It's all about the Message

You may be tired of hearing about the Harry Potter phenomenon and the incredible success of the tale's creator, JK Rowling. Well before your eyes glaze over and you click on to the next story, watch her commencement address to the Harvard graduating class of '08 and tell me you are not inspired. Watch Part II on the additional clip as well!

So what does this tell you? First off there's more to this lady than I understood, and secondly inspiration is about the message. Her words, your words, my words -- speaking from the heart -- that's how we make video and film special. Capturing those special moments and translating them into powerful, inspirational video. The magic of the words is at the heart of great video, and then the reinforcing layers come from great pictures, sound and the skill a great editor brings to the game by assembling them all seamlessly.

Where are they watching video online?

So who scored more than 50% of online video viewing sessions in April of '08? It should come as no surprise that they are flocking to Google's YouTube, but 50.4% of the market? That's a BIG number. Perhaps not as much as the +70% of ads in the online universe that are served up by Google. Anyway, as Google gains in month to month figures over March of '08 (up from 48.1% in March of '08), who are the also-rans in this universe, and what kind of viewing numbers are they pulling down? In the #2 spot in online video viewing sessions is Yahoo with 8.2% of the market (April of '08), down from 8.5% in March. Then comes Fox Interactive Media at 6.6%, Microsoft at 4.1% and TimeWarner at 3.6%.

What amazes me is that only one of the networks even ranks in the top 5! ABC was #7, CBS Interactive #11 and Hulu (NBC and FOX) at #14. No doubt about the fact that the online video universe is not run by the traditional TV media world.