If this movie trailer for upcoming indie film and Sundance favorite “Like Crazy” doesn’t make you relive the bittersweet agony of every doomed relationship you have ever had since puberty, then you must be a robot.

This small movie is being called the “Love Story” of today and is getting big play all over the Internet, mostly for its combo of scenes from a young and dashed love and Ingrid Michaelson’s melancholy version of the classic song “Can’t Help Falling in Love.”

So please grab the tissues and enjoy:

YouTube’s rental store now includes movies from Lions Gate Entertainment (LGF), which has a pretty significant catalog. That’s a big step up from YouTube’s first move, which featured Sundance indies you’ve never heard of before.

But the new movies don’t seem to be flying off the digital shelves, at least according to numbers procured by NewTeeVee: The ten most popular films in the store generated 6,200 rentals in the first week.

“Precious”, which took home a couple of Oscars this year and is getting some marketing push from YouTube on the site, was the best performer — and generated a total of 1,421 rentals. “3:10 to Yuma”, which is a pretty good modern day Western that’s well worth your time IMHO, generated 53 views.

I’ve asked YouTube to comment on the numbers, but don’t assume  I’ll hear much from them. And as NewTeeVee’s readers note, it’s hard to put those results in context unless you compare performance for the same titles at online venues like Amazon (AMZN) and Apple’s iTunes (AAPL).

So who knows? Perhaps those are decent results, particularly since Google’s marketing of the movies seems limited to some in-site ads.

But I will say that my attempt to try out the store underscored one big hurdle Google  (GOOG) will have to deal with if its video store is going to work: Unlike Amazon and Apple, Google doesn’t have my billing information.

At one point a few years ago, it seemed inevitable that Google would end up with my credit card numbers, and yours too. But Google’s Checkout program doesn’t seem to have taken the world by storm, and their most recent move into e-commerce — the Nexus One — doesn’t seem to be moving quickly either.

So until Google gives us a compelling reason to buy anything from them, it may not matter how good that catalog is.

Boomtown was in the front row when game exec Dan Rosensweig left the stage at Guitar Hero to take over as CEO of Chegg, the Web’s top textbook renter. Rosensweig had only been strumming along at Guitar Hero since March, so the move was unexpected. Kara did the full-disclosure dance with AOL’s earnings report. Hit her post for all sorts of great source documents from the new republic of Aol. (AOL). She closed out the week with a thinky piece on Facebook and what it could do in the news aggregation biz. With nigh 400 million users, the number of traded links just to Rick Astley music must be staggering. This one is worth the read.

From deep in his snow-covered technology bunker, Walt let fly a Personal Technology column on two tiny new laptops with a lot to offer. Dell’s (DELL) M11x, the latest release from its Alienware line, is a move to pack lots of power into a tiny package. Sony’s (SNE) Vaio X on the other hand, is all about the lightness. The Dell got high marks for performance, even if the battery life wasn’t as killer as the graphics. The Sony, however, received a rare Mossberg superlative. Being the lightest laptop Walt has ever tested does come with some drawbacks, of course. Chief among them was measly battery life. Mossberg’s Mailbox was short but potent this week. Walt gave some quick clarification to an iPad question and reassured readers that YouTube will be available on the device, even if Flash won’t. He then gave some no-nonsense advice about dumping the older IE6 in favor of a newer, safer, and more supported browser. Katie got to do a little online shopping this week in her review of Flit.com, a Web service that allows you to search multiple stores at once and aims to streamline the shopping experience. She liked the novel way Flit deals you out to store’s Web sites but lets you see their offerings before you click over. No word on if whether or not she bought those black heels she was looking for.

John brought some great news to Google Nexus One users with a post early this week about a meaty software upgrade. Just like that, Google (GOOG) flipped the switch on multitouch functionality in the device. We can now add pinch-zoom to the list of Googleable words. It seems that 12 percent of Americans had something in common with Monster.com (MWW) this week; they were both looking for job listings. Monster purchased Yahoo’s HotJobs for $225 million cash. We drove by earlier today, and Carol Bartz still has Yahoo (YHOO) Games and Yahoo Shopping out on the lawn next to the “for sale” sign. John rounded out the week with a little crystal ball-gazing about the future of Apple and TV. The speculation is centered around Apple’s (AAPL) recent moves in the TV space and how the iPad might play a role. We can add TV to the list of things the iPad might be.

