Microsoft 'Soapbox' Takes On YouTube
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From video blogs to lonelygirl15, broadband has ushered in an era of viral video that has surprised an industry. User-created clips on YouTube and Google Video reach millions of screens each day and now Microsoft wants a piece of the action with "Soapbox." Photos: View images of Soapbox on MSN Video
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Apple says that YouTube content will be available via it's Apple TV set-top box, which could lead to Apple's involvement in a copyright battle.
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Media company Viacom Inc., which owns the cable networks MTV, VH1, Nickelodeon and the Paramount Pictures movie studio, asked YouTube on Friday to remove more than 100,000 unauthorized clips from its hugely popular video-sharing site.
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SEATTLE -- Microsoft Corp. is hoping to tap the explosive popularity of online video sharing by joining startups and major Internet rivals with its own video service.
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Microsoft is launching an online video-sharing service to compete with YouTube.
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New NBC Universal CEO Jeff Zucker blasted Google-owned YouTube on Wednesday, complaining YouTube wasn&#8217;t doing enough to stop users from uploading copyrighted clips of NBC shows such as Saturday Night Live: &#8220;YouTube needs to prove that it will implement its filtering technology across its online platform. It&#8217;s proven it can do it when it wants to,&#8221; [...]
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Microsoft Corp. will start testing on  Tuesday an Internet video-sharing service called Soapbox, the  software company's answer to Web sensation YouTube.
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The European Commission is turning to video-sharing Web site YouTube.com to disseminate official EU information.
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Warner Music Group is taking on  YouTube at its own game, with the launch of its first  free-to-view Web 2.0 video jukebox.
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On Technorati , which offers a real-time glimpse of the blogosphere, the most frequently searched term this week was "YouTube."
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YouTube plans to launch a video identification system that will help the company sniff out copyrighted material, it said earlier this week. Tests begin initially with Walt Disney and Time Warner.
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The media industry is clashing with  YouTube over its proposal to offer anti-piracy tools only to  companies that have distribution deals with the top online  video-sharing service, media insiders said.
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By Elizabeth M. Gillespie  Microsoft Corp. is hoping to tap the explosive popularity of online video sharing by joining start-ups and major Internet rivals with its own video service.
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(InfoWorld) - Google has promised to give content makers control overÂ advertisements overlaid on video clipsÂ they post to its YouTube video sharing Web site. The company is seeking further feedback on the video advertising service as a rising number ofÂ YouTube users threaten to leave the siteÂ if the advertising feature is not improved. Only videos from content creators that have signed up for the advertising scheme, called InVideo, will host ads, leaving the majority of videos on YouTube free of the overlays, a Google spokesman said Friday. Advertisers will still be able to reach a large audience through YouTube videos even if the company only places ads in a small portion of videos. "And our users are not shy about telling us what they like and what they don't, so it behooves us to be careful," said Shashi Seth, YouTube Group Product Manager, in an e-mailed statement. YouTube launched the InVideo adsÂ on Wednesday. They start as an overlay on the bottom 20 percent of a video and people can click to watch the advertisement, or if not, the ad will simply disappear. Clicking on the overlay pauses the video, which resumes after the ad finishes. So far, responses to the new advertising system, posted on YouTube's blog, have been negative. People are passionate about the issue, with many threats to leave YouTube for other sites, such as Myspace.com or Break.com. "As a viewer of videos I don't want to see any of the content of the video covered up. I only had one video posted myself, which I have just removed. Bye!," writes user KPDover, in a comment. As of early Friday, the total number of comments had reached 669, with many repeats, but still a substantial increase to the 132 comments posted Thursday at around the same time. YouTube hopes it can change people's minds about InVideo ads, and sees them as a way to generate revenue for the site without being too intrusive. They are designed to interfere as little as possible with viewing and be relevant to the video. Warner Media, part of Time Warner, is one company that has signed up to allow overlays to be used on its music videos, and some of the ads are for other Warner music. Still, YouTube users complain that 20 percent is a huge amount of space on the small video screens, enough to detract from the viewing experience. YouTube plans to continue on with the InVideo overlays, and hopes "to make the ads an important part of the advertising model for online video," said Aaron Zamost, from Google corporate communications. The InVideo ads users are seeing on YouTube videos are the result of two months of testing. The company tried other methods of video advertising, including pre-roll video, but the in-video ads simply worked better. Videos that started with pre-roll advertisements were shut down 70 percent of the time, according to Google, while only 10 percent of in-video ads were abandoned. In addition, the number of people clicking to play an InVideo ad were 5 percent to 10 percent greater than the number of people clicking on a standard banner ad, the company says. The company uses software to match ads to videos, and can pinpoint an audience closely. For example, an advertiser could place an InVideo ad targeting 18-24 year old soccer fans in Los Angeles, to be played between 6pm to 11pm local time. The ads are placed by genre, demographic, time of day and geographic location. The technology behind YouTube's InVideo was all developed in house, but Zamost points out, the company never said it invented overlay technology. It did not. Time will tell if YouTube figures out a way to ensure its community grows accustomed to InVideo advertisements. Early on, YouTube rivals may have an opportunity to scoop up disaffected users. There are plenty of alternative video sharing Web sites on the Internet. But whether YouTube users like it or not, the company is committed to moving forward with InVideo ads. Â
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Software giant Microsoft Corp. said on  Tuesday it was investigating how two in-house training videos  made by British comedian Ricky Gervais, creator of "The Office"  television series, appeared on two Web sites.
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TELEVISION has been something of a great white whale for the Microsoft Corporation. The company has tried to sell WebTV and build software for TV&#39;s and cable boxes.
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Bloomberg is running an article which quotes Google CEO Eric Schmidt&#8217;s stance on media companies and their reluctance to upload content on YouTube, despite its popularity and demand by YouTube users to view copyrighted content. &#8220;Eventually all of the copyrighted content will be available on virtually all of the sites,'&#8217; said Schmidt, who is tussling over [...]