I've always been deeply interested in the ways different technologies and interfaces dictate and influence user behaviors, so I was excited to see Virginia Heffernan's latest New York Times op-ed addressing medium specificity and its role in the success of online videos.

Video is becoming a core part of AOL's content strategy and business model going forward. AOL Video covers everything from music videos, to news clips, movie trailers, viral videos, and full-length TV shows.

Starbucks is promoting recycling awareness on their homepage today to celebrate Earth Day. 

They set up a street art campaign in the Flat Iron District in New York City, building a tree out of cups of coffee in variegated shades. Each person that put their cup down traded in their paper cup for a reusable mug or tumbler.

Internet video is gaining the attention of nearly every business concerned with consumer activities, as indicated by results from Accenture's recent report on Video-Over-Internet. The global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing firm conducted a global online survey of

Today's guest post comes from Michael Flint of Metropolis Creative, which is currently hosting Extreme Website Makeover. The last day to enter to win a website makeover is today.

What do YOU look at when you're surfing the web? We're all busy. Too busy. So our web surfing time is very self-centered. We're looking for the most interesting content in the quickest and most digestible format. AKA: video.

We've written a lot about how social media and video together makes for a powerful combination. Now let's take a look at a cool new implementation from PAID Inc.

Web video series maven Felicia Day was one of the highlights of SXSW Interactive festival in her Q&A style keynote with NewTeeVee's Liz Shannon Miller.

ComScore recently released their February 2011 US Online Video Rankings numbers, which are always an interesting measure of the state of online video.

Browsing the Internet, we often come across cool websites for products we like or sites we find inspiring, only to discover that it turns out these folks are using Brightcove as one of the facets of their engaging websites! Our designer Zack pointed out IWC Schaffhausen, which he found on siteinspire.net.

We took the opportunity to reach out to Dominic Weir, the Head of Consumer Marketing to ask him a little more about IWC's beautiful website, how they built it, and why video was an important tool for telling their story online. 

DSLR cameras were everywhere at SXSW. With the constant event coverage, and the convergence between the Interactive and Film sessions, DSLR cameras were a point of interest for a large cross-section of the audience at the festival. From the Canon 7D to the Nikon D7000 - stunning but affordable video production is becoming mainstream and accessible to all professional-amateurs and full time producers alike. 

Brands are starting to get on the social media bandwagon, and are tapping into the mores and modes of the Internet in an effort to update the way they reach and connect with consumers. 

With SXSW just around the corner, we've been doing a lot of thinking here at Brightcove about how social media and video are really a match made in heaven, when used right. But we know that video and social media are relatively new tools in our belts, and that folks are just beginning to wrap their heads around how to use them, let alone optimize their use to derive value.

ComScore's 2010 US Digital Year in Review report contains some interesting insights into the rapid growth in the US online video market.

ComScore found that an average of 179 million Americans were watching some form of video online each month, which is roughly 60% of the US population. 

Data from MeFeedia suggests that the "in 1 year, the amount of video available for playback in HTML5 has jumped from 10% to 63%." The company used its own video index to analyze about 30M videos sourced from 30K video sites. MeFeedia is a video aggregating site, that pulls from video sources, including YouTube, Vimeo, and Brightcove-supported sites.

Everyone is a-buzz with excitement for Apple's latest announcement: the iPad 2. Over at Brightcove, we're pretty excited by fact that so many of the new features contribute to video activities on the device, whether it's watching, producing, or sharing video. 

This post originally appeared on Endeca's eBusiness Facets blog on Thursday, February 24. 

Marketers are always looking for the latest ways to grab audience attention, build lasting impressions, stimulate conversations, and drive conversion. And that’s true regardless of whether you market to B2B or B2C customers. 

Q: How are marketers using online video today?

The Next Web had an interesting post a few weeks ago asking the question, "Why is the Web so quiet?" Given that sound is a huge portion of the experience in other media like TV and Film, the Ian Chattam asks, "Why is it then that such a large proportion of the web is a soundless vacuum? Could we be missing a trick here?"

Our quarterly online video report produced along with partners at TubeMogul highlights some of the interesting trends that emerged in 2010 in the industry. Today, I wanted to take a closer look at the brand engagement numbers that speak to videos brand marketers present on their websites in Brightcove players.

LinkedIn has been getting some attention for its new retro-fabulous video campaign, powered by Brightcove. The campaign is sponsored by FedEx, and draws creative talent from sketch comedy group Upright Citizen's Brigade.

We recently sponsored a Video Player Skin Design Contest to generate interest in some of our design and creative job openings, including our Senior UX Designer position.

ComScore's 2010 Digital Year in Review presents some interesting stats on the state of online video advertising. The report suggests that by the end of the year, 16% of videos watched (in terms of titles) were advertisements, compared to only 12% just six months prior.

IDC reported in the fourth quarter of 2010, global smartphone sales surpassed those of PCs. 100.9 million units were sold in the three month period, representing a 87.9% increase year over year. PCs sold 92.1 million during the same period, which also represented a record for the category, but wasn't enough to edge out smartphones.

The Super Bowl is unquestionably the biggest day of the year for marketers. And this year, the event broke TV ratings records for the second year running, reaching an average audience of 111 million viewers.

Yesterday, Brightcove's Steve Rotter and Alex Nasson presented a webinar along with our partners at AdAge on how digital agencies can help their clients benefit from online video. 

This webinar shared how leading digital agencies are currently using video to build awe-inspiring brands. We also gave practical tips to ensure the success of clients' online video strategies. We presented a framework for talking about how video contributes to acquisition, engagement and conversion of visitors on client websites.

Think online video only appeals to Gen Y and younger? Think again!

Forbes Insights found that business people are starting to prefer video to text when learning about products and services. The report looks at how executives are approaching Web video as a source of business-related information:

The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is over and done with for this year, but in case you couldn't be there yourself, we've pulled together a few links to some of the most interesting coverage of the event related to online video.

As part of our special webinar series, we're asking our follower what their big plans are for online video in 2011. Participate in the conversation by using the hashtag #videojumpstart2011 on Twitter.

The webinar series starts this Thursday with Get Inspired: 20 amazing ways marketers are winning with Online Video. Register today!

Sometimes we're reminded that even the simplest tools can be put to impressive use in capable hands.

This isn't brand new, but I continue to be inspired by this gem of a TED Talk given by Chris Anderson that explores how online video has introduced a new platform for niche innovation to spread ideas around the world.

For the first time, Americans are now spending as much time on the Internet as they do watching television, according to Forrester Research.