Making sense of the Online Video Jungle

If you are unenthused by the content your remote control's finding, your keyboard might be the a better fetcher, but where to begin?

Today TED announced that 50 million of its talks have been viewed on the web, with over half being seen outside the U.S. borders. So what's it all about? Well here's a list of the Top 10 TED talks. Great stuff. TED's most watched talk has been viewed by 2.5M viewers to date and features neuro-scientist Jill Bolte Taylor, who had a stroke and understood what was happening as it all went down. So who else made the Top 10? Were they celebrities? I believe only two are recognizable names -- Tony Robbins (Why we do what we do) and Al Gore (Averting a climate crisis). Great stuff here.

But just how do you sort out all the online content? There is no TV Guide-like solution, or is there? Well here's a half step from, you guessed it, TV Guide. But, mind you, this is all about traditional TVs crossover with the online viewing universe. Here's another one from Yahoo.

Here's a rather confusing site called OV Guide. Hard to look at but they are packing a lot of info in there.

But on the Internet, you would expect a smarter way to do the traditional stuff listed above and here it is, brought o you by a big name from the Rock & Roll world has a new beta site that offers help making sense of the cavalcade of online video choices. Rocker Peter Gabriel has helped launch a new site called The Filter... which uses smart technology to help you find content you care about. It uses an intelligent platform (through ranking evaluations) much like Netflix to help narrow down the areas of online content that you like and therefore might like in the future.

Finally, here's a neat musical video from YouTube. Nothing brilliant, nothing earth shattering about it... but it's good listening. Hip Hop Violin.

Get watching.

Click Here for a Ride on the Emotional Roller Coaster Amigo

Let's look at some videos and then examine the emotions they create, as well as which are most memorable. We'll start with some funny stuff. You'll see why soon.

The first two are a little racy friends. The first one is built off an old joke. Keep Your Trojanz in the Car

No surprise that this one -- a contraception commercial -- was banned. DUREX

This one will tear your heart out. I am reluctant to share it for fear that viewers will 'kill' the messenger, but here it is. NEWBORN -- I think this one is for a life insurance company, just like the next one.

WARNING, this one's another heart wrencher. More Time - Japanese Life Insurance Spot

Let's finish with a lighter piece to drive the point home. Levis - High Speed Change (UK)

So, are you tired? Which of these commercials was most memorable? Probably not the funny, lighter videos. The heavy ones are really draining. I have seen them probably six times now and it doesn't get any easier. They exhaust me. The emotional roller coaster is one name for the ride you just took if you watched the NEWBORN or MORE TIME. That doesn't mean your brand needs to take a heavy, emotional ride, but remember, emotion is what works on film and video... not PowerPoint slides.