YouTube is consistently evolving and increasing in popularity, with users watching longer videos.  While some users enjoy broadcasting themselves, there are even more who prefer to simply watch others broadcast.  The view-only users may be sharing more than they are aware of, as their information is also publicly available.

YouTube users may subscribe to follow certain clips, channels, or collections of videos from an individuals or companies that interest them.  Users receive reminders about new clips from the sources they have subscribed to.  What these users may not be aware of is that their user name and photo are normally listed on the pages of the channels they are subscribed to, and there is no option to keep subscriptions private.

The slogan of YouTube is “Broadcast Yourself”, and it is not widely understood that they also broadcasting user’s taste in videos.  Information about any channel a user opts to follow, or subscribe to, is available to anyone in the world.  This is not explained when users sign up for a YouTube account or when they opt to use the subscription feature.

Recently YouTube announced its plans to implement a newsfeed, similar to Facebook’s.  Controversy about what YouTube does with user’s private information and disclosure of use of that information is growing. 
Factor in the Video Privacy Protection Act of 1988, wherein following the video rental history of Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork was published, the act was passed banning the disclosure of video viewing records. It will be interesting to see how the many privacy issues amoung internet-based companies unfold.   Brought to you by Deep Blue Interactive, your Fort Lauderdale web design and interactive marketing solution.

Facebook masses an incredible 120 million members worldwide, making it the largest social networking site on the World Wide Web.  The latest feature venture by the company is causing quite the stir; its name is Facebook Connect.  Through Facebook Connect, Facebook will allow users to log onto other websites using their Facebook ID, and to view the activities of their friends on those sites.

For example, the feature allows Facebook users to alert their friends that they are visiting a certain website, so that their friends may follow them there and watch a video or read a news clip and comment on it.   In the near future a number of other websites will also be including a similar service in their sites, including big names like the Discovery Channel and Digg.  Myspace, Yahoo and Google have announced similar feature plans to entice their users.

This new trend comes in contrast to previous online trends, which were designed to hoard user information rather than to share it.  This reinforces the projections of the web becoming smaller and smaller, where a user can interact in increasingly personalized ways.  The web is becoming more like a single account for users, rather than a mass of separate URLs, where non-social sites are becoming socialized.

With online networking and advertising constantly evolving, it is vital to stay abreast technological trends and have the best in interactive marketing hard at work for you!  Word of mouth advertising is starting to occur online!  Contact Deep Blue Interactive, your Fort Lauderdale interactive marketing solution today to discover how your website can become an online marketing powerhouse!

In recent months, Google has been working diligently to digitize the print world.  Google has scanned millions of works and successfully digitized them for its new Book Search program, allowing for the contents of the books to be searchable and available on the internet.

Like many of Google’s recent business ventures, the Book Search Program has not gone without some controversy.  There have been arguments over ethical as well as legal issues surrounding the program.
Finally, American publishers and authors have reached an agreement with Google in a settlement over Google’s Book Search program.   The settlement will allow Google to sell electronic versions of copyrighted works that have gone out of print.  This agreement is still subject to court approval.

If the agreement meets the courts approval, it marks the largest publishing deal and creates essentially the largest bookstore in the world.  The online bookshop will operate only in the United States initially according to the arrangement.

In an article in the New York Times, Eric Pfanner commented that the Google Book Search program is the biggest technological leap since Gutenberg’s moveable type.  What is happening to the publishing and printing industry happened first to the music industry.

As technology and the search industry advances, new practices will be implemented continuously.  People fear change, and it sometimes creates temporary setbacks that must be addressed and corrected, yet it is all a part of progress in the big picture.

There is the possibility of online book packages much like Netflix, and advertising revenue will be a revenue boost for publishers and authors online as well.  Google’s Book Search program is creating the world’s largest library, and preserving a vast amount of world knowledge into a permanent database that will last forever.

The business of search is expanding into nearly every crevice of the World Wide Web; Deep Blue Interactive is your search marketing solution in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.  Instead of looking for clients, what if they found you?

It is no industry secret that flash is difficult to optimize, and in the past it was impossible. Like any other industry challenge, search engine optimization has risen to the occasion and begun the process of discerning the most effective way of optimizing flash websites and content. Flash is growing in popularity and must be easily indexed by search engines.

Google in particular has taken great strides in developing a new algorithm for indexing textual content in Flash files of all kinds-flash menus, buttons and banners and self-contained Flash websites. Recently Google integrated Adobe’s Flash Player technology in efforts to improve the new Flash indexing algorithm.

Previously web designers were forced to ensure the content of the Flash websites they designed were presented in another form that would be indexed by the search engines, which created extra workloads for the designers. This was necessary to accomplish because even if the designer preferred not to work with Flash due to indexing complications, clients often times insist on Flash websites for vanity purposes.

The best of both worlds is a Flash website with easily indexed content.
Google has launched its new Flash indexing algorithm and now web designers will find their work will gain improved visibility as published Flash content with improved search results and snippets. It is a remarkable event when both sides can be accommodated.