Marketing Pilgrim

I’ve wanted tell you about TinEye for a few days now, but I’ve been swamped this week.

Then I figured out you’d probably prefer to see the demo by Amber Mac anyway.

Don’t want to watch the video. Here’s the elevator pitch:

TinEye uses image identification technology. You give it an image to search for and TinEye shows you where and how that image appears all over the web - even if it has been altered. The technology behind TinEye is Idée’s advanced image identification algorithms that identify images without the use of any meta-data or watermarks. TinEye literally does for images what Google does for text.

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Before you leave for the day, you must watch this Lenovo parody video for the MacBook Air. This is how you create buzz, when you’re second to market with a thin laptop.

Hat-tip Gizmodo.

It appears TechCrunch has the scoop on the rumored Flickr video service.

Here’s what you’re getting:

• Videos limited to 90 seconds and 150MB in size.
• Video stills appears alongside images.
• Videos can be tagged and geotagged–just like images.
• A clean, embedable video player.
• Anyone can view videos, but only Pro users can upload (Pro license is $25 a year).

Interesting that videos are limited in size. Is that a bandwidth issue at Yahoo, or part of Flickr’s efforts to set itself apart from YouTube–while keeping purist users happy?

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Want to learn more about your YouTube videos? Like who’s watching, where they live, and how many people are watching your videos? YouTube released YouTube Insight, a free video analytics tool.

You can learn:

• how many people have viewed your video
• what day of the week you get the most views
• where people live who are watching your video
• insight into popularity of your video

This is a long-awaited and welcomed addition to YouTube. It’s ideal for marketers or advertisers who want to see what is working and what is not (and lets more people game the system and manipulate results!).

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It’s been a long time coming, but we’ve long seen it coming down the pike: Google’s got video ads in search engine results pages today. Danny Sullivan has long said that Universal Search, with its integrated video in SERPs, was just the first step toward video ads in the sidebar and above the natural results. Just last month, Marissa Mayer was talking about video ads with the New York Times.

And now they’re live: but Google’s approach is still “delicate,” as Mayer said it would be. Video ads are appearing on select queries as plus box results accompanying a regular text ad. The plus box text has read “Watch commercial,” “Watch demonstration” and “Watch testimonial.” (Any guesses which of these might convert the best?)

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YouTube has announced the winners of the YouTube Video Awards, which gives bragging rights and fame to the top user-created videos of 2007. It also notes they’ll be invited to an event later this year - without details of what that will entail.

As an aside I think this could be huge and more fun than the Sundance Film Festival. The un-stars could wear ridiculously normal clothes and walk backwards down a white carpet. And rather than glamour and wealth on display it would be authenticity. Also, why not give internet reporters (like Rocketboom’s Joanne Colan) a chance to emcee the event.

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YouTube has opened new APIs to allow more innovative ways to enhance and interact with YouTube content. This includes ways to integrate YouTube videos onto other websites, create desktop applications, video games, mobile devices, televisions, cameras, and more.

In geekier terms:

“We now provide a complete set of (CRUD) capabilities for uploading, managing, searching, and playing back user videos and metadata from the YouTube “cloud,” managed by us. We do all of the hard work of transcoding and hosting and streaming and thumbnailing your videos, and we provide open access to our sizable global audience, enabling you to generate traffic for your site, visibility for your brand, or support for your cause.”

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As we mentioned earlier today, video site Hulu is preparing for the big time. First launched in private beta in October, Hulu has long been panned. Even the CEO of Hulu set us up for disappointment and even failure.

Now, however, reports are already coming in that Hulu is actually really good—great, even. But the reports are usually accompanied by caveats explaining why Hulu has a small chance of ultimately succeeding.

paidContent’s Staci Kramer writes about a reasonably good experience on the site, but addresses the difficulties Hulu will face in scaling and distribution issues:

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When someone suggested that Michael Stipe, the lead singer of R.E.M., release the band’s new album “Accelerate” on the social networking site iLike - he liked the idea. The move will make history and is another sign of the music industry’s loss of power.

The entire album will be streamed on the site a week before it is released to the public on April 1st. Hopefully the servers will hold up.

Music is social. Music is current and everchanging. And most of all, music requires musicians. The winners in the music business of tomorrow are individuals and organizations that create communities, connect people, spread ideas and act as the hub of the wheel… indispensable and well-compensated.

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Google TV Ads hasn’t exactly gotten off to a flying start and things could look even more bleak with news the country’s six largest cable companies are joining forces to provide a competing service.

According to the NYT…

…executives from Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Cablevision, Cox Communications, Charter Communications and Bright House Networks…are making plans for a jointly owned company that would allow national advertisers to buy customized ads and interactive ads across the companies’ systems.

They’ve anted-up $150 million to fund the project and hope to increase their $5 billion in local cable advertising to $15 billion.

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Want to know what top brands are successfully using online video? divinity Metrics (with a lower case d) has started publishing their findings on their tool called Scope. It’s called the Brand20 Index.

How they arrived at Top 20 Brands using Online Video:

• indexed all the videos related to their client’s campaign
• monitored millions of videos across multiple platforms in realtime
• looked at traffic, demographics, and positioning information

dM helps advertisers put their videos on YouTube, MySpace and other sites and they provide online video analytics. Their customers include advertising agencies, television networks, and music labels. They can see where their video is being viewed and track how they’re being passed along.

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By David Snyder

LiveVideo.com, which launched February 20th, is the brainchild of Myspace Founder Brad Greenspan, and the first fully interactive, global, live streaming platform. The site allows connectivity 24 hours a day, allowing users to generate content independently or with colleagues and friends. The platform also integrates features such as LiveTextChat, LiveCoHost, and LivePolls to allow unlimited feedback and user engagement.

Among LiveVideo.com’s features is the ability to create LiveTV shows, video chat, participate in virtual classes, and upload videos up to 200 MB with stereo sound.

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