Google Labs is making a play further into the digital publishing sector with Fast Flip. The Google News Blog reports that Google partnered with three dozen top publishers in a revenue share program to build the service platform. It’s a different type of digital edition. The digital images provide a fast viewing experience across many publisher website web pages. In my opinion there are implications here on what may come in the future. Fast Flip certainly supports the digital edition presentation concepts popular within the magazine publishing community today. It’s all about content, usability, and design folks.
Today we’re adding a new experiment to Google Labs: Google Fast Flip, accessible at fastflip.googlelabs.com. Fast Flip is a new reading experience that combines the best elements of print and online articles. Like a print magazine, Fast Flip lets you browse sequentially through bundles of recent news, headlines and popular topics, as well as feeds from individual top publishers.
Design is important! As we move back to the important of design and graphic communication, I believe that publishers doing well (especially magazine publishers) in this area will benefit from visual presentations. My first question every time someone walks into my office with a new eReader, ebook, or mobile app is, “does it display graphics?”
But Fast Flip requires publishers to showcase more of their content than a simple Google News listing requires, which could allow readers to completely skip clicking through after getting the gist of the story from the first few paragraphs. On the other hand, a more attractive presentation of the story could attract more clicks than a single headline might. – cnet News
Martin Nisenholtz, the NYT‘s SVP of digital operations, cautions against reading too much into the revenue sharing—or the relationship. “There’s no grand plan here, nothing more to this other than learning,” he told paidContent. “This is not about any kind of large strategic relationship issue.” – paidcontent.org
I’m always searching Google to find the code for setting a YouTube link to the HQ (High Quality) or HD (High Definition) version of a video. Using this code on your URL hyperlinks means that you don’t have to remind your friends, “don’t forget to click the HQ or HD button” to see the video in the best quality possible.
The Question: How do I link (URL) directly to the HQ or HD version of a YouTube video instead of the normal version?
So here’s how to use the URL extension format codes to play videos on YouTube with HD or HQ capabilities without having to click the HD HQ video player button once your browser has lauched the video on YouTube. Remember that HQ and HD options are based upon the original upload. So if you are publishing to YouTube and want your own videos to be optimized for a high definition playback, read the YouTube guidelines for optimizing your uploads.
The Answer: Add &fmt=22 or &fmt=18 to the end of the normal YouTube video URL when linking
You can link (hyperlink via the video URL) to any public YouTube video. The video link is located in the URL field just right or below the video when played on YouTube. If you are viewing a YouTube video on any site other than YouTube, just click the video play region (not the ad bar) and you will be taken to YouTube to resume playing the video.
Here’s a regular link to a YouTube video (The link provided be default in the above image):
Here are some additional format codes to force the format view when linking to have the desired format play from your link to a video.
From SQUIDOO How-To:
&fmt=6 increases the resolution from 320×240 to 448×336, Flash 7 video @ 900Kbps; audio @ 44.1KHz 96Kbps Mono CBR. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfWXRybZS4A&fmt=6
&fmt=18 increases the resolution to 480×360, H.264 video @ 512Kbps; audio @ 44.1KHz 128Kbps Stereo. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfWXRybZS4A&fmt=18
&fmt=22 increases the resolution to 1280×720 (720p), H.264 video @ 1024Kbps; audio @ 44.1KHz 232Kbps Stereo. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfWXRybZS4A&fmt=22
Sometimes “high quality” is HD H.264 in stereo (“&fmt=22″), or smaller (480×360, 4:3 frame aspect ratio) in H.264 stereo (“&fmt=18″) or H.263 mono (“&fmt=06″). Format 22 is not always 1280×720 — the tag is ignored if there’s no HD movie uploaded, as with David Kalb vs LeBron James – Horse (HIGH QUALITY), where format 22 seems like format 06. via http://aeportal.blogspot.com/2008/11/youtube-quality-confusion.html
How to Embed HQ / HD into your blog post
The obvious next question is how to embed the HD and HQ version of the video directly into your blog post. Just below the location on YouTube where you copied the URL link you’ll also find the embed code. If you want to embed the video directly into your blog post or web article, you’ll want to make sure you switch to the HTML view / entry on your CMS (Content Management System) or blog admin.
Select the width that will maximize the video size based on the width of the body of your blog post.
Here’s the same video we used URL link examples above but embedded into this blog post.
Again, you will want to make sure that you’ve optimized the video you upload if this will be your own video. Directly from YouTube’s video optimization help page:
How to best upload widescreen videos
Originals Please!
The less a video is re-encoded prior to uploading, the better the resulting YouTube video quality. We encourage you to upload your videos as close to the original source format as possible, with a minimum of intermediate re-encoding steps. Each re-encoding can generally degrade the quality of your video and create some specific problems too, which we’ll address below.
Aspect Ratio
The aspect ratio of the original source video should always be maintained when it’s uploaded: Uploaded videos should never include letterboxing or pillarboxing bars.
