I just ran across this shot my wonderful wife got of me on Easter. I love it so much, I think it might just be my new headshot!! By the way, if you need a new headshot for business, resume, etc, give Erin Hession a call. She does amazing work!

Online video has had explosive growth in just the last two years. Just think, two years ago, the major tv networks didn’t offer online viewing of their prime-time shows, lifecasting was scarcely a term (justin.tv wasn’t around to show us just how great live online broadcasting could be), if you wanted to broadcast video there wasn’t much selection in services and you still had to pay a hefty price for the bandwidth, even YouTube didn’t offer much in the way of advertising (of course that was before Google bought them, too).

So with this explosive growth has come the consumers that watch the videos, bookmark them, rate them, comment on them and much more. This has given rise to the newer use of advertising in these videos. But there’s quite a selection in ad formats with online video. Emarketer.com published a story just yesterday that helped to summarize the formats and make understanding the concept just a little easier. Here’s the link to the article and here’s a link to the IAB, who created the guidelines to which these formats follow.

The graphic below summarizes the various ad formats and placements:

Also, in an upcoming post, I’ll outline several online video platforms that have a variety of uses, the features, pros, cons and my general opinion based on my experience with the service. It’ll be a very informative post… stay tuned!!!

It was hypothesized not long ago that Yahoo would either have to accept and acquisition offer from Microsoft or embrace Google’s ad network to stay afloat and profitable. Last week, Yahoo pass again on Microsoft’s offer sending a stern letter in response. Today, Yahoo announced that they’re going to embrace Google and are performing a small test of their Adsense platform fulfilling what many deemed as inevitable. The test, although significant, is only expected to last two weeks and only incorporate 3% of Yahoo’s market.

Microsoft was quick to issue a response to the news saying that that if Yahoo were to offer Google ads, it would consolidate 90% of the search advertising market in Google’s hands.

For those currently advertising in search, it would create a single point in which to advertise on both major search portals and their individual services (Yahoo is currently the leader in online email users) cutting down on the need to advertise using two ad networks. The potential downside is that it does limit those advertisers who want to work with ad networks outside of Google. I can see both sides of the coin. Honestly, it’s a difficult pill to swallow for Yahoo, but necessary.

What do you think?

We’ve put the finishing touches on the all new Summer Bridal Show website which is now live! It’s a new design based closely on the last one we did for them for the Holiday Bridal Show.

Check out the screenshot below and click here to view the new website .

I’ve been behind when it comes to upgrading my Wordpress blogging platform. In fact, they just released their version 2.5 of their system and I was still on version 2.1.3. So, I made the leap and decided to upgrade.

For those of you who have not upgraded, it’s always a good idea to do so every now and then as the upgrade process is a great way to back up your blog files and database in case something happens down the road. Plus, they add new and exciting features into the newer versions that can easily simplify what you are doing.

The upgrade process was simple and I LOVE the new features. They integrated the "sidebar widgets" plugin into the system and a new plugin update system informing you of any software updates to WP plugins (although this may have already been in previous updates)

Also, the UI is dramatically enhanced. The posting process is a lot simpler with integrated functionality to add photos, video, audio and more to a post. And I am in love with the tagging system.

Here’s a few screenshots:

I received a press release today from Yahoo announcing their support for Google’s OpenSocial platform, an expansive application platform designed to extend the reach of social network applications to multiple networks. Currently, OpenSocial is supported by a number of social networks and companies, including MySpace, Ning, Plaxo, Salesforce.com and more. This is the largest boost in support the platform has received since the addition of MySpace last fall.

In addition, Google, Yahoo and MySpace have agreed to work together and form the OpenSocial Foundation, a non-profit foundation focused on ensuring that OpenSocial remains an “an open, community-governed specification” and that all stakeholders have a share in the influence of the documentation. This effectively removes “sole” control of the open specification from Google and puts it in the hands of all three and creating an organization that has “transparent” oversight in the direction of the platform.

Facebook has been reluctant to join the cadre and support the platform, relying solely on their own application platform based on FBML to provide apps. The big question lingering in my mind is whether this will entice Facebook to embrace the specification and start serving OpenSocial apps in addition to their own platform apps? I think it’s a long shot, especially considering the OpenSocial platform is still in it’s infancy, but it would be nice to see them at least join the foundation. Maybe it’s just a pipe dream.

Okay, so it’s been a few days since my last post… don’t worry. I have a lot of great posts coming.

Erin and I just returned from a fabulous and memorable trip to Las Vegas for a photography convention. It was a lot of information crammed into the trip (especially on branding and promotion), but we managed to sneak in some time to see some great attractions.

I uploaded one of the videos I took from the Fountains of Bellagio to YouTube. Check it out below:

I follow a lot of different blogs. So much so that I don’t always have the time to keep up with them via Google Reader. But I ran across this post tonight and I thought it too good not to share. In this day and age, a lot of marketers focus on the SEO benefits of blogs and how search marketing is going to be a huge portion of incoming traffic.

I no doubt believe that there are various SEO benefits of blogs with company websites, but when it comes to marketing a blog itself outside of a company (ex: TechCrunch, Go2web2, Mashable, etc), there are other factors that come into play. John Chow talks about the concepts that make a blog memorable. It’s not about having a huge marketing budget that makes a website memorable (although it can be helpful in bringing in a lot of traffic). What really matters is a handful of factors including having the right design, the right concept, good content, and frequent updates.

It’s a great read, I just wanted to share it.

Two websites that I frequent made design changes on Friday. Google, changed their Google Docs editor design to streamline and simplify the look. The result… it looks a bit like Office 2003, but I like it.

The other website is LinkedIn. They changed their layout around to add side navigation left of the connection status updates. I think it looks more like what Facebook has… what do you think?

LinkedIn:

and Facebook:

We’ve been very hard at work putting the finishing touches on a new website for Patti Jefferson, a Realtor here in Indianapolis. The new website features a property search, community information, resources for buyers and sellers and a custom designed blog. You can visit her new website at http://www.tuckerteamindy.com.

Also, we want to congratulate Patti on exceeding sales of 3 million in 2007! Congratulations, Patti!