Grown Up Thinking

YouTube has recently announced it will be revamping its site by focusing on ad-supported premium programming (a la Hulu) and completely separating the user-generated content that has long accounted for most of the site’s traffic. The redesign will now include four tabs for browsing: Movies, Music, Shows (all ad supported) and Videos (user-generated content.) I assume this change will definitely ruffle some feathers as the very content that built YouTube up to its current status as the #1 destination for video is largely being relegated to a digital ‘back shelf.’ One could argue that the site’s unique and personal feel will be lost in addition to  bombarding end users with more and more commercials. On the other hand, promoting premium content and features (including the truly nifty “pop-out” and “dim the light” features of Hulu) could potentially add more quality and value to the site.

I’m anxiously waiting to see how YouTube will ultimately pull it off. I’m admittedly a fan of both sites for their very different approaches. But I would worry that taking the You out of YouTube would take some serious value out of the equation for the masses. The balance between the two will definitely need to be maintained to ensure that quality, content and utility end up benefiting consumers. Then it can truly be an advantageous relationship between people and advertising.

I’ve lived in the same apt going on 3 years. It’s been nice, but I’ve never been able to get reception on my phone.  It’s always been one of those “dead zones” everyone is talking about. I’ve been through 4 phones in these 3 years–0 bars the whole time.

The other day while surfing the app store on iTunes I came across Fring, an app that among other things allows you to connect your phone to a WiFi network to make free VOIP calls.  ”Wow!” I said to myself, “What a find. I can totally use this in my apt!” I downloaded the free app, but quickly ran into a roadblock. I didn’t want to pay for skype, but the app says “free calls”–was this just another disappointment in the legally ambiguous 2.0 world?

I went to the Fring section on iTunes–no help. I went to the Fring website–no help. WTF. I then googled “free calls fring iPhone.”  Lo and behold–a consumer tutorial on YouTube gave me the exact step by step instructions I needed to solve my problem–legally and easily.

I think we’re seeing now with our plug-and-play, ADD, instrant gratfication culture, people want to solve probelms as they arrive, and look for the authentic voice of fellow consumers to answer their questions. No one is reading instruction manuals anymore–the connectivity of 2.0 world has alowed consumers to reach out and collaborate to solve problems.

Twitter has teamed up with Current TV  to allow viewers of the presidential and vice presidential debates to Tweet  their opinions and have them appear live onscreen, giving the TV audience unprecedented access to commenting on the nation’s political discourse.
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