YouTube XL – Search On Couch

Ryan    Uncategorized     Current TV, Maybach Music 2, YouTube, YouTube XL

So last night I was chilling at home with Andrea, and I wanted to play some music on the good ole’ Nintendo Wii. So what do I do? Pump up Wii Internet Channel Powered by Opera, check out YouTube… but whats this? YouTube XL…

This is the first thing I see as soon as I go to www.YouTube.com. (I had to make it big to fit in with the theme of the huge XL in the logo) Although this was the first time I noticed this new feature for YouTube access, come to find out, its been out since June 2nd. You can see how up to speed I am.

Pleasantly surprised that I’d be able to see HD videos, in their full glory with little effort on my part, I chuckled with excitement and glee. Although some of the videos I was looking for were a bit glitchy at times, others seemed to work perfectly fine. Not quite sure the dilemma there, but rather irritating nonetheless. To take a quick look at my YouTubing experience last night, check out these gems…

Rick Ross’ Maybach Music 2 feat. Kanye West, T-Pain, and Lil Wayne is brilliant. I know its main stream, but the instrumental is so complex and ‘stadium status’ and for some reason, reminds me of video game music from 1998. Hot!

Target Women is a great series of videos produced by CurrentTV starring Sarah Haskins. The ideas typically take a selected topic every week… ie Wedding Shows, Chocolate, Cleaning, or anything else often stereotypically associated with women, and brings the humor out of their respected advertising campaigns.

And then we had to watch HGTV’s $250,000 Challenge.

Any ways, after watching a few videos on YouTube XL, I’ve come to realize that… As our modality of accessing the internet continues to evolve and change, so do our websites. Thanks primarily to the iPhone, many highly trafficked web pages now have Mobile versions, or less CSS’d and imaged versions, compared to their original state. Means faster and easier readability on your mobile phone of preference. XL on the other hand caters to those of us with internet connections to our large screen televisions, via anything from the Wii, or anything else that allows you to access the internet from your couch. “I’ve been at work all day.. why would I sit behind a computer at home to watch YouTube videos?” Sheesh.

While YouTube isn’t really a search tool (yeah I know it is), it does give a good representation for how search is developing. With statistics saying things like, ‘more and more people search from the cellphones these days then from their computer,’ there is a great disservice going on here between what is being said, and what is actually going on. I don’t know for a fact that more and more people are not searching online these days.. I do think that more and more people are search from their phones, though… or their TVs in my personal case. Search hasn’t shifted, it has just become more broad. Now stemming from my experience in SEM, maybe we should do a better job compensating for these new audiences rather then trying to fit them in with the rest of the crowd. They are converting on something totally different. Right? Often times… on nothing!

But as we begin to watch YouTube videos in our cereal bowls and from the backs of our hands, I think companies are really starting to realize they are having more and more reasons to venture into online advertising and publicity. ‘Hey.. I sell good cereal.. I’d like to be in your cereal bowl browser/app!’  Coming Q3  ’10.

Peace