Yahoo was the double-secret 800-pound gorilla in the room, along with AOL and MSN, until now.  It looks like Facebook is now besting Yahoo!, Mr. Old Reliable, according to The Next Web and Comscore:

I am buying my mom an Apple iPad for mother’s day.  A little belated as I am still in Berlin.  I will grab her one next weekend from the Arlington Apple store.

My mum seems, to me, like the perfect demographic for the iPad:  Not a touch typist.  Interested in casually checking email and the web.

I will report on how well she adopts it.  For her, it is even better than the netbook.  What I assume will happen — my projection — is that she will keep it by her chair, near the TV, and be able to snack on Internet content, never needing to take it from where it will probably live — right there.

I can see mum maybe even taking to Twitter or even Facebook now that it can easily be contained in an app.  I have already set her up on Facebook and Twitter but she doesn’t use it because she is still in the AOL state of mind.

She’s already asking me about apps and what apps are and has been fully branded on the concept of the app store.

I will set her up on iTunes and the App Store, though she might as just as easily set herself up on that.  In fact, I am pretty much going to try to let her — encourage her — to set up the iPad solo so she gets a feel for it — and I want to see how intuitively the iPad is generally set up to set up.

Also, as far as getting her the $499 version, bottom of the line, I don’t think it will matter as she’s (probably) not going to start downloading music, using it as an iPod, or watching her movies on it so I am looking forward to seeing if it is enough.

I mean, she might start downloading tons of Apps or maybe the iPad caches a lot of content on the solid state drive and I will find out over time that the 16GB Wi-Fi model is insufficient.  If that’s so, I might just inherit the 16GB and then see if the 32GB model meets her needs.

Who knows — she might very well end up being a power user!

Latest news from my client over at Abraham Harrison — Motionbox, “announced Motionbox PRO. Intended for businesses and other organizations seeking to share video with selected users, Motionbox PRO fills a previously unmet need in the video sharing market.”

Thomson Reuters and Gawker Media among the first to sign up for the new commercial version of Motionbox’s acclaimed video service

New York, NY (PRWEB) November 4, 2009 — Motionbox, the leading personal video sharing service, today announced Motionbox PRO. Intended for businesses and other organizations seeking to share video with selected users, Motionbox PRO fills a previously unmet need in the video sharing market. Professional users were flocking to Motionbox because of its virtually unlimited storage and full screen HD playback, but needed the ability to upload and share commercial content in an unbranded, high quality player. Motionbox PRO answers that demand.

Motionbox PRO provides a comprehensive video hosting solution that includes archival storage, web-based editing, streaming and embedding, all in superior quality, up to 1080p HD. Commercial customers will receive best-in-the-industry support for HD formats and pricing that is significantly lower than that of competitors in the commercial video sharing market.

“Reuters is committed to exploring innovative new ways of disseminating news and information, and applauds Motionbox for their easy to use upload tools and web-based editing.

The introduction of Motionbox PRO comes as a response to a wide range of Motionbox customers, including real estate agents, film production companies, and small businesses in search of an affordable professional video hosting solution.

Motionbox PRO also comes in a version for larger Enterprises, and among the pre-launch customers to move to Motionbox’s new PRO version are Thomson Reuters and Gawker Media.
“Reuters is committed to exploring innovative new ways of disseminating news and information, and applauds Motionbox for their easy to use upload tools and web-based editing. Using Motionbox, Reuters’ journalists are able to get the most current video content distributed to Reuters’ readers and clients,” said Chris Cramer, Global Editor, Multimedia, Reuters.

Tom Plunkett, CTO of Gawker Media said, “Gawker manages a number of blogs that all use video content avidly. We chose Motionbox because of the customizability of the platform and because Motionbox HD video quality is the best out there.”

Coming on the heels of Motionbox’s partnership with Shutterfly and its acquisition of Viddyou, the release of Motionbox PRO caps a year of strong growth for the New York-based company, which enables millions of users to share their video memories privately and securely with friends and family.

To learn more about Motionbox PRO, log on to: http://www.motionbox.com/content/pro

About Motionbox
Motionbox enables individuals and families to easily upload, edit, store, and share their personal video memories, including those that have been captured in High Definition. In addition to free membership options on Motionbox.com and via partners such as Shutterfly, Bebo, and AOL Video, Motionbox provides a subscription-based Premium service featuring HD playback and sharing, unlimited archival storage, and download capabilities. Motionbox also offers hard-good products that allow consumers to enjoy personal videos beyond devices and computers. Visit http://www.motionbox.com/ for more information.