The YouTube player automatically adds black bars so that videos are displayed correctly without cropping or stretching, whatever the size of the video or the player. For example, the player will automatically add vertical bars (pillarboxing) to 4:3 videos in the new 16:9 widescreen player size. If the player is re-sized (when embedded on another website for example) the same process takes place, so that 16:9 videos are letterboxed (black bars top and bottom) when the player is sized to 4:3, for example. Similarly, anamorphic videos will be automatically letterboxed when shown in either 16:9 or 4:3 sized players. The player can only do this if the native aspect ratio of the video is maintained.
How to best upload widescreen videos
Originals - The less a video is re-encoded prior to uploading, the better the resulting YouTube video quality. We encourage you to upload your videos as close to the original source format as possible, with a minimum of intermediate re-encoding steps. Each re-encoding can generally degrade the quality of your video and create some specific problems too, which we’ll address below.
Aspect Ratio - The aspect ratio of the original source video should always be maintained when it’s uploaded: Uploaded videos should never include letterboxing or pillarboxing bars.
The YouTube player automatically adds black bars so that videos are displayed correctly without cropping or stretching, whatever the size of the video or the player. For example, the player will automatically add vertical bars (pillarboxing) to 4:3 videos in the new 16:9 widescreen player size. If the player is re-sized (when embedded on another website for example) the same process takes place, so that 16:9 videos are letterboxed (black bars top and bottom) when the player is sized to 4:3, for example. Similarly, anamorphic videos will be automatically letterboxed when shown in either 16:9 or 4:3 sized players. The player can only do this if the native aspect ratio of the video is maintained.
A quick tutorial on how to embed by YouTube user YTSecretWeapon
If High Definition is available for a video, YouTube is now presenting a checkbox to embed the video in HD instead of just displaying a message during the initial play period advising viewers that they may g to YouTube for a HD version.
Here’s an Example of HD off and on. To see the full capabilities of this video on YouTube at 835×505 in High Definition click here
I have found the &hd=1 extension to work on all HD videos to force the High Definition version regardless of the last played settings. So just add &hd=1 to the URL provided in the YouTube subscribe and more info dialog box.
Please Share this HD Link Tip and Comment Below
Do you have any questions or ideas about HQ and HD YouTube video URLs and Embeds?
If you have questions about how to link to higher quality formated videos please post below. Have you found other ideas, hacks, tricks, or tips you can share? If this post helped you, please comment and share. Iwill invite experts to comment if I can’t answer any questions below.
Many of the social media pros have left their Jaiku accounts and moved to new micro-blogging platforms including Twitter and FriendFeed. I was late to Jaiku but appreciated both the channels concepts for hashtags, the icons for identification (taxonomy of the posts) and per post comment thread features (much like FriendFeed) that made this tool look like a great place to camp.
Jaiku was acquired by Google almost two years ago and subsequently became JaikuEngine served from Google App Engine.
March 12, 2009 Jaikido Blog Post: JaikuEngine differs from Jaiku in a few key ways. Although core features like the website, SMS (in the US only) and IM bot still work, feed fetching and international SMS are no longer available. via Jaikido Blog
It took me a while to piece together all the details of what had become of Jaiku and I can remember searching with anticipation of finding a super Jaiku iPhone app. To my surprise, I found only one Jaiku app, mJaiku. I tried to make the mJaiku app work but unfortunately could never get the app fully connected and interactive with my Jaiku account on either my iPod Touch running iPhone 2.0 OS or my iPhone 3 G. As of the iPhone OS 3.0 update, the app is no longer available in the iTunes store.
The simplicity (much like Twitter) of Jaiku was the beauty to me. With just a few more UI elements to help organize information and provide taxonomy cues as an overlay to the microblog posts I was convinced this was a best of class tool. The service is active today and you can view the Jaiku Tour. I know that many iconic users have since left the site and many Jaiku users display lasts posts from months or years ago.
Today, if you want to use Jaiku on your mobile device, you can use m.jaiku.com.
March 13, 2009 Jaikido Blog Post: Yesterday, we flipped the switch and moved Jaiku to App Engine. Today, we are open sourcing the Jaiku code base under the Apache License 2.0. The code is available as JaikuEngine on Google Code Project Hosting as of now. Anyone can set up and run their own JaikuEngine instance on Google App Engine. via Jaikido Blog.
I’d like to know if anyone else is looking for or working on an open source JaikuEngine project and iPhone app? I’m very interested in the potential use of this application for magazine publishers and how both small groups of users and very large groups might take advantage of this tool to interact within a publisher’s media niche.
A recent discussion on the MediaPRO community site prompted me to address digital edition magazine advertising. Specifically, web based banner ads in and around digital magazines.
I agree with the need for publishers to view their digital editions as a unique brand element. Editorial multimedia and augmented ad or commercial capabilities are also excellent in digital format. We want our print readers to be excited about the same magazine issue in their email inbox as the digital version to see the “interactive and multimedia version” of the issue. We also want them to view web based elements that have been optimized for the website.
