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Here is a list of the top 10 online innovations that have changed the business world in the last decade, and might lead to the future. The list is according the Webby Awards.
- Craigslist expands outside San Francisco (2000)
- The launch of Google AdWords (2000), and therefore the economic boom to Google
- The launch of Wikipedia (2001)
- The shutdown of Napster (2001)
- Google's initial public offering (2004)
- The online video revolution led by YouTube (2006)
- Facebook opens to non-college students and Twitter launches (2006)
- Apple's iPhone debuts (2007)
- The use of the Internet in the US presidential campaign (2008)
- The use of Twitter during the Iranian election protests (2009)
In terms of business, one of the main innovations is Google, with a $180 billion market capitalization, a loyal audience and their non-stop launch of stellar products and services which support its advertising initiatives. As Webby Awards say, "Google is the standard by which all exceptional businesses will be measured for decades to come."
Also, it is worth to note the social media phenomenon; businesses are realizing the power of social sites, and their ability to reach goals fasters. Therefore, organizations should be getting involved starting with a solid strategy.
Lastly, the iPhone has structured a new mobile industry, starting with the apps, and giving users real power in the palm of their hands.
Embed the Upload Functionality into Your Own Website For Free (But There Is a Catch)
Now YouTube allows you to embed the upload functionality into your own site, enabling your organization to request, review, and re-broadcast user-submitted videos.
"News organizations can ask for citizen reporting; nonprofits can call-out for support videos around social campaigns; businesses can ask users to submit promotional videos about your brand," explains YouTube.
This technology, called YouTube Direct, is a set of APIs that enables users' video uploads to YouTube via your site without leaving the page. A moderation panel enables to review and approve/reject all submitted videos, Another key feature is that all videos approved include a link back to your site when viewed on YouTube.
But there's a catch: all this video lives on YouTube.com, which continues to build out its news presence.
Among the first to use YouTube Direct: ABC News (see here), the Huffington Post, the San Francisco Chronicle (here) and WHDH-TV in Boston (here).
Developers can dive into YouTube Direct in this page.
Using iTunes U plus YouTube Edu Is a Great Marketing Tool for Colleges
More than 600 schools post lectures to iTunes U, the Apple's catalog service for colleges and universtities. There are about 250,000 individual classes available to the public, from Stanford to MIT, according to the latest Apple's data.
To me, using iTunes U, along with YouTube.com/edu, is a great free marketing tool. But it can also undermine the school's goal of getting people to pay for online.
Most of the universities prefer not to use iTunes U and YouTube.com/edu. Limited resources, copyright concerns and the reluctance of old-fashioned professors are mentioned as the main reasons.
YouTube's Videos Now With Automatic Captions
This is a major step toward making millions of videos on YouTube accesible to deaf and hearing-impaired people and also to global audiences.
Google's new technologies, unveiled this week, automatically brings text captions to YouTube videos.
This feature uses voice-recognition algorithms (coming from Google Voice) along with a system to create auto-captions for videos. However, a Google blog post announces that captions will not always be perfect.
Additionally, you can automatically translate captions into one of 51 languages.
The second caption feature is automatic caption timing (or "auto-timing"). Creators upload a text file with all the words in a video, and Google turns that file into captions, automatically matching the spoken words with the files. This is very helpful for video owners who don't have the time or resources to create professional caption tracks.
An example of both in action is embedded in the video above.
Both features are already available in English. Automatic captions will only be visible on select partner channels, most of them specializing in educational content, like UC Berkeley, Stanford, MIT, Yale, UCLA, Duke, UCTV, Columbia, PBS, National Geographic, Demand Media, UNSW and Google itself ¡ª its corporate videos will be captioned. The company plans to gradually expand the number of channels that work with the automatic captioning technology.
In addition to helping people who are deaf or do not speak English, the captions will make it easier for anyone to search text inside videos and find specific snippets within a video.
See here how to operate the service /
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