Digitalsmiths is launching a search engine which can best be described as a “Google for video”. Yes there is already a Google video search, but this goes well beyond that, allowing users to search for any actor, scene, or piece of dialog they’d like across shows in the Digitalsmiths library. Digitalsmiths has spent years building the technology to perform speech recognition and visually match actors’ faces and environmental elements (it can tell if a scene is taking at a beach or on a mountainside), and it’s quite impressive.
For example, if I typed in “Seth Cohen Bagel The OC”, the engine would serve up video clips of the character Seth Cohen talking about bagels on the show, The OC.
Unfortunately, while its search functionality is much improved, it’s being held up to some extent by the content owners. In theory Digitalsmiths could put together an engine that searched through all of its content at once, which really would make it akin to an extremely powerful Google for video. But the content owners have not agreed to enable that functionality, so for now all searches will be be constrained to partner sites and widgets (e.g. you’ll have to head to TheWB.com if you want to search through its shows). Hopefully the content owners will have a change of heart, as this kind of universal search could prove immensely useful.
The new product suite includes a handful of products that will appeal to content owners, including a new Asset Manager, which handles things like video ingestion, storage, and processing, and Publisher, which allows content owners to schedule when their content will be posted.
Other players in this space include Auditude and Viewdle.
The Swedish Pirate Party—Piratpartiet—has got a seat in the European Union parliament. The ballots are still being counted—almost done now—but with 7.1% of the votes, it’s a sure thing. Aaaaaaaarrrrr is all I can say. [Results]
This was taken from Tech Crunch and I would like to salute their rational response and great journalism. Also, isn’t Zuckerberg Jewish? There is nothing worse than a self-hating individual.
Way more countries have laws against holocaust denial (11 or so ) than breast feeding (0), but guess which one is banned on Facebook? That’s right. Pictures of breast feeding babies are indecent, so they’re a no go. But Holocaust denial is totally cool because it fosters open discussion. Facebook wants to “be a place where people can discuss all kinds of ideas, including controversial ones.”
Controversial indeed, based on the messages I found written on some of the many Holocaust denial sites on Facebook.
Brian Cuban is making the removal of these sites a personal mission . He’s arguing the law. He’s arguing terms of service. He’s arguing common sense and decency. These groups are clearly little more than excuses to spew hatred towards Jews, and Facebook is too timid to do anything about it. The first amendment doesn’t apply to private companies. So why is Facebook so willing to take a stand when it comes to hungry babies, but won’t do a damn thing when it comes to the Holocaust.
Because they’re cowards.
If Facebook doesn’t want to take a moral or ethical stand on the issue, they can easily make a case that the groups violate their terms of service. These groups violate multiple sections of the TOS , particularly Section 3. There’s an easy way out of this for Facebook, and it also happens to be the right thing to do. Why in the world must they draw a line in the sand and then stand on the same side as Holocaust deniers is beyond me.
The domain Ad.com sold for $1.4 million yesterday at domain name registration company Moniker’s TRAFFIC conference in Silicon Valley. The winning bidder was Divyank Turakhia of Directi.com and CEO of Skenzo, a domain parking company.
Moniker made more than $2 million in domain names at the TRAFFIC auction, with Ad.com taking the highest bid. Bottledwater.com took the no. 2 spot at $45,000 and Athletic.com received the third highest amount, selling for $40,000.
$1.4 million may sound like a lot to spend on a domain, especially given the current state of the economy. But Ad.com is a two-letter domain that is easily pronouncable and actually means something, so it’s definitely valuable in the domain market. And a recession doesn’t seem to be stopping companies from spending the big bucks for desirable domain names so Turakhia may be able to flip Ad.com for a profit. Travelzoo bought Fly.com for $1.8 million in January. Vibrators.com was sold for $1 million a back in November and A&T’s YellowPages.com paid $3.85 million for YP.com in December.
Early this morning, Peter Sunde, co-founder of the Pirate Bay, glumly tweeted a “leaked” verdict, indicating that things didn’t look good for the four Swedish shipmates. Shortly after came the official word: Guilty.
