video

Yesterday Google rolled out video alerts to its Google Alerts service. If you've never used Alerts, it's a handy way to get Web content updates delivered straight to your e-mail inbox based on keywords. In the case of the new video search, Google will deliver links to videos it's indexed. So how is this helpful? Say you're a big video fan, and you dig seeing those Diet Coke and Mentos videos online. There are always some crazy teenagers out in the suburbs doing new things with them, and that equates to a lot of new videos. … Read more

Microsoft is putting a stop watch on new video-ads found on the company's Web sites.

Visitors to MSN will see an advertisement prior to watching their first video and then new ads will appear every three minutes after. The ads not only show up in the video player but they also unfold an extended section that is similar to a pop-up ad.

This is a different tact taken by Google's YouTube, which last month began testing an overlay format that appears at the bottom of the screen for 10 seconds before disappearing.

Both companies are trying to figure … Read more

At CNET Download.com, we are very aware that--regardless of our large catalog of downloadable software, music, and games--our greatest asset is you, our users. When it comes to any development on the site, we think about you first.

We've always been grateful to have intelligent, respectful, and engaged users on CNET Download.com. Our user reviews of software are some of our most prized features, because they generally display an accurate opinion of the download community.

We continued to expand our communication with CNET Download.com users two years ago, when we introduced our blog, The Daily Download. … Read more

Most mobile users like their converted videos like they like their phones: light, fast, and easy to get.

MediaCell Video Converter is a sweet app that achieves the former and shines with the latter. The program's ease at converting from a range of file types to your specific cell phone or PDA helped the program become the single most downloaded video product at CNET Download.com.

Check out MediaCell Video Converter in the video below, and don't forget to watch other informative First Look videos on a slew of users' favorite apps.

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--With thousands of Halo fans lined up for midnight madness events in cities around the country, you might wonder why Microsoft is hosting a pre-launch event at its Silicon Valley campus here just hours before.

Well, according to Doug Free, the company's Silicon Valley public relations director, it's a chance to celebrate the developer community here and the theory that some of the most important coders in the region may also be serious gamers.

That was the concept, at least, behind planning this event--for which more than 700 people registered to attend.

"The whole … Read more

Yet another company launching at this week's DemoFall 2007 conference is Graspr, a video-based social network for instructional content that's both professionally- and user-generated. Categories on the site will include topics as disparate as gardening, sports, crafts, and cooking.

Created by a handful of former Yahoo vice presidents, including Teresa Phillips, who serves as the new company's founder and CEO, Graspr will open to a public beta on Tuesday.

Suffice it to say that this is not a particularly open niche of the Web. eHow and Instructables currently dominate the "instructional encyclopedia" niche, and since … Read more

The right combination of smarts, beauty and goofiness drove Amanda Congdon to Web stardom. But perhaps that's not enough to make her a crossover talent.

ABC News announced last week that the online arm of the TV network won't be renewing the one-year contract it extended last November to the former host of Internet humor show, Rocketboom.

Congdon said on her blog that she's the one who decided to call it quits. However the relationship ended, the Internet will not miss Congdon's uninspired video blogs for ABCNews.com, and that's likely not all her fault. … Read more

While companies like Sling and Orb tout their ability to place-shift TV from the living room to the cell phone screen, a new study released Monday says that only 5 percent of Europeans expressed interest in watching TV on their mobiles in the next 12 months. Apparently, Europeans are more content with simply making voice calls and buying music, whereas 20 percent of surveyed Asian consumers say they'd watch TV on the really small screen.

Overseas users are all fine and dandy, but what about you? Would you be interested in watching TV on your cell phone?

I know video creation start-up Animoto has been written about on CNET already, here and here. But I just had to write about it too because it has changed my life.

Like my colleague Michael Kanellos, I'm not an early adopter of technology, particularly gadgets that cost a lot of money. My music collection isn't on my laptop yet, but at least I do have a digital camera. And a Flickr account. I haven't found Flickr that easy to use, and I've been lazy. So, I haven't posted a lot of photos on there. Until … Read more