Not as thrilling as it should be…

Technorati tags: joost, commercial, web2.0, tv, video, youtube

Israeli company BubblePly which allows users on any video site to overlay images, text, and live links on video, has recently announced its open platform application. According to David Markowitz, one of the company’s founders, the company has decided not to label themselves as a brand, but rather to become an open platform application, usable on any video site.

BubblePly is not only a cool addition that users can integrate into videos for fun, but should also prove very useful for any company to promote itself or its products within the videos themselves. Since all videos uploaded are usually tagged, consider for instance, a car company that wants to promote itself in all videos tagged with the word “car” or a site that wants to promote itself in all videos tagged with the word “web2.0″. The possibilities are endless. For a long time now it hasn’t been determined how video sites will handle their overwhelming costs, and this sort of advertising could potentially be their salvation.

The Company which currently offers this service for free, has already partnered up with a few sites including Flix and others (which cannot be mentioned yet), and is currently looking to expand its network.

Copyright concerns are believed not to be an issue because the service doesn’t change the video itself, it just places a layer of data on top of it. Different sites have different rules of using the application, for instance, Flix only allows the person who uploaded the video to add plys whereas other sites allow anyone to add them.

Below you’ll find an example of a video with plys created by the BubblePly team:

Technorati tags: plymedia, bubbleply, open platform architecture, israel, video, image, ply, text, live link, brand, application, promotion, web 2.0, advertising, flix, tapuz

I have often pondered: Do we stray from our real identities when online? Do we become different due to the extended amount of freedom or anonymity we are given on the web? I suppose it depends on the person. However, in my experience I have found that my personality is exactly the same online as it is offline.

In today’s online social world, we become members of different communities. We make names for ourselves in these communities and contribute to them. We meet many friends around the world, share videos, stories, and pics from our lives. We invite these friends into our worlds because as humans we still share a need to bond with others even if it is only a virtual bond. People today lead lives dedicated more to their StumbleUpon networks or Warcraft guilds rather than to their real life families. Therefore what good would we be doing by deceiving our community? We are leading virtual lives today. Many of us spend more hours online each day than offline (I know I do), therefore we should cherish these new bonds we created. Perhaps the real question we should be asking ourselves is: “Do we stray from our real selves when we’re offline?”

Thanks to Yaniv Golan for the amazing pic.

Technorati tags: identity, net identity, flickr, web, freedom, anonymity, community, online community, social networks, stumbleupon, warcraft

YouTube is introducing a new functionality to its platform, allowing users to group clips around specific categories.

Up to now, clips have been saved in what often seemed a random process — usually arranged chronologically, but not always.

The new interface will allow users to organize clips according to specific categories. So, for example, music clips can be organized around artists or vacations can be organized around specific activities.

YouTube is becoming much more like Flickr– allowing the users to organize content on their own. This is a smart move on their part as putting related videos together leads to more views and a phenomenon known as “YouTube addiction” - serve up enough related content, and viewers will just keep clicking and clicking and clicking. It will be interesting to see how this new functionality will change the face of YouTube.

Technorati tags: youtube, flickr, functionality, videos, usergenerated, web, web2.0

What if our world was web2-ified?

Check out this amazing video made by my friend Lior Katz from Wishood:

Technorati tags: web, internet, ajax, youtube, pandora, web2.0, opensource, supermarket2.0, wishood, kinnernet, liorkatz

There are many different ways a company can increase traffic to its site. In today’s digitalized world online promotion possibilities are endless. Successful online marketing depends largely on your ability to identify those channels that provide the best opportunity to reach your target audience. Online social networks, forums, blogging, SEO are just some of the ways that you can increase your site’s traffic.
Here’s a list of 10 Remarkably Effective Strategies for Driving Traffic to your site.

Social Media Marketing is a great way to let people know about your site. Promoting your site on Digg or Delicious can increase your site’s traffic by a few thousand visitors per day but be careful. These sites are community oriented and if you only get on the site to promote your business and don’t contribute anything meaningful back to the community, the community will turn against you.
I am a big believer in the power of all these new online marketing strategies. I definitely feel that companies that will not take advantage of these new marketing strategies, will be at a great disadvantage to those that will.