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This Week On The TechCrunch Gadgets Podcast: All Google I/O, All The Time

May 17, 2013 by Jordan Crook Leave a Comment

Google’s major developer conference, Google I/O, went down this week. Was it a bit of a letdown? Probably. Did cool stuff still come out of the event? Eh? Maybe? We discuss these topics and more this week on the TC Gadgets podcast. In fact, we even had Frederic Lardinois join as a guest, along with John Biggs, Matt Burns, Jordan Crook (that’s me!), Romain Dillet, and Darrell Etherington as Bob McKenzie.

Enjoy!

We invite you to enjoy our weekly podcasts every Friday at 3pm Eastern and noon Pacific.

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Intro Music by Rick Barr.

Filed Under: Google, Search Engine Marketing Tagged With: android, Blogging, Facebook, Gadgets, gadgets podcast, Google, I/O, mobile, nexus, search engine optimization, SEO, Social Networking, TC, video

Experience A Google Maps Free Fall With Instrument’s Maps Dive At Google I/O

May 16, 2013 by Darrell Etherington Leave a Comment

One of the most interesting product demos on display at Google I/O this year was a virtual sky diving simulation built using eight separate computers running Chrome, along with a Kinect-like motion sensor made by ASUS called the Xtion Pro. The Maps Dive experiment was created by Portland-based independent digital agency Instrument.

Developer Ben Purdy explained that they built the impressive tech demo to show what’s now possible with Chrome and how it can be used to create an amazingly rendered multi-display experience that looks like you’d expect it to be powered by current-gen gaming hardware instead of just a loose assortment of lightweight Linux-based computers running the kind of code that web developers are already comfortable with.

Maps Dive provided an experience that seemed at least as accurate and sensitive as your typical Kinect game. Purdy said that it’s really just an early example of things that could be built with the computers we already have, as well as mobile devices. Considering how far Chrome already reaches, imagining this type of experience running on even low-cost Chromebooks and Android tablets does open up a lot of possibilities.

Filed Under: Google, Search Engine Marketing Tagged With: Blogging, Facebook, Google, Google Maps, io2013, search engine optimization, SEO, Social Networking, TC, video

Leap Motion Talks New Beta, We Go Hands On With Motion-Controlled Google Earth

May 16, 2013 by Darrell Etherington Leave a Comment

Leap Motion was showing off its still unreleased gesture motion controller for computers at Google I/O 2013. The demo unit allowed you to use the controller to navigate Google Earth, and the functionality felt ready for prime time to me, as this was the first time I’d ever used the Leap Motion. The controls seemed intuitive, and within a few minutes I was flying around the globe pretty handily, though I did have some trouble finding San Francisco.

I asked about Leap Motion’s recent announcement that it would delay launch in order to further beta test Leap, and as you can see in the video the company is keen to note that the hardware is solid, but there’s a need for more testing around the consumer experience. Leap seems very confident they can deliver by their new anticipated ship date of late July, however.

The tech is impressive regardless of whether it hits a little later than anticipated, but it’ll be interesting to see if the extended beta has an effect on how it’s eventually received by consumers.

Filed Under: Google, Search Engine Marketing Tagged With: Blogging, Facebook, Gadgets, Google, io2013, leap motion, search engine optimization, SEO, Social Networking, startups, TC, video

YouTube Tiptoes Toward Paywalls With The Launch Of Channel Subscriptions, But The Ads Play On

May 9, 2013 by Rip Empson Leave a Comment

While it would take you a million lifetimes to watch all the video on YouTube, the company relies on contributions from its amateur and professional partners to keep its content fresh. At the same time, its core business model revolves around providing advertisers with the ability to reach its billion-plus viewers. In turn, video creators rely (or want to rely) on a piece of that ad revenue to continue producing their content. The problem is, of course, that those ads are intrusive, annoying and, at the end of the day, its partners are finding that the revenue from those banners and clips isn’t growing nearly as fast as, say, the number of cat videos on YouTube.

In an effort to provide its partners with an alternative revenue stream, YouTube announced today that it is officially launching a pilot program that enables its video stars to charge subscription fees for access to their channels. Subscriptions will start at $0.99/month, and every channel will be able to offer a 14-day free trial, along with discounted yearly rates.