PRESS CONTACT:
Dan Krueger
Abraham & Harrison Public Relations
dkrueger (at) abrahamharrison (dot) com

&

Stephanie Mello
Motionbox, Public Relations Manager
stephanie.mello (at) motionbox (dot) com

###

Via PRWeb and Motionbox

I am happy to announce that our client, Motionbox.com, recently acquired the personal video-sharing service, Viddyou, which is very cool and something we’re excited to share:

Motionbox announces Acquisition of Viddyou, Inc. Personal Video Sharing Service

Acquisition to accelerate Motionbox growth and provide new home for Viddyou customers.

New York, NEW YORK – October 8, 2009 — Motionbox, the leading personal video sharing service, today announced the acquisition of Viddyou personal video service. Motionbox features easy-to-use online editing tools, secure storage, advanced privacy controls, and full HD video capabilities.

“Motionbox’s HD quality, ease of use, privacy, great customer service and top tier partners like AOL, Shutterfly and Bebo have rapidly established them as the leader in personal video,” said Viddyou founder and CEO Aaron Wadler, “so it is with great pride that we are able to join Motionbox to enhance our vision of creating a high-quality easy-to-use destination for the personal video sharing community. ”

“Motionbox has been very impressed by the great user experience and video technology that Viddyou has built, along with a loyal customer base,” said Josh Grotstein, Motionbox CEO, “Motionbox and Viddyou share a common mission: to provide customers with a secure home for their precious video memories. We are very glad to welcome the Viddyou customers and team to the Motionbox family.”

Motionbox and Viddyou are working closely to assure that the transition for Viddyou customers is easy and seamless. Existing Viddyou users will be offered the opportunity to move their account information and videos to Motionbox. Viddyou Premium users will be granted Motionbox Premium subscriptions.

Viddyou customers can expect an elevated level of video performance, enhanced feature sets and superior customer service, opening the door for even greater customer loyalty.

The acquisition comes at a time of great growth for Motionbox and solidifies their position as a leader in personal video sharing.

About Motionbox:
Motionbox enables individuals and families to easily upload, edit, store, and share their personal video memories, including those that have been captured in High Definition. In addition to free membership options on Motionbox.com and via partners such as Shutterfly, Bebo, and AOL Video, Motionbox provides a subscription-based Premium service featuring HD playback and sharing, unlimited archival storage, and
download capabilities. Motionbox also offers hard-good products that allow consumers to enjoy personal videos beyond devices and computers.

Visit http://www.motionbox.com for more information.

Contact Information
Stephanie Mello
Motionbox, Inc
http://www.motionbox.com
646-442-8743

Please visit Abraham Harrison’s Social Media News Release (SMNR) for Motionbox:  http://motionboxnews.com

We’re happy to be working with Motionbox — and we at Abraham Harrison are in the process of checking out the Motionbox premium service — and I thought I would share the content of the Social Media Release (SMR) we produced for them and share with you the video sharing services the offer.  Motionbox is an awesome alternative to YouTube because of their ability to support and share HD video and because they have privacy settings that are much easier for folks to use if they just want to share their videos amongst their friends and family as opposed to the entire globe.

SMNR: Motionbox: Finally an easy way to share your videos online

At Motionbox, we love video. Video as a way to share the winning shot with the whole team. Video as a way to watch his first birthday over and over. Video as a creative outlet. Video as a business tool. Click here to get $10 off of a Premium Account!

We’re passionate about what we do, and are proud to offer the highest quality personal video sharing service on the Web. We work hard every day to make sure you have the tools, technology, and support you need to share your video memories the way you’ve been sharing photos for years.

What is Motionbox?

Motionbox makes it easy for individuals and families to upload, edit, store, and share their personal video memories, including those that have been captured in High Definition. In addition to free membership options, Motionbox a subscription-based Premium service featuring HD playback and sharing, unlimited storage, and download capabilities, and a Professional video hosting solution for small businesses and organizations.

Motionbox powers video publishing and sharing for several partners, including AOL Video, Bebo, and Shutterfly. Click here to get $10 off of a Premium Account!

Motiobox News

October 15, 2009
Motionbox introduces Motionbox PRO, a professional video hosting solution for small businesses and professional bloggers.

