YouTube, which recently rolled out 720P quality has redesigned its pages to include a widescreen player. As more content is created in 16:9 resolution this should put YouTube in greater competition with sites like Vimeo which cater to and have been winning over professional producers.

It should also increase average time viewing and help YouTube to offer more of a lean-back experience for those seeking to deliver more than a dog on a skateboard which would make the site more valuable to advertisers.

Of course YouTube unlike Vimeo still isn’t charging for usage, and as more users upload content for high quality playback the site will continue to be a larger drain on Google’s otherwise stellar margins. So lets hope YouTube’s boatload of cash can last, or that they figure out the whole contextual targeting to sky-high CPM correlation soon.

YouTube continues to up its quality options. A while back, we picked up on the fact that YouTube was transcoding video to higher quality, by adding &fmt=18, you can view a 480×360 H.264 encoded version with AAC audio at bitrates up to 850K.

Now, a YouTube engineer tells Kottke they have added format 22 (&fmt=22), which offers full 720P, if of course the source file is high enough quality to begin with.

Above: Check out Matt in 720P

Swamped again of late, but here’s some other content worth reading:

Save Your Career, Start a Blog: Joseph Jaffe on why now is the perfect time to start a blog.

Todou to produce Original Content: Tudou.com founder Marc Van der Chijs tells The China Perspective’s Andrew Siegfried: “Tudou is now also looking to move into own production of video content, just like HBO did in the US…We also keep on acquiring good content for our users. At this point we already have over 10,000 episodes of films and series licensed, many exclusively for Tudou.”

Startup Keystream has launched its SmartAd platform which places ads in empty spaces in video. Terry Heaton calls it “the dumbest idea in years“.

VentureBeat claims to have confirmed Alley Insider’s report that YouTube will partner with UStream. If anyone else has insight into this drop us a line.

Chad Hurley’s Google Blog post today on the future of online video is rather bland at first glance. Citing the 13 hours of video uploaded to YouTube every minute, Hurley argues that “online video broadcasting will be the most ubiquitous and accessible form of communication…available on any screen - in your your living room, or on your device in your pocket.” We’ve heard this from just about everyone.

But take a step back and consider this vision in the context of Google’s larger strategy. Google is at its core a filter for the ever increasing amount of information available online. Its strength is in the algorithm, they’re masters of solving the challenge of delivering reliable results electronically. With video as opposed to text, this is particularly tricky but if done well it will be difficult to beat.

To get to other screens Google either needs to manufacture hardware, or they need to partner with manufacturers and add value through software, the path Google has taken to date. Their partnership with Panasonic is likely the first of many similar deals. Microsoft has gone down both roads, using the XBox as a gateway to deliver online content to the TV, and working with hardware manufacturers to integrate their MediaRoom IPTV solution.

The cable industry, threatened that one day they may be circumvented completely, is working closely with online video leader Move Networks, Black Arrow and others to integrate online video, improve ad targeting and effectiveness and increase interactivity into the next generation of set-top boxes. Millions are being spent on initiatives like Tru2way and Project Canoe to keep their business viable.

The battle over the software integrated into next generation televisions and cell phones is the final frontier in the fight for the future of media. Cable has a strong lead in their existing user-base, but their devices were designed for hundreds of channels, never for thousands or millions, and they have a major technological hurdles to overcome to remain competitive.

Hurley says “In ten years, we believe that online video broadcasting will be the most ubiquitous and accessible form of communication.” If new software integrated directly into existing devices can create a better user experience and a better value for advertisers, in the next decade we may be able to remove the set-top box entirely from the equation and use Google as our primary filter for video discovery and consumption on our TVs and phones.

Google today launched a speech recognition gadget for political content. Speech recognition is something a number of Google competitors have been doing for some time now.

When combined with Google’s massive video library it will go a long way towards bringing the semantic web to life and changing the way we interact with media. Plus, it should help with advertising.

The widget is embedded below.

Just wait until all of YouTube is indexed in this way, not to mention tied to the people we know, what they watched, where else they’ve been online, and where they are located. That also, should help with advertising.

YouTube has teamed up with the DNCC & RNCC for online video contests. The the Democrat and Republican with the most compelling video on why they’re a member of their party will be offered a trip to their respective party’s convention.

Howard Dean’s announcement of the contest is above, Interestingly, Mike Duncan’s Republican version of the announcement has about 40,000 more views.

And while you’re at it, check back Monday fort the winner of the RNC’s American Neighbor contest. Based on the minimal number of submissions so far available, including one from this guy it should be very interesting to see how they spin it.

The advancement of online video over the past four years and in particular recent developments in live video should result in a range of additional non-MSM content - don’t be surprised to see some of the independents scoop networks for convention stories come August.

In a sign that Google is becoming just another mainstream media giant, the Wall Street Journal today reports that YouTube under pressure to increase revenue is considering adding pre and post roll ads.