MediaMemo always gets to cover those wonderfully chewy stories where the tech sector and the mediascape bump and grind. This week Peter opened up with a post about YouTube’s most recent foray into legitimate movies. The Google-owned video giant offered up paid views of Sundance films and considered the effort an overall success. One of the big what-ifs of 2009 was actually more of a “when,” as in, “when will Hulu start costing money?” Peter reported that a Disney (DIS) exec said the decision hasn’t yet been made. Weekend Update will be stocking up on old episodes of “The A-Team” and “Another World” in case Hulu finally puts up the wall. Peter rounded out the week with the answer to a question that’s been on our minds for some time now; will we live in a world with a publicly traded porn Web site. When investors didn’t seem to be hot for FriendFinder Networks, the company canceled its pending IPO. Weekend Update supposes that porn will just have to remain the Web’s biggest nonindustry.

Put on your rain slickers or snow shoes, depending on where you live, and enjoy the winter weekend. Or, you could stay indoors and play some Guitar Hero, futz with a new laptop, hunt for a job, shop for some shoes online and watch TV at Hulu. That’s what we’ve been doing.

And from YouTube’s perspective, that’s all that matters. Because the Google (GOOG) unit certainly didn’t make any money from the exercise: 2,684 people paid $3.99 a pop to rent indie movies from Sundance, netting all of $10,709.16, the New York Times notes.

But since YouTube hadn’t ever rented a single piece of video to anyone who wasn’t a Google employee before, the company can plausibly claim this was a success. It has been testing movie rentals internally for some time, and Google execs have suggested both publicly and privately that they’ll be renting films–and perhaps TV shows–in the near future.

But among other things, they need to show Hollywood that they can actually do this, so the Sundance experiment could be useful no matter how many dollars it generates.

I’d assumed that the standard pricing/windowing/biz-dev issues were holding up YouTube’s entry into paid video, but some industry executives have told me that there are technical issues to deal with as well, like making sure video files are handled securely. So Sundance has to help, right?

Meanwhile, here’s the trailer from “Be Kind Rewind,” a movie about movies I haven’t seen but would like to. Maybe once this season of “Lost” ends.

Sorry for the break in grading Yahoo’s Carol Bartz on her one-year anniversary as CEO.

But BoomTown was swanning around the Sundance Film Festival in Utah this weekend, went partying with those boozy Hollywood types and ended up in Provo with the crazy gals from “The Runaways”!

I wish! Actually, running away from issuing any grade for deal-making for Bartz is a pretty good way to put it.

Because today, after much thought, I have to give the Yahoo leader an incomplete for deal-making.

That’s because the only deal that truly counts–the search and online advertising partnership with Microsoft (MSFT) struck in July–has still not been approved by regulators.

More to the point, no one will really know what it means for Yahoo (YHOO) until the company finally embarks on the biggest bet of its recent history.

And that answer is many, many quarters away.

I began handing out marks to Bartz recently, after she gave herself a B- for overall performance for the year since she took over the troubled Internet giant.

But I decided to be more specific, splitting the grades for Yahoo in 2009 into five categories: Management, financials, product innovation, deal-making and moxie.

I awarded Bartz an A- for management, a C+ for financials and a C- for product innovation so far.

And as much as I would like to give a definite grade for deal-making, she has made no other deals of major consequence on which to base a grade.

The deal to integrate Facebook Connect and Twitter? A catch-up long past due and not as impressive as similar ones by Google and Microsoft. The sale of Zimbra and other assets? Essentially, cleaning up. A few minor acquisitions? No needle-movers in the lot.

Thus, the only deal has been with Microsoft, which is indeed a very big deal.

And it is, as I said, incomplete, although not to everyone.

Some thought the deal, which Bartz said she should have made sooner, was the best that Yahoo could pull off after the disastrous attempt by Microsoft to buy Yahoo for upward of $40 billion collapsed and left egg on everyone’s face.

With Google (GOOG) and Microsoft gearing up for a costly search war and no chance of Yahoo ever regaining any kind of tech advantage, the argument in favor goes, Bartz opted to get some kind of leverage while she still had some.

On many levels, that makes a lot of sense. And if it works, the deal will surely help improve Yahoo’s bottom line, cutting expenses in the search technology arena drastically and, the company hopes, giving it the ability to compete better in the marketplace by combining Yahoo and Microsoft search against the Google behemoth.

Presumably, if Yahoo can innovate in search experience and add to share, all is not lost.

But a lot of people certainly don’t like the deal, citing a variety of problems, especially the fact that Yahoo has essentially turned over all search monetization to Microsoft and traded away a big part of its business with no financial guarantees.

In fact, Bartz said in an interview with me at the seventh D: All Things Digital conference–months before she struck it–that she would want “boatloads of money” in any deal with Microsoft (see that video below).

At the time, most people thought she meant a gigantic upfront guaranteed payment for handing over search to Microsoft, which she did not get in the final deal.

Wrote one Internet exec in a long email to me, expressing a typical sentiment I have heard time and again:

She would have been much better off to simply have sold the current Yahoo search biz to Microsoft along the lines of the deal Carl Icahn tried to broker the summer after the acquisition bid was pulled. The cut over could have happened much faster (just start running Bing results on Yahoo) and Microsoft would probably have given a revenue guarantee that would keep Yahoo whole on revenue per search for the traffic they generated. That would also have eliminated the sales overhead immediately, providing greater cost savings…She chose a middle-ground (classic Yahoo) and will end up with lower returns for the declining search business than she could otherwise have had.

Only reason she doesn’t get the F that [former Yahoo CEO and Co-founder] Jerry Yang obviously earned on this topic is that she did actually make a deal.

And, indeed, Bartz had to play the cards she was handed by her predecessors, and they were not good ones.

Still, Yahoo is now depending on Microsoft to innovate in search technology. If it does not or cannot, look out below in that category, even if Yahoo recovers in its stronger display advertising arena.

So, with Yahoo’s search share declining of late, even as that of Microsoft’s Bing grows, it is right to start worrying and be nervous.

Nonetheless, as much as I like to dole out grades and as much as Bartz’s detractors would like to say it is over, it’s probably fairer to wait and see what happens.

One thing is certain: Bartz has shown either amazing guts or an astonishing lack of foresight here.

But let’s save that particular grade–moxie–for tomorrow, on the day Yahoo’s fourth-quarter earnings come out and Bartz is front and center in the earnings call.

Speaking of moxie–a.k.a. ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-cherry bomb!–here’s the trailer for “The Runaways,” which just opened at Sundance:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100125/the-one-year-report-card-of-yahoos-carol-bartz-deal-making-incomplete/feed/ 5 http://allthingsd.com/20091207/will-a-web-video-star-shine-at-sundance/ http://allthingsd.com/20091207/will-a-web-video-star-shine-at-sundance/#comments Mon, 07 Dec 2009 22:55:51 +0000 Peter Kafka http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/?p=13656 The next wave of media stars is supposed to rise up from the Web, but so far examples have been few and far between (how’s that Fred movie coming along, by the way?).

But here’s another Internet success trying to make the leap into the big time, which is still, like it or not, defined by traditional media outlets: Bobby Miller, whom some of you may know as the host of Next New Network’s “Reel Good Show,” is going to try to dazzle the judges at Sundance, where he’s gotten a short film he directed into next year’s festival.

Even winning an award at Sundance is no guarantee of anything, but it’s by far the highest-profile festival in the country, so showing up certainly can’t hurt your chances. And getting “TUB” into Sundance is an achievement itself, since only 70 shorts were accepted out of more than 6,000 submissions.

Next New Networks, which is supposed to be both a production house and distribution outlet for cheap, quick video, is also trying to make the leap from money-burning start-up to success story. But that’s a different story, and at some point, maybe not-so-newish CEO Lance Podell and I should chat about that.

In any case, here’s wishing Miller the best of luck. But it will be interesting to see when, if ever, a Web star who’s made it big in cyberspace turns down an opportunity to cross over.

Meantime, here’s an example of what Miller has been up to so far (note that he’s chatting up College Humor’s Jake Hurwitz and Amir Blumenfeld, who are also working on the Web-to-something else leap)

And here’s a preview of “TUB.” The 23-second trailer has some Kevin Spacey/“American Beauty”/shower scene action, which may or may not be safe for work. Nothing explicit, though:

TUB – TubMovie.com from bobbymiller on Vimeo.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20091207/will-a-web-video-star-shine-at-sundance/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20090624/scripps-rainbow-join-the-authentication-bandwagon/ http://allthingsd.com/20090624/scripps-rainbow-join-the-authentication-bandwagon/#comments Wed, 24 Jun 2009 22:17:09 +0000 Peter Kafka http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/?p=8601 I wasn’t expecting a whole lot of information out of Time Warner and Comcast at their joint press conference today, but the two still underdelivered. They formalized the old news that Time Warner (TWX) would offer up some shows from its TNT and TBS channels for Comcast’s (CMCSA) coming “OnDemand Online” trial and…well, that was it, really.

Time Warner did announce a set of principles for its “TV Everywhere” program, and if you’d like, you can read those at the bottom of this post. And Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes and Comcast CEO Brian Roberts did get into some philosophical/optical discussions with us reporters.

For instance, was the cable industry being “defensive” or “offensive” as it rolled out its authentication plan, which is supposed to give pay TV customers–but only pay TV customers–Web access to all the shows they get on TV? Offensive, declared Bewkes. He also decreed that authentication was a “free gift” to TV watchers.

But authentication is going to involve a whole lot of coordinated effort by a lot of different players, and that means details matter at least as much as philosophy.

For instance: Who else is joining Time Warner when Comcast rolls out its first authentication trial next month? Roberts wouldn’t talk about that–”today’s about Time Warner,” he said–but word is still leaking out. Scripps Networks, for instance, said today that it would play along. Here’s the statement from Lynne Costantini, who runs affiliates sales for the network.

“Scripps Networks’ media brands, such as Food Network and HGTV, enjoy a strong connection with a passionate base of consumers who likely would find value in this type of service. We are committed to providing viewers with content on the platforms on which they engage with our brands, in a manner that adds value to the viewing experience and enhances our current business relationships with distributors. Our participation in the Comcast authentication pilot will help us make some initial assessments regarding this innovative platform.

Also confirmed: Cablevision’s (CVC) Rainbow Media, which owns networks like AMC and Sundance. This one makes particular sense because Cablevision has been more vocal than other networks about not putting its programming on the Web without getting paid for it. I’m also told that A&E Television networks, co-owned by Hearst, Disney (DIS) and GE’s (GE) NBCU, is expected to participate, but haven’t heard back from those folks yet.

None of these buy-ins are huge moves by themselves, of course. They’re commitments for the trial only, and it’s unlikely that any of the companies are going to offer up their best shows at the start. For instance, I’d be (happily) surprised if AMC’s “Mad Men” makes the cut. And we’re likely to see a dribble of announcements over the rest of the year as more programmers dip their toes in and as competing/parallel authentication efforts that the likes of Time Warner Cable (TWC) and the telcos roll out.

In the meantime, in lieu of hard facts, here’s what Time Warner has to say about its intentions:

PRINCIPLES FOR TV EVERYWHERE MODEL
These principles were developed to ensure the TV Everywhere model is consumer-friendly; pro-competitive and non-exclusive.

•    Bring more TV content, more easily to more people across platforms.

•    Video subscribers can watch programming from their favorite TV networks online for no additional charge.

•    Video subscribers can access this content using any broadband connection.

•    Programmers should make their best and highest rated programming available online.

•    Both networks and video distributors should provide high quality, consumer-friendly sites for viewing broadband content with easy authentication.

•    A new process should be created to measure ratings for online viewing. The goal should be to extend the current viewer measurement system to include advertiser ratings for TV content viewed on all platforms.

•    TV Everywhere is open and non-exclusive; cable, satellite or telco video distributors can enter into similar agreements with other programmers.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20090624/scripps-rainbow-join-the-authentication-bandwagon/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20080121/kara-visits-sundance-myspace-main-street-and-our-very-own-celeb-tour-guide/ http://allthingsd.com/20080121/kara-visits-sundance-myspace-main-street-and-our-very-own-celeb-tour-guide/#comments Mon, 21 Jan 2008 18:56:37 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/20080121/kara-visits-sundance-myspace-main-street-and-our-very-own-celeb-tour-guide/ While at the Sundance Film Festival, I took a little tour of Park City, Utah, visiting with Chris DeWolfe and Dani Dudeck of MySpace and Sundance’s digital guru Ian Calderon and trudging up Main Street with my celebrity tour guide, Jane Lynch (who is about as hysterical as you get in “Best in Show” and “The 40-Year-Old Virgin”).

