Online video projects are explosively growing worldwide. The viewers are increasingly using the Internet to access high-quality premium content. Online demand for premium content leads to the emergence of new online video projects. In this article, we will discuss two novel exciting portals launched within the last couple of months: Now.ru and Amazon Instant Video. Continue reading
During the NAB show currently held in Las Vegas, many companies are eager to announce more of fascinating developments prepared for the glorious moment. This event has attracted many people involved with Web based multimedia, as the Web is growing increasingly important to broadcasters. Adobe is in no way an exception. At NAB, they have made a number of important announcements. First of all, they have introduced a new version of Adobe’s desktop solution, Creative Suite 5.5. In addition, a series of Adobe Flash Media Platform enhancements were timed for the event, concerning Flash Player and Flash Media Server. In this article, we will discuss the technical innovations of Flash Media platform, and their application in online video projects. Continue reading
For efficient decision making based on Web analytics, it is often useful to import additional information on pages, visits and users. Based on this, you can analyze specific sections of your site, content categories, special visits and users of a certain type. All this data reflects specifics of your business and your Web project. Without enhancing your analytical data with your business details, analysis would be quite general and not so effective. Making an economic analogy, basic Web analytics is just a technical tool and rich Web analytics is like insider information, although non-classified. From newsreels you probably know how effective it is. In this article, we will discuss mechanisms of sending advanced data to Google Analytics and the best applicable practices. Continue reading
As multimedia content becomes globally popular, many online resources are seeking to enhance their pages with embedded video. Most of the Internet traffic is now generated by video content. This is a driver behind Adobe’s successful market indicators, as some of its products (primarily Flash Media Server and Flash Player) are focused at high-quality video publishing on the Web. If your Web resource has no video yet, you should at least consider its effect on the popularity of your site. There are many ways to publish video content. In this context, setting aside third-party hosting, you’d have to face the choice of a media server. It delivers video content from your server to the client application. In this article, we’ll discuss the most popular media servers and their use. Continue reading
In a previous post, we discussed how to configure OpenX Ad Server to maximize its performance. However banner load performance is not just a server issue. In this article, we would like to brief you on the client side methods to attain the same goal. Continue reading
Most Internet resources are built with a certain goal in mind. Using analytics and online marketing, you can control and significantly improve attainability of these goals. In principle, you might neglect promotion strategies and customer base analysis and focus directly on creating quality content. In this case, you would also be able to achieve your goals, but it would be very difficult to tell what goals you have actually achieved, which of your efforts contributed to the goal and which diverged from the goal. Also, with this uninformed approach you can easily miss many opportunities. Finally, it’s like moving to the touch instead of using the whole arsenal of technical stuff to move in densely populated competitive landscape. If you want to make your content more efficient, this material might be useful for you. This article discusses the features furnished to you by Web analytics and online marketing. Continue reading
Recently, Adobe officially released Adobe Flash Player 10.2. The new version introduces many useful features, but probably the most important of them is a new level of hardware acceleration of video playback. Flash performance has long been the object of accusations from the adherents of other even less productive platforms (sometimes, it has become even the object of political or holy wars). Optimization of video playback can drastically reduce requirements for user equipment and significantly expand the audience enjoying enhanced experience at higher bitrates. In the article, we will discuss the new capabilities in more detail. Continue reading
The Internet industry in Russia is growing as fast as in many developed countries (USA, Great Britain, Germany), or maybe even faster. This is driven by many factors: a huge audience, broadband adoption and electronic commerce. Web projects in Russia are often following the trend of their Western counterparts. This was discussed at the recent TechCrunch Moscow 2010 conference. As the audience here is largely Russian rather than English-speaking, most major Internet video projects have their Russian implementation. This is unlikely to happen in most of European countries, since the native audience is not so large there and the costs of acquiring rights to the content most probably will not pay off (Hulu model). In this article, we are going to discuss Runet’s largest online video projects. Continue reading
In recent years, online video streaming has been gaining substantial popularity. It has many applications, starting with the already well-known online TV, sports events, conferences and seminars, video on demand and computer gaming tournaments. Also, it is used for online negotiation and collaboration. Internet bandwidth growth has made all of these services possible. Many high-end products are based on online streaming. In this article, we will discuss the basic challenges you should face while designing your online video streaming infrastructure. Continue reading