However, I don’t think a digital edition issue or platform is “monetized” by adding player frame banners or ad serving zones inside the issue. Especially generic served ads. Show a bank of text ads or an ad for a product/service with no connection to your brand and you’ll let everyone know immediately the value of your advertising program. Every magazine is different in terms of objectives online, but most publishers want to achieve a quality cover-to-cover browsing experience with their digital magazines. Let’s not forget that a full page ad in a digital edition is an advertisement (much better than a banner ad) and should be producing ad revenue in that digital display format. And even more revenue if the ad has been enhanced, optimized, or provides interactive elements.
I feel that relevant ads, quality creative guidelines, within the digital magazine, that enhance the reader experience, and maintain a proper multimedia balance for reader expectations will produce higher long term value and revenue to the publisher.
Please share your ideas and examples of digital magazines that are producing audience development and advertiser results.
A recent discussion on the MediaPRO community site prompted me to share my take on digital edition magazine advertising. Specifically, web based banner ads in and around digital magazines.
I agree with the need for publishers to view their digital editions as a unique brand element. Editorial multimedia and augmented ad or commercial capabilities are also excellent in digital format. We want our print readers to be excited about the same magazine issue in their email inbox as the digital version to see the “interactive and multimedia version” of the issue. We also want them to view web based elements that have been optimized for the website.
However, I don’t think a digital edition issue or platform is “monetized” by adding player frame banners or ad serving zones inside the issue. Especially generic served ads. Show a bank of text ads or an ad for a product/service with no connection to your brand and you’ll let everyone know immediately the value of your advertising program. Every magazine is different in terms of objectives online, but most publishers want to achieve a quality cover-to-cover browsing experience with their digital magazines. Let’s not forget that a full page ad in a digital edition is an advertisement (much better than a banner ad) and should be producing ad revenue in that digital display format. And even more revenue if the ad has been enhanced, optimized, or provides interactive elements.
I feel that relevant ads, quality creative guidelines, within the digital magazine, that enhance the reader experience, and maintain a proper multimedia balance for reader expectations will produce higher long term value and revenue to the publisher.
Please share your ideas and examples of digital magazines that are producing audience development and advertiser results.
Image: Digital Editions Discussion Group from MediaPRO
Who doesn’t like a good debate? Since I work with many designers but am not a designer myself, I really appreciated the comments on both sides of the debate. At issue; IKEA’s switch to a font that provided them better international brand consistency.
What horrible timing to adopt a web-font in their branding. With typekit and similar and css3 support for better typography on the web coming soon, it seems silly to finally move to verdana. 10 years ago it may have made sense, but today they could just bide their time a little longer and get the typographic quality of real fonts on the web…
Sarah Aug 27 2009 4:43 AM
Okay, I just got the catalogue and I noticed a lot of differences… I’d say that the design is more reserved and conservative (less spreads of decked out apartments / shagadelic bedrooms / etc) but come on people, there is an AIDS epidemic in Africa, children are starving, and people are killing whales for crying out loud.
Ciacci Aug 27 2009 4:59 PM
Designers are way too opinionated.
I hate working with them.
Ciacci Aug 27 2009 4:59 PM
Designers are way too opinionated.
I hate working with them.
My favorite:
Brian – Aug 26 2009 1:26 PM
Ikea should have kept Futura, altered it to match their needs, and called Furnitura.
DailyFinance and other news stories are putting more attention on this story:
While Ikea’s signature font, a customized version of Futura, was attractive and distinctive, it didn’t work in every language, and was unwieldy for many uses. Consequently, the company recently decided to switch to Verdana, a typeface that Microsoft distributes for free. The new font works across the globe, and translates into an endless array of alphabets. Unfortunately, it also infuriates many of Ikea’s customers. – DailyFinance
And now a petition has been started allowing the undersigned to declare, “We, the undersigned designers, consider this to be a mutilation of Ikea’s long admired design philosophy. It is sad this is happening, and it undermines Ikea’s design leadership. Please bring Ikea Sans/Serif back, or get a proper typeface instead of Verdana! “ http://www.petitiononline.com/IKEAVERD/petition.html
I’ll get the new IKEA catalogue soon, but, sadly, there will be one reason less to enjoy browsing it. As they say, it will be just business—nothing personal. – iancul
Visit Iancu Barbarasa’s blog for all the details – Ikea Post
It does not surprise me that we are seeing more magazine launches. The poor economy is flushing out the niche markets that don’t drive new readership growth and advertising revenue. However, technology, business, and consumer products are changing at the fastest pace ever! Both business and lesiure activities of interest just 2 years ago, last year, and last month are changing more rapidly for each of us.
The specials is of particular attention in these stats for magazine newsstand titles. It’s time for all publishers to test their niche and consider new growth based on a changing audience.
Earlier in the week Folio magazine reported on the increase of the pulse of companies bringing new titles. Today, the early statistics of August 09 show that there were a total of 75 titles launched, almost double the 43 ones in August 08 and even higher than August 07 with 61 new titles.
For new magazine startups, there are now digital media tools that have dramatically reduced the cost to launch. I hope we see this magazine growth trend continue!
![Falling leaves... [explored]](http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6231/6383173405_42abd50959_s.jpg "Falling leaves... [explored]")
