MyMai.tv Dev Blog / Social-Web News Feed

According to recent research from the Pew Internet Project, 52% of the American population is watching videos online — that’s 69% of all Internet-connected American adults. If online video watching continues at its current rate of growth, in just under 5 years, almost every American with an Internet (Internet) connection (i.e., the vast majority of Americans, period) will be watching video online. This includes video streamed from the web and downloaded video and encompasses sites such as YouTube (YouTube), Vimeo (Vimeo), Hulu (Hulu), DailyMotion and others. In the current survey, Pew researchers found that the majority (61%) of American, adult Internet users watch short clips, television shows and movies on video-sharing sites such as YouTube. These sites have exploded in popularity over the past several years and are on a trajectory to dominate the space. By contrast, just 33% of Internet users in 2006 had watched a video on a vid-sharing site.

Apple is one of the biggest supporters of HTML5, and Steve Jobs clearly thinks this new standard is the future of the web. To show why Flash is no longer necessary, Apple has launched a HTML5 showcase displaying what an HTML5-capable browser can do without the need of additional plugins. In typical Apple style, the showcase consists of simple, elegant, yet quite impressive demos of the technology. In one demo, you can type in some text, quickly change the font, its size and transparency, rotate it and add a shadow effect. Another lets you browse through a horizontal, vertical or grid-shaped gallery of images, while a particularly impressive demo lets you spin a 3D object by clicking and dragging.

Events have just kicked off at the D8 Conference with Apple CEO Steve Jobs taking the stage for a conversation with All Things Digital producers Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher. After an introduction from Rupert Murdoch commenting on how content creators and technology companies are “finally getting along,” the trio took the stage to shed light on some of the most salient issues the company faces today. Jobs had much to say about the current slate of hot topics, from the company’s ongoing tussle with Adobe over Flash content on the web, the Foxconn suicides, the iAd mobile ad platform, the iPad’s role in saving journalism and potential replacing the personal computer, and more. We’ve shared an overview of the discussion below.

A new startup has emerged to make it easier for e-commerce and other online sites to add videos to their websites, in an effort to increase consumer engagement and purchase conversion. With its dynamically created video service, Sunday Sky provides those sites with videos that highlight product features but are always up to date. Sunday Sky takes existing web assets, such as photos and product descriptions, and transforms those assets into a limitless number of web videos. Because the video is created dynamically by relying on product information, the videos are always up-to-date with the latest information from the website. So if a product’s price is reduced or its ratings change, the video will automatically adjust to the new information that is available to it. (You can watch demos of the Sunday Sky videos here.)

TechCrunch revealed this weekend that the site is about to launch a 24-hour web TV channel dubbed TechCrunch TV next month. The channel will be spearheaded by TechCrunch columnist Paul Carr, who has been contributing to the site as a weekly for close to a year. Carr wrote in the announcement that TechCrunch TV will “focus… on the people behind the stories” TechCrunch is known for, but was shy on the details. I decided to give him a call and find out more.

There was once a time when we were not yet connected. When we didn‘t know. When we couldn‘t choose. Internet TVs are a game-changer and Google knows this. And while we’re patiently awaiting its arrival in the U.S., Swedish-based TV makers People of Lava gives us a sneak peek of things to come…

Online video management firm Brightcove is going after media companies that want to make their videos available on the Apple iPad by adding a whole new feature set to deliver iPad-compatible HTML5 video. The company also has unveiled a roadmap to eventually bring along features like advertising and advanced analytics support that will make HTML5 video playback more competitive with Adobe Flash video….