In its announcement, YouTube cites Sesame Street, which will offer full episodes through its paid channel, and UFC offering fans the ability to watch classic fights as examples. For more, here’s the list of its 53-odd pilot channels.

As of today, users can subscribe to paid channels from their desktops and laptops and watch across devices, but going forward YouTube will look to add the ability to subscribe from any medium/device. On top of that, YouTube will begin a broader roll out of subscriptions in the next few weeks for “qualifying partners,” and from the looks of it, it will be adding a paid channel recommendation feed — just as it does now for free channels.

If you don’t have a YouTube channel, why should you care? Well, YouTube has been telegraphing this for awhile, but it’s really the first (official) sign that YouTube is beginning to tiptoe into the paid video market. Granted, the subscription model isn’t a new idea for YouTube, considering the company just announced in March that it will be launching a music subscription service later this year.

The goal is much the same: Give musicians/artists/creators an opportunity to make some money, while improving the user experience for listeners by potentially removing some of those obnoxious ads that start every video. Of course, in the case of both video and music, it’s much more likely that YouTube is going to stick with both.

Amateur content creators are going to be hesitant about erecting paywalls around their content. Most viewers are going to balk at the idea of buying a subscription to a YouTube channel, and there’s a question of whether or not they’d really be able to convert enough of their viewers to paid subscriptions to make it worth it. In the end, it’s the same issue newspapers and publishers have struggled with for years.

There’s also the fact that every video producer is already offering their content for free, although behind ads. Now you’re going to tell viewers that they have to pay for the same content they’ve been getting for free? Sure, that will work for your superfans, but as is the way with the “freemium” model, if you’re going to charge, the content behind the paywall better be, well, premium. I want to see “Extras,” exclusive content/footage, and so on.

Of course, as Peter Kafka pointed out this week, amateur video producers likely don’t have the resources to produce that exclusive or premium content.

Nonetheless, the company is going to use paid subscriptions in an attempt to attract new partners, new content creator and, we assume, more dollars — although YouTube doesn’t specify whether it will be taking a cut of subscriptions or not. YouTube is clearly aware of the success Hulu, Netflix, Vimeo and other video sites have been having with subscription and on-demand models, and it wants to become more attractive to film and TV networks, studios and producers.

But for now, YouTube can’t make the jump exclusively to subscriptions, because it needs those ad dollars that are keeping the whole thing afloat. It’s a tricky line to walk, no doubt, but YouTube certainly isn’t helping its user experience by setting up the potential to have both a paywall and ads in and around videos for the foreseeable future.

Just speaking for myself personally, I probably most frequently use YouTube for search (and a little discovery), particularly around music. In other words, I’ll have a song or an artist in mind, will do a YouTube search, which inevitably serves a couple or dozens of choices for the same song, artist or even subject. There’s a high likelihood that I have no idea which video I want or is best, which requires some perusing, so having a 10 second ad at the beginning of each video is really disruptive.

Maybe that’s a niche use case, but I suspect not. YouTube ads, while tolerable because we consciously or subconsciously recognize their role in keeping millions of cat videos afloat and online, are frustrating. Sure, Hulu has ads, too, and they aren’t much better. But at least in Hulu’s case, the viewer knows they’re watching a 30-minute or hour-long episode of television online, and regular old offline TV has already conditioned us to expect ads every 5 seconds. Unfortunately. But for a 2-minute clip of questionable quality? Come on.

So keeping ads, while slowly throwing up paywalls is just a bad idea. So the roll out of paid video will end up being incremental and almost just a show of good faith — to keep from ruffling feathers — while the ads just keep proliferating.

Filed Under: Google, Search Engine Marketing Tagged With: Blogging, entertainment, Facebook, Google, media, paid video, paywall, search engine optimization, SEO, social, Social Networking, startups, subscription, TC, video, YouTube

Google+ Hangouts On Air Now Process Videos During Recording, Allowing For Live Rewind And Immediate Publishing

May 7, 2013 by Drew Olanoff Leave a Comment

Google+ Hangouts allow for groups of friends or colleagues have an intimate face-to-face conversation, but the “On Air” feature of the service allows you to broadcast to the masses. The President Of The United States Of America has taken part in these conversations, but anyone can set up their own. Today, the Hangouts team has introduced some new functionality that make participating in a live On Air a little bit easier.

