Filed under: Internet, Video, Web services, web 2.0

One of the things that’s always bothered us about YouTube is that there’s no way to search for videos without stopping playback of the video you’re currently watching (unless you open a new tab or browser window). MSN Video has had a feature for a while that lets you search for videos and create a video playlist without interrupting any video you happen to be watching at the time, but if you want to browse YouTube’s library in this way you’ll need to look to a third celebration solution like YouTube Fast Search.

YouTube Fast Search is a nifty web site that lets you play any video you can find on YouTube. While one video is playing, you can search for additional videos and drag and drop them to a playlist window at the bottom of the screen. When your first video is done playing, the next video in your playlist will start. Easy as pie, and something YouTube really should implement on its own site.

[via Google Operating System]

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Filed under: World wide web, Video, Web services

On the internet video site Hulu has granted users to embed videos on other pages pretty much since day one. In fact, a cottage industry has popped up around embedded Hulu videos, although now that the site is out of private beta, there’s not much use for sites like TV Paradise and OPENHulu to exist. But now Hulu is getting even more sharing-friendly with the addition of a series of social bookmarking tools.

When you click on a Hulu video, you should notice a new “Share” button on the left side of the video player. Click it and you should see links to MySpace, Facebook, Digg, Windows live, del.icio.us, reddit, StumbleUpon, and Google Bookmarks. Some of these buttons will let you submit a site for review, while others will let you embed a video. For example, the Digg button lets you submit the video to Digg for voting purposes, while the Facebook button lets you add a video to your profile that visitors can view on your Facebook page.

Hulu has also changed its RSS feeds so that you can now receive videos as enclosures, allowing you to watch them from within your RSS reader.

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Alien54 notes a blog posting by old hand Bruce F. Webster on the current say of affairs in hiring in IT, focusing on what he calls the Dead Sea Effect. “Many big IT shops… work like the Dead Sea. New hires are brought in as management deems it necessary. Their qualifications… will tend to vary quite a bit, depending upon current needs, employee departure, the personnel budget, and the general hiring ability of those doing the hiring. All things being equal, the general competency of the IT department should have roughly the same distribution as the incoming hires. Instead, what happens is that the more talented and effective IT engineers are the ones most apt to leave — to evaporate, if you’ll. They’re the ones least prone to put up with the frequent stupidities and workplace problems that plague big organizations; they’re also the ones most apt to have other opportunities that they have the ability to readily move to. What tends to remain behind is the ‘residue’ — the least talented and effective IT engineers.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Filed under: Forecasts, Industry, Competitive strategy, Red Hat Inc (RHT)

Open source software continues its torrid pace. In fact, according to a report from the 451 Group, the sector saw its biggest quarter for venture funding — hitting $203.75 million, which is up from $100.4 million in the same period a year ago.

Why the interest? Well, I had a opportunity to interview Matthew Aslett, who is an analyst of enterprise software at the 451 Group:

Your take on the focus on open source?

VCs are interested in open source vendors because the open source development and distribution models reduce start-up costs and lower the barriers to entry. Some VCs have also cited increased code quality as a reason for investing in open source as the model enables a broader range of product testing and rapid innovation. There are a number of VCs that are sold on the open source model, and some have even stated that they would only think about investing in a software vendor if it was using and producing open source. Open source vendor revenues are lower than more established traditional rivals today, but most vendors are still in their infancy. Recent mergers and acquisitions involving open source vendors such as Zimbra, JBoss and MySQL have proved that the returns are there and are likely to encourage more VCs to look favorably on open source.

What are VCs looking at, in terms of sectors and trends?

The early open source success stories have involved vendors disrupting existing markets, such as Red Hat (NYSE: RHT) in operating systems, JBoss in middleware, and MySQL in databases. Interest has now moved up the stack to applications, such as SugarCRM and Compiere, and also into new markets where the new open source vendors have the ability to set the agenda. The other disruptive software model at the moment is software-as-a-service, and VCs are understandably attracted to vendors that combine the lower development costs of open source with the ease of adoption of the SaaS model.

What are some of the exciting companies on your radar screen?

I believe we will see further investment in open source enterprise applications this year, as that is still an emerging opportunity for disruption. Some of the most interesting companies are those that are targeting entirely new opportunities and markets, however. Ringside Networks is focused on bringing social networking to corporate environments with open source software and a team of experienced open source executives (ex-JBoss). It has already an undisclosed seed round from Matrix Partners and is likely to attract serious interest in a Series A round. LoopFuse is also staffed by JBoss veterans and is attracting a lot of attention thanks to its focus on open source sales and marketing automation. Meanwhile Acquia was founded in December by the creator of the Drupal content management system and has a great chance to build on broad adoption and a large community of developers.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar On the web Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He also operates MergerBook.com.

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