Video

Great piece by Carl Bialik in the WSJ today about online video metrics. This is something I’ve been talking to publishers about. It’s challenging to go from a format (online banners) about which you can know so much — impressions, click throughs, etc. to something about which you know so little, given the Web’s free-wheeling distribution methods (which are, by the way, amazing and wonderful). And yet, video can undeniably be more powerful.

From the piece, a run-down of how Viral Factory came up with a number for the number of times the popular “Star Wars Kid” video was viewed:

The final estimate of 900 million came from taking the number of Google search returns today; assuming there are five times as many Web sites, cumulatively, since the video debuted in 2003; estimating that one-third of these are “blogs / articles / forum posts”; that each of those were read by, on average, 50 people; that of those people — supposedly no one read more than one of those sites — three of four watched one or more clips; that of those who watched, each watched on average 10 of the roughly 120 versions of the video; and that on average these “Star Wars” Kid fans would watch each clip once a year, or three times in all. That’s 500,000 * 5 * 1/3 * 50 * 0.75 * 10 * 3 = 945 million. “We rounded down — what’s the odd 45 million between friends?” Viral Factory wrote in the comments.

Great self-parody about learning the skills and secret formulas to creating viral videos. (via Pete)

“Hold all my calls, I’m blogging….”

In what may be an omen for ReplayTV (upon which I am utterly dependant), D&M is discontinuing its Rio line of MP3 players. Rio is the other asset (besides ReplayTV) that D&M acquired when it bought SonicBlue back when. Hmm…

Malcolm Gladwell writes in the New Yorker about media literacy and sophistication, and their effect on IQ. It’s a review of the new book, “Everything Bad is Good for You” by Stephen Johnson.

I think my New Yorker subscription has lapsed but I’ve been too busy to even follow up on it lately. Anyway, here’s a little from the fascinating Gladwell review:

As Johnson points out, television is very different now from what it was thirty years ago. It’s harder. A typical episode of “Starsky and Hutch,” in the nineteen-seventies, followed an essentially linear path: two characters, engaged in a single story line, moving toward a decisive conclusion. To watch an episode of “Dallas” today is to be stunned by its glacial pace—by the arduous attempts to establish social relationships, by the excruciating simplicity of the plotline, by how obvious it was. A single episode of “The Sopranos,” by contrast, might follow five narrative threads, involving a dozen characters who weave in and out of the plot. Modern television also requires the viewer to do a lot of what Johnson calls “filling in,” as in a “Seinfeld” episode that subtly parodies the Kennedy assassination conspiracists, or a typical “Simpsons” episode, which may contain numerous allusions to politics or cinema or pop culture.

UPDATE: Rushkoff on Johnson

We are recording (ReplayTV-ing?) the debut of the American version of The Office tonight. Already watched a sneak preview on Myspace.com. (It’s the first time Michael and I have sat down together to watch full-screen video on the laptop in the living room. I’d imagine it won’t be the last.)

We loved the British original and have hopes (though not high hopes) that the American version captures something of the magic of the original. Mostly, we just loved and miss The Office so much (2 seasons and a special and it was done), that we’re willing to give the NBC version a try, if only to get a taste of that Office sensibility.

P.S. And for those of you who haven’t seen the original, BBC America is, coincidentally, starting the first season again on March 26 at noon.