Tech Bytes: YouTube to Honor Top Videos
By Tim Clodfelter, Winston-Salem Journal, N.C.
Mar. 22–There’s still time to cast your vote in the YouTube Awards.
Through Friday, YouTube.com is letting viewers vote for their favorite videos on the site. The winners will be announced Sunday. Each winner will get a trophy. There are seven categories: most creative, most inspirational, most adorable, best series, best comedy, best commentary and best music video. YouTube has selected the nominees, which you can watch at www.youtube.com/YTAwards.
Among the nominees are OK Go, a power-pop band best known for the video “Here It Goes Again,” in which they perform on treadmills in an elaborately choreographed routine; the “Ask a Ninja” advice spoof; and Lonelygirl15, a dramatized video blog that many viewers mistook for the real thing instead of a scripted piece.
The Web site ModernMom.com has just added a new video channel called “Modern Mom TV.” It has tips about cooking, time management, fashion and more.
“Modern Mom TV” (www.modernmom.com/tv/index.php) is now up with two four-minute video segments, plus several shorter clips. The site will expand in April with more videos, including news, interviews with inspirational women, product reviews and more. Each Wednesday, new segments will be added.
ModernMom.com was founded in 2002 and provides advice and news for busy mothers.
Sales of the Nintendo Wii game console in February matched those of the Microsoft Xbox 360 and the Sony Play-Station 3 combined.
The NPD Group, a research company, found that 355,000 Wii consoles were sold in February, compared with 228,000 Xbox 360 consoles and 127,000 PS3 consoles.
Xbox still has the upper hand, since it has been out more than a year, while the Wii and PS3s were just released late last year. More than 5.1 million Xbox 360 consoles have been sold so far, but neither Wii nor PS3 has reached the 2 million mark.
Cat lovers, take note: Through March 31, Cat
Channel.com is holding a “Virtual Cat Show.” Visitors can vote for their favorite cat in various categories and also enter their cats in the show by uploading photos. The cat with the most votes will win a year’s supply
of cat litter, with a six-month supply for second place and a three-month supply for third place. The three winning cats will also appear in Cat Fancy magazine.
The categories include cutest, fluffiest tail, best smile, biggest ears, longest stretch and more. To see the candidates, cast your vote or enter your own cat in the contest, go to www.catchannel.com, scroll down to the monthly features section and click on the “Virtual Cat Show” tab.
AOL is adding an optional feature to its AIM instant-messaging service, allowing users to tell where people on their buddy list are located.
The feature, called “Near Me,” uses the continuous wireless pulses from Wi-Fi signals to track a user’s location on a map. The service will work only if both users want to share their locations. When using a non-Wi-Fi computer, a user can manually put in the location. The feature requires a download from AOL.
Exactly why anyone would need such a feature is unclear.
–Tim Clodfelter can be reached at 727-7371 or at tclodfelter@wsjournal.com.
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Copyright (c) 2007, Winston-Salem Journal, N.C.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.
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