• White label embeddable HD player
• Unlimited streaming
• Unlimited archival storage
• 30-day trial period
• Commercial content welcome

October 8, 2009
Motionbox Announces Acquisition of Viddyou, Inc. Personal Video Sharing Service

September 23, 2009
Shutterfly has expanded its relationship with Motionbox, bringing video publishing tools to all Shutterfly account holders. Users can now upload videos to their  Shutterfly accounts and share them with friends and family via email. Since May, 2009, Motionbox has powered video on Shutterfly Share sites, enabling users to publish videos to their personal web sites.

June 15, 2009
Motionbox Selected as Video Partner for Shutterfly Share Sites

Motionbox Services

Easy Video Uploading: Motionbox offers two ways to get video files off the computer and in front of friends and family: a simple, browser based uploader and the Motionbox Express Uploader (MxU), a desktop tool that makes it drag-n-drop easy to upload videos to Motionbox.

Online Video Editing: Easy-to-use, web-based editing tools let you rotate, trim, or combine video clips – no software downloads required.

Advanced Privacy Settings: Motionbox makes it easy to share videos with a select group of viewers instead of broadcasting to the world.

Secure Video Sharing: Email videos to friends and family, or connect Motionbox to your Facebook account to post videos automatically to your newsfeed. Videos are never displayed next to unrelated content by people you don’t know.

HD Playback: The embeddable MotionboxHD playerfeatures crystal clear resolution and full screen playback.We accept HD video up to 1080p in any number of ratios.

Video Flipbooks and DVDs: Transform personal videos into professionally formatted DVDs or retro-cool flipbooks – pocket-sized books you animate in the palm of your hand.

Professional Video Hosting: Motionbox PRO is an affordable hosting solution for professional, business, or commercial video content.

Support for Multiple Formats: Motionbox supports more video formats — including AVCHD and video shot on the iPhone — than any other video sharing service on the web.

Click here to get $10 off of a Premium Account!

Motionbox Member Testimonial

I really like the ease and simplicity. With some programs, it’s so difficult and you’re so frustrated by the time you get anything accomplished. I haven’t run into any moments like that with Motionbox. It’s fast, it’s easy. I can sit down and enjoy it while I’m doing it. I love it.

I just uploaded a video of our new baby girl late last night and the video was taken on my cheap-o point and shoot while we were in the delivery room. The HD version is so clear, and the full screen is unBELIEVABLE! I mean, seriously you guys! This rocks.

The quality of picture on your widescreen player is fantastic. Well done.

Click here to get $10 off of a Premium Account!

Adam is an insightful fellow. He put into words what I have been thinking: celebrities are not ruining Twitter because nobody is forced to follow celebs — or anyone — on Twitter. Please read Celebrities Are Not Taking Over Twitter for the rest of the below insightful excerpt:

Celebrities like Ashton Kutcher, Shaquille O’Neal and Britney Spears are not taking over Twitter.  A well publicized event like Oprah tweeting on her show won’t help.  Ashton vs. Larry King, in a contest to see which account, @aplusk (“a plus k”) or @cnnbrk can reach a million followers first is a publicity event that had lots of benefits for both in terms of building large networks, but they are not taking over.  Any way you slice it, their efforts are futile. They can’t take over Twitter because of one simple fact: people choose who they follow.

The Twitterati Version 1 are bitter and jealous but they should be ecstatic because they,  the first Twitterati, were, in fact, ground zero for something that has taken the world by storm.

It is the same for Internet Denizens Version 1 complaining as the unwashed AOL members flooded into USENET.

What Adam might be saying and I am surely stating is that this break out is good and that there is still plenty of room in Twitter to hide in plain site.  Additionally, there is little or no use complaining.

We not only must compete with the Ashton Kutchers and Oprahs of the world but we are also dealing with their media machine, their publicists, their networks and their studios as well — in addition to the obvious equity that they’re happy to cash in from their other media platforms to spend of Twelebrity.

I am amazed that after three years and acruing “merely” 6,347 Followers, I have chosen to spend my time well by investing in 140 characters x 16,210 tweets, resulting in around 2,269,400 characters.

So, heaven forbid I had spent all of that energy in Pownce, which has died, instead of the winner, Twitter — now that would be a waste.