After a decidedly entertaining trial replete with posturing, theatrics and serious cockiness, the four co-founders of the torrent site were found to have been accessories to copyright infringement, each face a year in prison, and must pay $3.5m in damages to Sony, Warner Bros, Columbia Pictures and others.
Although he could be going to jail soon, Sunde is still quick to make a joke:
Really, it’s a bit LOL. It used to be only movies, now even verdicts are out before the official release.
Ha? However, his casualness might be warranted, as the appeals process—which could bring the case all the way to the Swedish Supreme Court—is expected to stretch out for years. As for what will happen to the site? Sunde reassures:
Stay calm - Nothing will happen to TPB, us personally or file sharing what so ever. This is just a theater for the media.
This hasn’t been the best week for pirates, really.
About two months after outraged users hammered Facebook Inc. for taking too much control over their content, the social networking site is now giving users a chance to vote over site governance issues.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a blog post yesterday that users can vote to choose one of two Terms of Service options - the current terms of use rules and a new set of rules called the Facebook Principles and Statement of Rights and Responsibilities. The new set of rights and responsibilities went through a 30-day user comment period, while the original terms of use were created and implemented without input.
Some Facebook members are upset because they say one of the groups they were members of online changed from “I Heart Jews” to “Hitler: Great Modern Man of History” without them knowing. The almost 2,000 members are upset and do not want to be part of the group.
Fox 5’s Lisa Evers reports on this controversy; watch her video (left).
Also, watch Brett Larson’s demonstration video that shows you how to set your alerts in Facebook so that you get an e-mail if a group you are a member of changes its name:
For those of you who are still using limewire to get your media, here is a guide to BitTorrent. This was taken from Life Hacker.
What is it?
BitTorrent is a peer-to-peer file sharing protocol used for distributing large amounts of data. BitTorrent is one of the most common protocols for transferring large files, and by some estimates it accounts for about 35% of all traffic on the entire Internet.
CouchSurfing.com , for all of you culturally open-minded folk out there, is a movement that looks at traveling in a different light. If you’re over going to Paris just to take a snapshot of the Eiffel Tower and getting scoffed at by the locals, check this site out.
Imagine making new friends all over the world, and when you happen to travel to these places you can stay with them, breaking bread and enjoying coffee in a cafe right under where Monica Bellucci lives; a little tidbit you otherwise would not have known if it weren’t for your newfound friends.
This was taken from CouchSurfing:
“CouchSurfing seeks to internationally network people and places, create educational exchanges, raise collective consciousness, spread tolerance, and facilitate cultural understanding.”
Have you ever sent an email, and just as it was going on its merry way, you realize you misspelled something or you sent it to the wrong person. This happens to me a lot on Gmail because sending an email is not always instant. And you have more chances to experience email regret as you are waiting for one to send.
Recently, people have been asking me about twitter. What exactly is it? Why is it so popular? And so on… Here is a guide to twitter take from “The Journal of Joe The Peacock”:
So, after spending a week exploring all the facets of Twitter after more than tripling my followers in 48 hours, I’ve become quite the expert on the darling of the social networking media marketing blitz thing whatever. I guess since MySpace died and all the kids left, it got boring reporting on predators talking to themselves (and stripperbots), so the media jumped on the Twitter bandwagon. (I could continue linking well into this sentence, but am now bored with finding links.)
THIS IS FUCKING AWESOME
Because they’re cowards.
The domain Ad.com sold for $1.4 million yesterday at domain name registration company Moniker’s TRAFFIC conference in Silicon Valley. The winning bidder was Divyank Turakhia of Directi.com and CEO of Skenzo, a domain parking company.
Early this morning, Peter Sunde, co-founder of 
What is it?
CouchSurfing.com
So, after spending a week exploring all the facets of Twitter after more than tripling my followers in 48 hours, I’ve become quite the expert on the darling of the social networking media marketing blitz thing whatever. I guess since MySpace died and all the kids left, it got boring reporting on predators talking to themselves (and stripperbots), so the media jumped on the Twitter bandwagon. (I could continue linking well into this sentence, but am now bored with finding links.)