Up until now you haven’t been able to do anything other than watch the live broadcast as it happens, which is nice until you have to run to the kitchen to grab a drink or pause to take a phone call. Today, viewers can now rewind your broadcast no matter where they are during the live filming process.

Additionally, On Air videos will immediately be published instead of carrying the normal waiting period where you’ll get the infamous “processing…” dialogue.

The only negatives that I see to this is that it slows down the ramp up time it takes to start your broadcast, so you should buffer some time in to get started before your actual scheduled “live” time:

Other tweaks in this push include higher quality versions of a Hangout On Air via your mobile device, which is nice since these can be kind of grainy, depending on your connection at the time. Additionally, live broadcasts will now start without having to refresh a page, which was a real pain in the ass. Now if you visit a page that has the embedded On Air player, it will just automagically start playing.

The Hangouts product has made its way into many of Google’s services, including its mobile offerings on Android and even Glass. The usecase for Hangouts widely vary, but Google has been dogfooding it way before its release. The “On Air” option has the attention of both local and national broadcasters, giving them away to connect to audiences in a way more intimate way.

[Photo credit: Flickr]

Filed Under: Google, Search Engine Marketing Tagged With: Blogging, Facebook, Google, hangouts, Hangouts On Air, media, rewind, search engine optimization, SEO, social, Social Networking, TC, video

Google+ Hangouts On Air Now Process Videos During Recording, Allowing For Live Rewind And Immediate Publishing

May 7, 2013 by Drew Olanoff Leave a Comment

Additionally, On Air videos will immediately be published instead of carrying the normal waiting period where you’ll get the infamous “processing…” dialogue.

[Photo credit: Flickr]

Filed Under: Google, Search Engine Marketing Tagged With: Blogging, Facebook, Google, hangouts, Hangouts On Air, media, rewind, search engine optimization, SEO, social, Social Networking, TC, video

Google+ Hangouts On Air Now Process Videos During Recording, Allowing For Live Rewind And Immediate Publishing

May 7, 2013 by Drew Olanoff Leave a Comment

Additionally, On Air videos will immediately be published instead of carrying the normal waiting period where you’ll get the infamous “processing…” dialogue.

[Photo credit: Flickr]

Filed Under: Google, Search Engine Marketing Tagged With: Blogging, Facebook, Google, hangouts, Hangouts On Air, media, rewind, search engine optimization, SEO, social, Social Networking, TC, video

Google+ Hangouts On Air Now Process Videos During Recording, Allowing For Live Rewind And Immediate Publishing

May 7, 2013 by Drew Olanoff Leave a Comment

Additionally, On Air videos will immediately be published instead of carrying the normal waiting period where you’ll get the infamous “processing…” dialogue.

[Photo credit: Flickr]

Filed Under: Google, Search Engine Marketing Tagged With: Blogging, Facebook, Google, hangouts, Hangouts On Air, media, rewind, search engine optimization, SEO, social, Social Networking, TC, video

Google+ Hangouts On Air Now Process Videos During Recording, Allowing For Live Rewind And Immediate Publishing

May 7, 2013 by Drew Olanoff Leave a Comment

Additionally, On Air videos will immediately be published instead of carrying the normal waiting period where you’ll get the infamous “processing…” dialogue.

[Photo credit: Flickr]

Filed Under: Google, Search Engine Marketing Tagged With: Blogging, Facebook, Google, hangouts, Hangouts On Air, media, rewind, search engine optimization, SEO, social, Social Networking, TC, video

UNICEF Admits Its Facebook Likes Don’t Save Lives

May 1, 2013 by Zoe Fox Leave a Comment

In the latest TV commercial campaign from UNICEF Sweden, the organization admits something few seem to remember in the age of social media milestones: Facebook Likes don't save lives.

In the most viral clip, which has received more than 40,000 views on YouTube, we meet a young boy named Rahim, who's sick, though he says he's not worried because of UNICEF Sweden's Facebook community.

SEE ALSO: 12 Top YouTube Videos for Social Good

"UNICEF Sweden has 177,000 Likes on Facebook. Maybe they will reach 200,000 by summer," he says.

His sardonic statement, as you can see in the above video, reflects many organizations' and brands' preoccupations with getting Likes. UNICEF Sweden informs viewers that Likes won't deliver life-saving vaccines to the children in need Read more...

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