YouTube On Pace To Eclipse TV

YouTube viewers world-wide are now watching more than 1 billion hours of videos a day, threatening to eclipse U.S. television viewership, a milestone fueled by the Google unit’s aggressive embrace of artificial intelligence to recommend videos.

YouTube surpassed the figure, which is far larger than previously reported, late last year. It represents a 10-fold increase since 2012, YouTube said, when it started building algorithms that tap user data to give each user personalized video lineups designed to keep them watching longer.

So who could threaten YouTube's growth?

How YouTube Could Increase Clicks And Revenue

What do you do when you see a 30 second ad pop up on a YouTube video?..Yeah you either open a second window and browse something else while you wait or you leave..either way you never wait an eternity (30 seconds) for the video.

YouTube finally realized that nobody waits 30 seconds.

 

Starting next year, YouTube will stop allowing the 30-second unskippable ad and will focus instead on shorter formats.

If YouTube wants viewers to watch more ads or get more clicks, they simply need to offer the video owner the ability to click on an object in the video.  Insert hyperlinks IN the video.

 

Google, who owns YouTube, should create the ability to insert a hyperlink on an image in a video.

Make the video just like a website where there are more ways to get info. People could even stay on the ad JUST to find hyperlinks.

Snap IPO Approaches And We See A Massive Conflict Coming

Snap, the parent of wildly "successful" app Snapchat is going public with a valuation between $19.5B-$22.2B.

One of the principal concepts of Snapchat is that pictures and messages are only available for a short time before they become inaccessible. Yeah the pics disappear because they aren't on my screen any more :)

Users are lead to believe their messages are "private" but as we all know, NOBODY reads the Privacy Policy in 6 font.

That's where we see:

"you grant Snap Inc. and our affiliates a worldwide, royalty-free, sublicensable, and transferable license to host, store, use, display, reproduce, modify, adapt, edit, publish, and distribute that content."

"you also grant Snap Inc., our affiliates, and our business partners the unrestricted, worldwide, perpetual right and license to use your name, likeness, and voice.  (think about that all you present and future celebrities).

Can you see where this is going in this day of Internet celebrities?

What brand wouldn't pay to use Kim Kardashian's pics (or think of any other self absorbed person taking selfies) to promote their brand?

Here's the thing..there's nothing they can do about it.

"This means, among other things, that you will not be entitled to any compensation from Snap Inc., our affiliates, or our business partners if your name, likeness, or voice is conveyed through Live, Local, or other crowd-sourced Services, either on the Snapchat application or on one of our business partner’s platforms" (source)

Think of the other adult oriented possibilities with all of those nudie shots too. Would you want your face/body/voice be part of a porn movie promotion, STD commercial, pharmaceutical product, bankruptcy ad, or anything that you would be embarrassed (or have to explain to your friends)?

ALWAYS REMEMBER..if the service is free you are the PRODUCT, not the consumer.

So the question is would users pay a subscription fee if the company promised to not share any content with any 3rd party?

Is their a metric that could determine profitability to number of paid users?

I see some very interesting conflicts arising with this one.

Google To Purge Millions Of Apps From Play Store...For Privacy?

 As if anyone ever reads the tiny print privacy policy. Apparently Google feels that if you don't have one publicly, they will purge your app from their store.

Over the last 24 hours, Google has been sending notices to developers worldwide stating its intention to “limit visibility” or remove apps from the Play Store that violate the company’s User Data policy.

For most devs, the violation seems to be a simple one: lack of a privacy policy.

App developers have until March 15 to make the privacy policy addition, or Google warns “administrative action will be taken to limit the visibility of your app, up to and including removal from the Play Store.” 

The truth is, once you download an app, the app owner and ALL of the other apps on your device, know. Your device becomes a cesspool with each app sharing info.

And it isn't just privacy, it's permissions too. Some apps not only have access to the info on your device BUT can also control the hardware (camera).

Keeping applications in the cloud, and not on your device, would go a long way of helping with privacy and permission issues.

Dropbox Rolls Out Google Docs Competitor..Keep This In Mind

Dropbox is launching a public version of its new Paper service to make a name for itself among collaborative productivity suite providers such as Google Docs and Microsoft's Office 365.


Paper, which has been available in beta since last year, is aiming to win converts from the big names in the space with a user interface that the company said makes collaboration between coworkers easier. The cloud-based platform will allow users to manage shared documents by assigning different tasks and deadlines to various collaborators.

Here's the questions I have.

If you own a physical storage unit, would you allow the owner of the development to go inside it anytime they want? Would you let them share what is inside to the public?

Do you realize anything created and stored inside these public storage sites is THEIR property, not yours?

What is the company's policy if proprietary material is on this site?

Something to think about.

What Other Ways Can You think Of To Stay Off The Grid By Using The Grid?

On the TV show Hunted, where contestants try to avoid capture for 28 days, one group tries to stay off the grid by using the grid in a special way.

The guys create a Gmail account that is just numbers and letters (ed8x$4dds@gmail.com) and then sends letters (with no return address) to friends with their code names. Once again the code names are random.

One thing I never knew is that the Government scans EVERY piece of mail..

The guys create DRAFT emails for each person with their code name. Their friends can communicate with them by continuing the DRAFT email and never sending it. An email that is never sent cannot be tracked.

Eventually their own paranoia gets the best of them.

Can you think of ways to use the Net without being tracked?

What Does This Do To The App Store Space?

Comes under the category of "Why didn't I think of that?".

Doesn't it seem antiquated that we need to go to a separate site to use an app?

What happens to the control that the iTunes and Google Play have?

1App allows apps to bypass the app store to get users to download. They cut out the middleman (app store).


The Menlo Park, California-based startup has taken the disruptive cloud-streaming technology and applied it to the problem of app discovery. Now you can use 1App’s OneOS to instantly deliver a mobile app to someone who wants to try it out.

Raheel Hasan, CEO of 1App, said in an interview with VentureBeat that 1App can stream a full app experience to any device in any mobile environment. You could play an Android game on an iPhone if you wanted to, with no waiting and now no need to bother with stores or downloads.

The question is...who gets the data now?   

Will apps need to place their app in the app stores?
Can this be the new way to get an app on a device?
What percentage of the revenue will 1App get versus who places the app ad?
What will this do to Apple's 30% cut on app subscriptions? 
Has 1App found a way over Apple's walled garden? 

What Apple Should Spend Some Of That $246B On

Google's motto is "Don't Be Evil".

Apple likes to "Think Different".

Apple's new slogan should be, "Making the next generation even better"..here's how you do it.

Apple, every kid in this world has bought SEVERAL products of yours, I think it's time to give some of that profit back, in a very productive way.

Apple has $246B in cash sitting offshore. President Trump wants it back on this side of "the wall".

Silicon Valley is all up in arms about the immigration issue. They all fear they might lose some talent or be prohibited from poaching from other countries. We have the brightest minds in the world but they are being taught the skills to survive in an analog world.

Take $10B and start the Apple University.

 M.I.T, Harvard, Stanford.....and now Apple.

Teach the next generation the necessary skills (computer, math, physics etc) needed to survive in the new digital job marketplace.

What kid wouldn't want to go to THAT school?

The winners in the next generation will be kids that create, not regurgitate facts (that's why we have Google). Computers and software are great at processing but they lack the ability to create. THAT is the skill our kids should be learning.

Apple could even abolish the current testing standards and create new ones.

Think of the possibilities.