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Win-Win: Hulu's custom clips fight piracy and enable fans

Like many people, I often want to share a television or video scene with others. Unfortunately, finding quality clips of want you want can be hard. The good news is that Hulu has been making my life easier.

For example, The Office recently did a hilarious sendup of what it would be like if the fictional Sabre company tried to have its own stores like Apple. There was a great scene in which Dwight Schrute explains the importance of bloggers to the store's success on launch day.

His awesome rant: "For a tech company, … Read more

YouTube Add-on

YouTube is still one of the top video-sharing Web sites in the world. If you're a Google Chrome user who spends time on the popular site, Mixesoft has released Magic Actions, a free add-on for your browser that is designed to enhance the experience of watching YouTube videos.

Magic Actions provides a number of functionalities that are easy to use and help streamline and customize your video viewing. These include such features as automatic high resolution and pre-defined color themes. Adjusting the settings to your desired preference will provide a default resolution for all videos to be played. Other … Read more

Nonprofit's 'Kony 2012' viral video stirs emotion, controversy

If you're on Facebook, chances are a link titled "Kony 2012" has appeared on your news feed this week.

The video, which was uploaded to YouTube on March 5, tells the story of filmmaker Jason Russell's personal mission to take down Joseph Kony, the Ugandan leader of the guerrilla group Lord's Resistance Army (LRA).

Produced by the nonprofit group Invisible Children, it has all of the elements of a powerful viral video: heroes and villains, heart, purpose and a call to action (the filmmakers also make good use of Facebook Timeline as storytelling tool). In … Read more

Chinese get past censors and onto Facebook, YouTube, Twitter

China's "Great Firewall" is the tongue-in-cheek way to refer to the Chinese government's blocking and censorship of Web sites. And, somehow, that wall has been fractured this week.

It all started when Chinese citizens flooded President Obama's Google+ page over the weekend, leaving thousands of messages ranging from jokes to begging the U.S. president to do something about China's civil rights issues.

Now, Reuters reports that Chinese Internet users have accessed YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter--all sites normally blocked by the Great Firewall.

"I used Facebook for the first time yesterday," Zhang … Read more

Google launches underwater endeavor with Seaview

Imagine if Google Earth could take users under the ocean. People on laptops sitting hundreds of miles away from any body of water could dive down and spot colorful reef fish, coral forests, sea snakes, and rare turtles. A program just like this was officially announced today.

In a partnership with Google, the global insurance company Catlin Group Limited and nonprofit Underwater Earth launched the Catlin Seaview Survey. The goal is to let people explore the ocean from afar and also carry out the first detailed study about the composition and health of coral reefs. The mapping expedition is expected … Read more

How to skip ads on YouTube

Advertisements are a great way for Web sites that provide free services to help recoup the cost of operation. When ads pop up on YouTube, they're not too much of an issue, and are generally viewed as inevitable. However, if you're trying to find a specific video, waiting through a 20- to 30-second ad each time can become very frustrating. Fortunately for Chrome users there's an extension called Skip ads on YouTube - No illegal block, which allows you to skip the ads and get straight to the video.

First you'll need to grab a copy … Read more

Pinterest nearly equals Twitter and Google in referral traffic

Pinterest is now the fastest growing site for referral traffic, according to a new study by content-sharing company Shareaholic. If Google+, YouTube, and LinkedIn's referral traffic were added up, they still wouldn't drive as many users as Pinterest.

The premise behind Pinterest is for users to gather, organize, and share things they find on the Web, such as home decorations, clothing, and food. The end result is curated pinboards that are meant to help friends discover new items or get inspiration. Currently, Pinterest is invite-only.

In the study, Shareaholic aggregated data from more than 200,000 publishers that … Read more

Obama wants Hollywood, Silicon Valley to 'come together' on SOPA

President Obama's first "virtual town hall" in 2009 took a legalize-pot detour. This afternoon, his first Google+ hangout with a handful of voters turned to a no less controversial topic: a pair of Hollywood-backed copyright bills.

In response to a question about whether the Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect IP Act would levy "too much censorship on the Internet," the president stopped short of saying he opposes the legislation.

"I think that it's going to be possible for us" to find a workable approach, Obama said during the event broadcast on YouTube, … Read more

Politicians aim some pointed privacy questions at Google

One of Google's hometown members of Congress is complaining that the search company isn't doing enough to protect its users' privacy.

Rep. Jackie Speier, a longtime Democrat whose district includes YouTube's San Bruno, Calif., headquarters, co-authored a letter (PDF) today asking the company to respond to a series of sternly worded questions about its plans to simplify privacy policies into one more-or-less standard one. Currently Google has more than 70 individual privacy policies.

"We believe that consumers should have the ability to opt-out of data collection when they are not comfortable with a company's terms … Read more