Magnify.net Different Than The Rest Of The Video Crowd March 31 2007
Magnify.net is a new video startup that is different from the rest of the crowd. Unlike YouTube and dozens of others, it isn’t focused on building a portal around user-uploaded videos. Instead, they are allowing website publishers to create their own video channels, and populate it with videos from other sites (like YouTube, Revver, Yahoo Videos, etc.) that allow embedding.
The result is a highly targeted niche video site that integrates very well into existing content websites. To see it in action, see this channel that they created for [More]
Hey... it's spring. At least that's what it feels like today. And we want to go to camp. But being the geeks that we are - it's PODcamp!
April 6th 6-9 PM: Reception (Please RSVP)Get Info Here
April 7th 8:45 AM - 6 PM: Conference | Registration Open
The New Yorker Hotel | 481 8th Ave @ 34th St, NY, NY
One of the early Channel Producers on Magnify.net is DC Smitty. His amazing YouSurfTubes channel has created a ton of buzz, traffic, and pushed the envelope on both community and content. So when he found out we were going to be in town, we knew we had to meet face to face. By day Dean is a shooter for the local NBC TV station. So at the VON show last week he was there to check out the show, but also just to get some hang time with the Magnify team. Almost from the moment he came up to the booth, he was surrounded by folks who wanted to know about his experiences creating a TV Channel on the web. And i have to say, he could have easily held his own with lots of the folks who were on panels at VON. Don't be surprised if you start to she him out front - teaching others and spreading the gospel of video on the net. He's a great guy, and we're proud to be part of the YouSurfTubes community. We are - to borrow a phrase - Stoked! :)
The folks who swung bye the both in the two days we were in San Jose all had interesting things to say about the evolution of video on the web. Jeff Jarvis is expanding his empire with two more video blogs to add to the already popular buzzmachine. PrezVid is his latest creation - and given the buzz around the remake of the Apple 1984 commercial staring Hilary Clinton as 'big brother' - it seems like Jarvis is in the right place at the right time. Jarvis even interviewed me for PrezVid! Nice to be on the other side of the camera for a change. Also with Jeff was James Marcus, who's the CTO of Nework2. Network2 is the latest adventure for serial entrepreneur Jeff Pulver (who puts on the VON show). What was fun was exploring how magnify could work with both PrezVid and Network2... great partners both.
That said, the connections at VON 07 don't stop there. Steven Starr was his amazing and inspirational self, reminding us all that's it's not about the money - it's about...
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and there's a whole sharing menu that allows for embedding and forwarding of videos
. The graphic design was done by Yana Kuzin-Ilan, who was really pretty in tune with the spirt of Magnify.net and the look and feel of the player we were trying to implement. Congrats - great job! So go play with the new toys and see what you think.
Standing in lobby of the Portola Plaza and watching Forrest Whitiker hanging out with Jeff Skoll and Lawrence Bender - and realize the number of Oscars between them - was cool. (photo: TED curator and Magnify.net investor Chris Anderson with Magnify CEO Steve Rosenbaum)
Check out Hammondcast on Magnify.net - and crank it up! Hammond is a true impresario - and the tunes on his channel are so fresh, you really do end up turning up the speakers. Few bits of news from Jon - he's been in media his whole life, but the last two years have been full of big changes... he is hosting his own radio show in San Francisco (a lifelong dream to be a DJ) and he bought his first computer just two years ago! How cool is that - that a guy with the chops this guy has is jumping into the video blogging game and turning his passion into publishing. Even before we met, I was a fan of Jon and his music - hey, who can't love the man playing the Hammond Organ named Hammond! Here's the email he sent us before he swung by: