AllThingsD » viral

Viral Video: Jimmy Fallon Loses to a Lady (The First One)

Kara Swisher — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 08:45:15 +0000

Here is a deeply silly video of NBC late-night show host Jimmy Fallon and First Lady Michelle Obama competing in a potato-sack race.

You read that right. Also a push-up battle, a hula-hoop hip-off and a tug-of-war in the White House, all part of Obama’s “Let’s Move” exercise initiatives aimed at improving children’s health.

It’s got a goofy charm and the kids will love it (mine did):

Viral Video: "The Amazing Spider-Man" Looks Kinda Amazing

Kara Swisher — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 08:15:04 +0000

Here’s the new official movie trailer for next summer’s latest take on the moody web-slinger of New York City, Peter Parker.

“The Amazing Spider-Man” looks at the comic book hero’s origins more deeply, but mostly it will be about the special effects and 3-D.

Here’s the video:

Viral Video: Hulu's Original "Paul, the Male Matchmaker" Set to Debut

Kara Swisher — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 16:57:06 +0000

Here’s the trailer for Hulu’s latest original content offering about a very unusual matchmaker.

That’s irksome “Paul, the Male Matchmaker,” a 10-episode spoof series from Warner Bros. Television Group’s Studio 2.0, which will debut on the premium video service on Feb. 13.

Get it? The day before Valentine’s Day.

It’s got the same tone as Lisa Kudrow’s successful (and now on cable television’s Showtime) “Web Therapy,” with lots of well-known guest stars.

I kind of like it from the teaser here, but we’ll see:

Google's Punit Soni: We're Not Just Playing Around When It Comes to Social Gaming

Tricia Duryee — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 18:00:34 +0000

After finding out yesterday that games are contributing a staggering amount to Facebook’s top line, we now know exactly how important the category is to the success of Google’s social plans.

Last week, I talked to Punit Soni, who runs games and mobile for Google+, to get an update on Google’s plan for social games. Since the conversation took place before Facebook’s filing, Soni has no direct responses to the numbers.

But he addresses in general how Google expects to challenge Facebook’s dominance in social gaming, and the big opportunity in front of them to do something different.

“There’s no point in being in this game if we are a ‘me-too,’” he said. “We want to be different.”

Yesterday, in Facebook’s IPO filing we learned that substantially all of the company’s payments revenue is coming from virtual goods from inside social games, and that one game publisher alone — Zynga — is contributing 12 percent of the company’s revenue, payments and advertising included.

At those rates, it’s easy to see why Google is emphasizing games and wooing developers to its platform.

It started off with a bang in August, when it launched games. In talking to reporters, Soni announced the company was sharing 95 percent of the revenue from virtual goods with developers, and was keeping only 5 percent for itself.

That was, and remains, much more generous than the 30 percent cut that Facebook takes.

Still, with only 36 games on its network, and far fewer users (however you want to calculate it), Soni was pretty honest about how far they still have to go. He was also extremely enthusiastic, and at times looked as if he wanted to leap out of his chair to get going on some of the projects Google had planned.

First, and foremost, he said they are working hard to get virality right; and second, they want to nail cross-platform, so that games worked seamlessly across the Web and mobile.

Viral channels are the most common way for people to learn about a game, and also one of the most controversial.

More than a year ago, Facebook was forced to dial back those channels, because users complained about receiving too many unwanted messages.

“We err on the side of caution,” Soni said. “We are slowly giving more options to do things.”

Soni said they also see a big opportunity to differentiate by offering a multiplatform approach, and letting developers build games that work across Google+, Google’s Chrome Web Store and mobile. Of course, it has an advantage because of the millions of Android users, whereas Facebook’s mobile efforts are still nascent.

Already, there are some examples of cross-platform play.

Today, you can play Rovio’s Angry Birds and Bubble Witch Saga across both Google+ and the Chrome App Store, and can pick up where you left off between the two.

“These are not Google+ games, but games that are on Google,” Soni stressed. “A lot more is coming on mobile.”

Google has also focused on getting a number of games as exclusives that launch a few weeks on Google+ before they show up on Facebook. To date, it has scored at least three titles — including a major title, Kabam’s Godfather — and there are more coming.

Asked why the game developers are willing to go exclusively on Google+, Soni said there’s some marketing that Google is willing to put toward it, but otherwise, “they are betting on us.”

He says it’s mostly the potential of the platform, and the fact that he’s receptive to feedback, that helps him understand exactly what developers need. Developers also acknowledge that supporting more platforms is helpful in reaching more players and diversifying their risk.

“If they say it’s because the platform is the best ever — no, it’s not true. But the plans we have and the sensitivity that we have for our users and developers, we will be very good sometime soon. … That’s why you are seeing exclusives.”

Soni wasn’t wiling to spill specific plans about what was launching next, but said a lot more is coming.

“We are a start-up platform. We are humble and know our flaws. As we grow, you’ll see new things. My work has barely started,” he said.

Viral Video: Farewell to the No-IPO Mark Zuckerberg

Kara Swisher — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 08:37:58 +0000

For most of the eight years since he has been running Facebook, co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has essentially dragged his feet on the way to the inevitable initial public offering of the social networking giant.

Here’s proof of that in a pair of interviews Lesley Stahl of CBS’s “60 Minutes” did with him in 2008 and 2010. (I am in the clip, too, and my guessing on the timing of the current IPO pretty is spot-on — a prediction I had forgotten I made).