Unlike my blog, which is surely my very own intellectual property that I can maintain forever, my Twitter content is dependent on the health of Twitter. So, I feel blessed, amazed, and triumphant that Twitter has become de rigeur in the world of online media outreach, content-sharing, and community outreach.

Via Search Engine Journal, Oscars Predictions for 2009 Winners Online:

• AOL’s MovieFone 2009 Oscar Predictions : AOL has put together a slideshow of their Oscar Pool predictions and have picked Penelope Cruz for Best Supporting Actress & Sean Penn as Best Actor from the film Milk.
• Oscar Frenzy : A blog crazy about the Oscars with their predictions list and a vibrant commenting frenzy, Oscar Frenzy has gone against the grain and predicted that Revolutionary Road will win the Best Picture.
• MSN Movies : MSN, like most other online entertainment sites, is not predicting that Mickey Rourke will win Best Actor, and feels that Sean Penn will win it for Milk, although they say Rourke should win because he has earned it.
• Oscars on Go.com : Of course since ABC is hosting the actors they can’t really predict the winners without there being any controversy, but they have set up the Official Oscars site with live streaming of the Oscars and the Red Carpet festivities.

This news is from the hasn’t this already happened before department?  Also, from the I can’t believe it took this long department. Via the Washington Post.

Yahoo chief executive Jerry Yang will step down, the company announced last night, as the once-highflying Internet portal struggles to steady itself in the turbulent environment for Web media.

Yahoo! should be one of the coolest brands on the block.  With Flickr and del.icio.us, Yahoo really should be #2 — and it could be #1 if it would stop with the self-loathing — and it is not. Why?  Because Yahoo isn’t nearly shameless enough to survive in the 2008 Internet.  It is no longer the world of wizened Unix gurus who would easily define what is and isn’t couth on the Internet. Yahoo! is stuck in the days when it was uncool to splash your own brand on the brands you own (so is AOL); Yahoo! is stuck in the Internet of the 90s, an Internet wherein being good enough was good enough.

If Yahoo! was trying not to become gauche or become an ugly American in the Europe of the Internet, then it was successful! Yahoo! has become irrelevant. At least people hate Microsoft & AOL. Hell, I have nothing at all to say about Yahoo! except I adore del.icio.us and Flickr.  How could the owner of two of the Internet’s coolest properties never be able to harnest the gravity of these two major celestial bodies and slingshot themselves into #1?

Maybe there is too much modesty, not enough braggadocio, in the halls of Yahoo!  Maybe if you look closely, Yahoo! is the company that does no harm and does no evil.  Maybe the company who’s motto is “Don’t Be Evil,” is actually pretty shameless and far from modest. Maybe on the modern Internet (and in modern business) it is more important to say you’re doing good, being good, and being modest than it is to actually be modest.

Yahoo!, Yahoo!, Yahoo! please try your darnedest to spend more time sharing yourself with the world and less time being the best of the good citizens.  Google is absolutely shameless when it comes to all the good work they’re doing.  They are not keeping their religion to themselves, they’re not praying quietly to themselves in a bare cell, away from prying eyes!  Google is on the soapbox!  Google is bragging!  Google is sharing the Holy Spirit with the world!

If you keep on slipping those alms into the alms box of Internet Good Works by dark of night you will actually become irrelevant.  Nobody is against you but nobody is for you, either. Nobody cares.

What’s worse, I don’t think enough people even really think much about Flickr and del.icio.us being Yahoo! properties.

Yes, you make folks become Yahoo! members, but that’s not enough. In DC and Virginia, everyone has a Safeway card but nobody like to shop at Safeway — it’s only because Safeway makes it super-easy to become a member.  There is no brand loyalty, there is no passion behind the brand (OK, OK, Safeway Select pasta sauce is awesome — it is like Safeway’s Flickr), even if everyone has a Safeway scan card on their key ring.

Anyway, Yahoo!, I am so sorry for the rant.  Oh, also, why is it that all of my geeky friends in the Zope and Python world all want to work for Google and not for Yahoo!?  How come all of my PHP and MySQL friends ache to work for Google and not for Yahoo!  How pissed you must be to suffer that Google drank your milkshake.  They took you toys!  You, Yahoo!, where supposed to be that success story!  I mean, you were the first search engine, after all!  You were the first directory, right?

Well, it is time to get off your pity pot, kick Jerry to the curb, and again become the Yahoo! I have known you since 1994 and have loved you (although I have not used your email address since Gmail came out, sorry) and I really want you to get you some smarts.  Give me a call at +1 (202) 352-5051 or +49 (0)151 52579077 — I would be more than happy to try to help you turn this ship around!

