, Tough But Wise Decision

Bashar — Sat, 05 May 2007 14:54:04 +0000

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.

Search Google Video Only

Bashar — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 18:46:41 +0000

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.
[kml_flashembed movie="http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=-2137229125577360715&hl=en" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

Where is Google Video Now?

Bashar — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 17:05:27 +0000

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.

Air Display TV

Bashar — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 18:24:59 +0000

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.

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/QdTSmYMq72A" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]
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.

Grocery Store Wars!

Bashar — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 16:35:12 +0000

Not long ago, and as a matter of fact up till now, in a supermarket not so far away. The organic rebellion vegetables were holding to their last hope in a fight against the evil chemical dark side of the farm.

WATCH THE FULL MOVIE AT YOUTUBE.

Search YouTube videos from Google Video

Bashar — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 18:08:53 +0000

Google have posted on their official blog about their future plans on how Google Video and YouTube will operate after the acquisition. Starting from today, you can search for your YouTube videos from Google Video, and it seems the intention on the long run is to turn Google Video into a global video search for videos from all over the web, rather than just Google or YouTube. Is that going to kill Google Video Player it self? Well, possible as you can already see from the test search I did that most of the results are YouTube and you can hardly find any Google Videos. I don’t need to mention here however that searching for YouTube videos through Google is way much faster.

The good thing about Google however, is how they manage to create separate parts, and then put them later on together into something more useful. Google Video now is used to send Voice mails, play attached MP3 files, display Google Video Ads, and to distribute the official Google Videos. So already there is quite a lot into it. I do believe the Google Video service currently running will have a different meaning and theme in the future, but this will only make it more global and used. It will be still good though to have a clear way of filtering and searching only for Google Videos or YouTube videos. This way the community won’t be dead. Without it, most queries will return non-Google videos and there won’t be any reason for people to upload their videos anymore.

BlogAllAlong » YouTube

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