This is my third year at Sundance, where I moderate tech panels for the independent film festival.

Obviously, issues related to technology are becoming ever larger for the film community and most especially for the independent filmmakers, as they seek to get their material wider distribution than Hollywood’s current chokehold system provides.

The Sundance Film Festival is held annually in Park City and focuses on screenings of new indie films. Still, Sundance has been expanding additional offerings in the digital arena with panels throughout the festival.

The panel I moderated (see video here) was about online video, called “Webolution!–Hollywood Adapts to the Web.”

Here’s the video:

[ See post to watch video ]

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20080121/kara-visits-sundance-myspace-main-street-and-our-very-own-celeb-tour-guide/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20080121/kara-visits-sundance-the-webolution-panel/ http://allthingsd.com/20080121/kara-visits-sundance-the-webolution-panel/#comments Mon, 21 Jan 2008 18:50:44 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/20080121/kara-visits-sundance-the-webolution-panel/ Here’s a video I did on the panel I moderated focused on online video at the Sundance Film Festival on Saturday, called “Webolution!–Hollywood Adapts to the Web.”

Tech is getting a lot of attention in Hollywood, so talking about online video is a key area for the independent filmmakers who are here this year.

Topics on the panel were wide-ranging, including: social networking, politics, the writers’ strike and the need for more broadband.

Better yet, here’s the description of the panel:

“The writing is on the wall–the industry must adapt to new media or face extinction. Today’s studios and independents are finally embracing the challenge of porting content and revenue to new distribution strategies. Join Hollywood power brokers and new media superstars to discuss their strategies for the Web.”

The panelists included Ted Sarandos (Netflix), Dmitry Shapiro (founder and CEO of Veoh.com), Dan Glickman (MPAA), Jason Kilar (CEO of Hulu.com), Mike Volpi (CEO of Joost.com), Erik Flanagan (EVP Digital Media MTV Networks/Comedy Central/South Park Studios) and tech strategy adviser Phil Lelyveld.

In other words, me and seven guys, which is about par for the course in Silicon Valley!

Here’s the video:

[ See post to watch video ]

And here is my video touring the festival.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20080121/kara-visits-sundance-the-webolution-panel/feed/ 5 http://allthingsd.com/20080118/sundance-bound/ http://allthingsd.com/20080118/sundance-bound/#comments Fri, 18 Jan 2008 08:02:55 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/20080118/sundance-bound/

I just got to Park City, Utah, for my annual visit (well, this will be my third year here) to the famous film festival that takes place in this lovely mountain resort.

While I like a good movie as much as the next person, I am no film aficionado, nor do I have a screenplay stuffed in a drawer, nor do I hope someday to direct. I do like celebrity sightings, of course.

I am here because the Sundance Film Festival has understood early and often that technology is becoming increasingly important to the future of the film industry.

Because of that, they’ve been expanding additional offerings in the digital arena with panels throughout the festival.

The panel I will moderate is a great one about online video, called “Webolution!–Hollywood Adapts to the Web.” It will take place tomorrow at 12:30 p.m. at the New Frontier on Main here.

Here’s the description:

“The writing is on the wall–the industry must adapt to new media or face extinction. Today’s studios and independents are finally embracing the challenge of porting content and revenue to new distribution strategies. Join Hollywood power brokers and new media superstars to discuss their strategies for the Web.”

The panelists include Ted Sarandos (Netflix), Dmitry Shapiro (founder and CEO of Veoh.com), Dan Glickman (MPAA), Jason Kilar (CEO of Hulu.com), Mike Volpi (CEO of Joost.com), Erik Flanagan (EVP Digital Media MTV Networks/Comedy Central/South Park Studios) and tech strategy adviser Phil Lelyveld.

Videos, of course, to come, along with visits with various tech players here, who are increasing in number annually. And, maybe, a Hollywood celeb or two.

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