As NTV points out this is a pretty major reversal, but someone has to start paying for all that bandwidth and clearly overlays aren’t doing the trick. On the upside, this should finally present a large enough incentive for agencies to begin creating 15-second and shorter pre-rolls tailored to the video snacking audience.

Convergence of Social Media and Video. Marketing in a Fluid Media Landscape.

Video is a huge part of the online experience, and may slowly be coming THE online experience. People are communication through video. They are talking to each other via video.

Social Media is a phenomenon. Millions of people are participating. There is something for everyone, regardless of your interest or community. There is an enormous opportunity for people to participate.

Across the spectrum of social media, there is a wide variety of activities that take place. Compare the scale of YouTube to the population of France. 65 million French. 85 million uniques on youTube in March 2008. They consumed 4.3 billions. That’s an average of 50 videos per individual. Each of them spent approximately 2 hours per month. youTube would essentially the 4th largest country in the world, behind China, India and the US.

Levi’s “Jump In” viral video campaign was meant as a teaser for their TV commercial. “As long as the creative is cool and watchable and part of a social context, the lines between viral and commercial are colliding and blurring and not mutually exclusive,” according to Walter Smith, President of Cutwater, who produced the video. What happened was that dozens and dozens of people started creating their own videos in response to it. Levis has now created a channel to aggregate all of the videos.

Six key concepts to keep in mind. 1- create ads that work as content, 2 - its all about the dialogue/conversation, 3- Ideas come from everywhere, 4 connect the dots, 5 have thick skin,

“Tom Sawyer Marketing” – getting other people to do the work for you. (shows x-box video of double dutch.)

Its all about the dialogue: Shows soulja boy video. People went and created their own videos doing the soulja boy dance. Total views of all of them: 500 million.

Conversational Marketing: Shows HP campaign with Jay-Z. Then a Youtube video that a user put together with After Effects on his own that mimicked it.

Ideas come from everywhere. The iPod Touch commercial was inspired by a Youtube video that was user generated. The McNugget rap was also created outside of the brand, but adopted by it.

YouTube Insights: Metrics on YouTube video consumption. Demographics, geo-distribution, that enables marketers to better understand who is really interested in their content. Often times they find that the real data is contradictory to who they thought.

Having thick skin: Engage people in the community in the way that people ein that community communicate.

I love a good coincidence. And this morning, I woke up to one.

Last night I was watching the movie “Untraceable,” staring Diane Lane. Quick synopsis: Psycho guy streams the torture and death of people online. The more people that go to the website, the faster they get killed. Social media at its worst.

This morning, The Today Show did a segment on a series of viral videos - “Fire in the Hole” - that are pranks on fast food drive thru employees. One victim found the video and got her attackers arrested. The punishment? Make a video, apologizing, and post it on YouTube.

Given that the prank videos have received millions of hits, and the apology a mere few thousand, I can’t help but wonder which direction this trend is headed.

Here’s the Today Show segment:

Moderator: Peter Price, NATAS
Panelists:
Isaac Josephson, ABC News Digital
Jordan Hoffner, YouTube
Vivian Schiller, NYTimes.com
Richard Glosser, CondeNet

Vivian: The challenge for legacy media companies is that people are coming and watching videos, but haven’t been able to significantly monetize it. We love our relationship with YouTube, but it needs to come to a point where it isn’t just “branding.”

Isaac: For ABC, there is more of a vested interest in producing their own video and hosting it and driving traffic to it. We can do an hour long interview with Ron Paul, that wouldn’t air in its entirety, but we can run it online.

Jordan: The important point is “not monetizing it in a meaningful way.” Traditional media used to be the only game in town. Now there is fragmentation, and plenty of places for advertisers to spend money. It needs to be looked at in a different way. The notion of ‘scarcity’ is gone.

Richard: the genie is out of the bottle. Content is being freely distributed around the web. When they put Desperate Housewives on iTunes, that should have been a clarion call to everyone. What access and unique insight can we bring to the table? You can’t force people to consume media only on your site.

Vivian: “Distribute or die.” There are plenty of ways to distribute content beyond YouTube. Bloggers post RSS feed links, and those drive traffic back to our site where we can monetize it. Some experiments work, some don’t. Video is not a big money maker for us right now. We have pre-roll and sponsorships and no regrets. But with YouTube, we have to consider what the long term strategy is, and how that works for us, as a content creator and owner. How is video distribution going to monetized?

Richard: There is more wind behind video than other products. We’re starting to see TV money move to the Web. And the ones leading the charge are the ones with the most to lose. People will go around broadcast networks if they can.

Jordan: We wouldn’t have launched overlays if we didn’t have a really good reason. We tested and tested and tested. We are doing lots of testing to figure out what the best ad formats are for different video. Pre-roll isn’t good for us, or our type of video. That said, it is important for people to remember that we don’t advertise on user generated content. We only monetize our professionally generated content.

Isaac: Overlays are good for now. But we’re asking advertising clients to come up with new creative. But the CPMs for overlays is a full order of magnitude lower than what we see for preroll. From a business perspective, they just aren’t the answer for us right now.