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New Media News Every Morning

YouTube Still King, Leaps Past 3 Billion Daily Views

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After six years of existence Google’s social video king still remains on the thrown, as the YouTube team revealed a couple of impressive stats regarding the site’s popularity.

Today, more than 48 hours (two days worth) of video are uploaded to the site every minute, a 37% increase over the last six months and 100% over last year. […]

We’re amazed that over this last weekend, you drove YouTube past the 3 billion views a day mark, a 50% increase over last year. That’s the equivalent of nearly half the world’s population watching a YouTube video each day, or every U.S. resident watching at least nine videos a day. (Official YouTube Blog)

Note: Emphasis theirs.

Despite fierce competition from rivals like Vimeo as well as Facebook, users and businesses continue to flock towards YouTube to power their videos online.

While YouTube has pioneered the path towards making videos more social, the service has yet to embrace live streaming en masse (although they do allow select partners to broadcast videos in real time).

Note: It will be interesting to see if rivals like Microsoft (who just purchased Qik) will make a second attempt to challenge YouTube in the future, or leave it up to Facebook to steal Google’s crown.

Originally posted on May 25, 2011 @ 12:57 pm

iPhone Inherits iWork

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After many months of waiting, it looks like iPhone fans will finally be able to use iWork upon their mobile device (albeit for a price).

Now you can use Keynote, Pages and Numbers on iPhone and iPod touch to create amazing presentations, documents and spreadsheets right in the palm of your hand,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “The incredible Retina display, revolutionary Multi-Touch interface and our powerful software make it easy to create, edit, organize and share all of your documents from iPhone 4 or iPod touch.” (Apple)

Why Apple failed to do this sooner is a mystery, especially in light of Google releasing an official Docs app for Android.

Despite the belated entry, Keynote, Pages and Numbers are available upon the App Store for $10 a piece (which is pricey as most third party office suites supporting Excel, Powerpoint and Word range between $10-$20).

Although I’m personally not an iWork fan (due to Excel having no equal), for those of you who enjoy iWork, what are your thoughts regarding the app?

Also does the small screen ideal for the app or should have Apple simply stuck with keeping iWork and iPad app?

Originally posted on May 31, 2011 @ 3:52 pm

Why Doesn’t Android Have 1 Million Apps Already?

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In March, analysts predicted that Android Market that Android had already passed the 250,000 app thresh hold, and Google was on their way towards swelling towards 300,000 apps.

Two months later Google revealed that Android Market boasted around 200,000 apps, which was a far cry from analysts estimates earlier.

While Google’s latest app stats may have surprised “phandroids,” the real question is why hasn’t Android shattered the 1 million app marker? (especially when developers lack an app tribunal courtesy of Steve Jobs). [Read more…]

Originally posted on May 17, 2011 @ 5:07 pm

Google, Facebook Crying Foul Over California Bill?

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Despite being bitter enemies, it looks like the search engine giant and the social networking king may have to form a temporary alliance in order to squash a California bill that can hinder both their businesses.

Web giants Facebook, Google, Twitter and Skype have banded together to oppose an online social networking privacy bill in California that would require users’ permission to display personal information such as home addresses and phone numbers. […]

The bill would also allow parents to request any personal identifying information about their children under the age of 18 be removed within 48 hours of asking. Violations of the bill would result in fines of up to $10,000 for each violation. (Washington Post)

While the bill seems like a great idea in theory, it would probably not help parents govern the digital lives of their kids (who would respond by simply lying about their age in order to avoid having their posts removed).

Even though I can not speak from personal experience, many of my friends who are parents with kids on Facebook, Google, etc. already have the ability to remove their children’s content due to the fact that they know their kids password (which they use as a prerequisite in order to use the internet).

Although the California government has good intentions, they should let the parents be parents in the lives of their kids, instead of trying to force companies to bend over backwards when simpler solutions are available.

Image via Sluggin.com

Originally posted on May 19, 2011 @ 3:43 pm

Microsoft’s Skype Assimilation (And Why Google Should Be Worried)

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The software giant has snapped up one of the hottest VoIP startups from the jaws of Google by paying twice as much as the search engine giant in cold hard cash.

Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: “MSFT”) and Skype Global S.à r.l today announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which Microsoft will acquire Skype, the leading Internet communications company, for $8.5 billion in cash from the investor group led by Silver Lake. The agreement has been approved by the boards of directors of both Microsoft and Skype. (Microsoft)

Skype was on the verge of going public when Microsoft and Google entered a bidding war over the VoIP king.

Although the search engine giant has their own “VoIP” service via Google Voice, Larry Page (Google’s co-founder and new CEO) may regret the day that he did not purchase Skype. [Read more…]

Originally posted on May 10, 2011 @ 12:14 pm