Qube Media.

Do half of all consumers create online?

Something that caught our eye recently was a study by Deloitte and Touche that claims almost half of US consumers create content online.

As part of their 2008 State of the Media Democracy survey, they report 45% of respondents are 'creating personal content for others to see' and 69% consider their computer more exciting than TV.

All exciting stuff and on the surface would seem to signal a pretty rapid shift towards the average Joe /Josephine Public ceasing to become a passive consumer and instead creating their own entertainment online.

As with any survey or statistic, it's always worth putting these figures in context - read to the very bottom of the page and you'll find the small print saying they surveyed just 2,081 people.

How significant is this? Difficult to say - Bebo profiles, Flickr photo galleries, Wikipedia entries - creating content is easier than ever before and given some of the shows on TV... who's to say we're not moving wholesale towards making our own fun?

YouTube on your Telly

Panasonic has just signed a deal with Google to manufacture TVs enabled with Google services such as YouTube and Picasa Web albums.

Internet ready TVs aren't an entirely new idea, but so far haven't caught on.

Rather than trying to offer the entire web on your telly, which means connecting to a PC or other internet device, these flat panel TVs will be internet connected and integrate YouTube videos, Picasa albums etc, into the viewing experience.

Panasonic say it's a 'natural evolution of the internet' and some commentators reckon it might signal 'mass-market convergence'.

It's definitely an interesting development for Social Media Marketing - YouTube already puts viral videos in front of millions of people through their computers, what if you could reach a whole new audience through their TV?

Read more at Reuters

Widening the scope of search

The ability to search for images and video based on their actual content, rather than keywords or other accompanying info, gets closer.

Google has lodged a patent for a method of allowing their search robots to read text that appears in image and video files, which they'll be able to index for search.

This means they'll be able to index information that's never been available before, widening the scope of search massively.

Advertisers to bug your calls?

Startup Pudding Media are planning to take contextual advertising to a whole new level serving ads based on phone conversations.

Their PC-based service offers free phone calls across the US and Canada but monitors every word of the conversation to show ads based on what's being said.

Technologically it sounds like clever stuff and it could provide some of the most immediately relevant ads.

But there are a few hurdles to overcome - besides the legal issues around privacy - are people really ready to have their private conversations monitored and used like this in return for a few cheap calls?

Read the full feature on TechCrunch

A-Levels in Podcasting?

A-Level Media Studies students will soon have to produce a blog, podcast or website as part of their course.

In support of one of their core projects - making a short film, creating promotional packaging for a CD etc - pupils will submit details of the work that went into it on a blog, podcast or website.

This is great experience for anyone planning a career in new media. Firstly in getting to grips with the practices and secondly, getting used to putting your work out there for anyone to see, rather than producing something for a small group of examiners.

Read the full article at Guardian Unlimited