Viel Glück

I woke up to an amazing article written by Jonathan Trenn, The fallacy of community, and I responded in a comment to a pretty passionate article and a passionate comment string, and here’s what I wrote — and I have expanded the argument below, so it is an expansion. Via Marketing Conversation.

Gosh, I don’t know what to say here… there are so many different types of communities, many of which can surely be manufactured. What every successful community requires is community leadership. Community leadership can be organic and emergent or they can be hired in the form of online community managers or facilitators. A strong leadership — people who have skin in the game — is more important than a good web application; also, these community leaders are often the main draw to the community and can be the difference between keeping or losing your members when a competitor comes to town.

Here are some types of communities, as pulled from Wikipedia:

• Communities of Action
• Communities of Circumstance
• Communities of Interest
• Communities of Position
• Communities of Practice
• Communities of Purpose

Many of these can be created, in much the same way that one may create a garden. I think the biggest problem with these sort of things — community-creation — is that people do it wrong, and they have been doing it wrong for at least a decade.

Back in the day, when I worked at Caucus Systems, we manufactured communities for businesses — virtual teams, virtual conferences, and whatnot. And it worked quite well, to be sure, and they were powerful and transforming.

What most companies don’t understand is that communities require facilitators and managers. They always have. AOL hired community managers back in 1995 when they created communities, the Well and Caucus and Howard Rheingold’s Brainstorms have paid and unpaid community managers and facilitators.

The mistake that most companies make is that they assume that if they build it, they will come. It is not true. You can create a Wiki, a Message Board, Forums, or a Blog and it doesn’t mean anything at all.

In fact, people will spend all of this time putting together a message board, fill it with conversation-starters, and then open the doors, promote the hell out of it, and still nothing will happen.

What is required to manufacture a community is passionate members — and they can be paid. However, if they’re paid, you need to hire them from a pool of OD experts or a pool of topical experts — or, you can poach them from another community, always the best way.

So, WordPress and phpBB are not killer apps, the killer apps are the people who start and maintain conversation, the people who re-seed conversation, the people who catalyze conversation, the people who show interest and ask questions, and the people who protect the other members through active moderation.

In fact, I am an expert in this. You can restart an old thread, you can catalyze a conversation, you can break out an off-topic thread to a new topic hope.  It is an art, but it is an art that anyone who knows conversation, who knows facilitation, and who knows people, can do — and it happens all the time “organically” on all of the online boards we’re so in love with.

Hell, get WordPress, phpBB, or Wikimedia for free — or buy vBulletin for a little money — and put the rest of your budget towards hiring professional Community Managers.

Hell, if it weren’t for Jonathan Trenn on Marketing Conversation, we would be done for on this blog. He’s the glue and he’s the only reason why you are all here.

While very many media outlets support del.icio.us in their bookmarking and social media strategies, there has been very little innovation in the del.icio.us social bookmarking platform — this has been a major problem with properties that have been acquired by big firms such as AOL, Google, and Yahoo!, in the case of del.icio.us. Allen Stern wrote a very insightful post, Did Delicious Lose Its Chance To Be FriendFeed?, about how FriendFeed has started to take del.icio.us’ lunch based on innovation and creativity:

[...]Had Delicious (and Yahoo) moved faster on the release could they have become what’s hot with FriendFeed today? I get that FriendFeed allows you to share your delicious bookmarks. But what I am talking about here is something much bigger strategically. By “sitting” on the release, the team lost their chance to move the strategy forward.

[...]Had Yahoo wanted to actually take their Delicious investment and do something with it, how hard would it have been to add the same functionality? If we look back a year, Delicious had a much larger “buzz share” than they do today. When I look at the CN logs, we rarely see any traffic from Delicious and haven’t had a frontpage link in probably nine months. Yet in the last week, I’ve seen way more traffic from FriendFeed. Yahoo’s Delicious service has a “close to mainstream” userbase and sure missed a golden opportunity to move forward – a fail whale if you will.

[...]If you look at the topic I’ve discussed here, it’s basically what Fred Wilson discussed when he wrote about stagnation when companies acquire startups. Who will come up next and displace Upcoming and/or Flickr as the techies choice?

Oh, and be sure to join me on FriendFeed as well as del.icio.us!