But the times they are a-changin’ — Facebook filed for its mega-IPO yesterday:

MORE ON THE FACEBOOK IPO:

Facebook’s Ad Business Is a $3 Billion Mystery

Viral Video: Farewell to the No-IPO Mark Zuckerberg

Zuckerberg Is the Billion-Share Man: Who Owns What, Who Makes What in the Facebook IPO

Zuckerberg Tells Investors, “We Don’t Build Services to Make Money”

Mobile Highlighted as Key Risk Factor (and Opportunity) in Facebook Filing

Stop All That Poking: Facebook Filing Temporarily Crashes SEC Web Site

Zynga Accounted for 12 Percent of Facebook’s Revenue in 2011

Facebook Has 845 Million Users

On Its Eighth Birthday, Facebook Files to Raise $5 Billion in Massive IPO (Get Your S-1 Here!)

Go the F**k Back to Sleep, Silicon Valley: Facebook IPO Likely to File Later Today at Earliest

Dude, Where’s My Facebook IPO Filing? (Ashton’s on Hold!)

The Quiet Man: Meet the Less-Known Face of the Facebook IPO, CFO David Ebersman

Facebook Board Meeting Today for Final IPO Okays

Facebook (Eye)PO: Tracking the Truth of the Biggest Deal of Web 2.0

Viral Graphic: Visualizing the Facebook IPO

Is Facebook IPO on Track for Late May?

IPO Watch: Facebook Hiring Brunswick to Help With Comms for Expected Public Offering

Complete Facebook coverage

Go the F**k Back to Sleep, Silicon Valley: Facebook IPO Likely to File Later Today at Earliest

Kara Swisher — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 14:36:08 +0000

Like political junkies waiting up for election returns (losers!), Silicon Valley folks, including tech journalists (losers!), are up this morning to await and then pounce on the long-expected IPO filing of Facebook.

But, several sources said, the social networking giant — as I have previously reported — will likely not file its copious documents until this afternoon, after the markets close, at the earliest.

In other words, my day is shot. Thanks, Dave Ebersman!

Sources said the filing could even possibly slip a day, as the company’s suits get busy with dotting all the I’s and crossing the T’s.

That’s unlikely, though — Facebook was actually founded the first Wednesday in February of 2004, like today eight years later.

Sentiment from the not-very-sentimental co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg? Awwwwwwww …

And, if those dudes rush, we might even see all the deets of the Silicon Valley darling’s finances and other info — including who’s got what shares and who doesn’t — earlier today. But don’t count on it.

That’s right — Facebook is sucking up even more of your precious time, and it is not even fun like beating your mother at Words With Friends or creepily poking old flames.

Facebook, Web 2.0′s most successful start-up, is expected to raise many billions of dollars on a valuation of tens of millions times that.

In other words, blah, blah, blah until we get the real numbers …

To send you off to IPO dreamland until then, here’s the genius viral video reading of the book “Go the F**k to Sleep,” read by Samuel L. Jackson:

MORE ON THE FACEBOOK IPO:

Facebook’s Ad Business Is a $3 Billion Mystery

Viral Video: Farewell to the No-IPO Mark Zuckerberg

Zuckerberg Is the Billion-Share Man: Who Owns What, Who Makes What in the Facebook IPO

Zuckerberg Tells Investors, “We Don’t Build Services to Make Money”

Mobile Highlighted as Key Risk Factor (and Opportunity) in Facebook Filing

Stop All That Poking: Facebook Filing Temporarily Crashes SEC Web Site

Zynga Accounted for 12 Percent of Facebook’s Revenue in 2011

Facebook Has 845 Million Users

On Its Eighth Birthday, Facebook Files to Raise $5 Billion in Massive IPO (Get Your S-1 Here!)

Go the F**k Back to Sleep, Silicon Valley: Facebook IPO Likely to File Later Today at Earliest

Dude, Where’s My Facebook IPO Filing? (Ashton’s on Hold!)

The Quiet Man: Meet the Less-Known Face of the Facebook IPO, CFO David Ebersman

Facebook Board Meeting Today for Final IPO Okays

Facebook (Eye)PO: Tracking the Truth of the Biggest Deal of Web 2.0

Viral Graphic: Visualizing the Facebook IPO

Is Facebook IPO on Track for Late May?

IPO Watch: Facebook Hiring Brunswick to Help With Comms for Expected Public Offering

Complete Facebook coverage

Viral Video: "Lock-Out" -- Sci-Fi Prison Break in Space

Kara Swisher — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 08:45:55 +0000

Here’s a trailer for an unusual movie called “Lock-Out,” about a prison revolt in space and, of course, the need to rescue the daughter of the President of the United States.

It’s full of all kinds of special effects, naturally.

Enjoy:

Viral Infographic: Apple's Cash Pile Explained (All of Greece and Canada Get iPads!)

Kara Swisher — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 07:02:41 +0000

Apple has a boatload of dough and is worth a ton.

Oh, just look here, via this cool infographic from MBAOnline:

Viral Image: The Biggest and Bluest Marble

Kara Swisher — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 09:33:19 +0000

I am at the funeral of my aunt today, giving the eulogy later, and it’s a sad occasion.

But for some reason, this stunning new version of the “Blue Marble” photo of Earth — taken on Jan. 4 by the Visible/Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite instrument on NASA’s Suomi NPP satellite — is vaguely comforting.

Perhaps because it speaks of a much bigger picture, and of how delicately and elegantly life hangs in the dark universe.

All via an amazing piece of tech, the Suomi NPP, which NASA said is the “first of a new generation of satellites that will observe many facets of our changing Earth.”

Enjoy:

(Image Credit: NASA/NOAA/GSFC/Suomi NPP/VIIRS/Norman Kuring)

Viral Video: Fake Kim Richards's Guide to the Oscars

Kara Swisher — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 08:07:42 +0000

If you’re a fan of “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills,” then the ever-goofy stylings of the looptastic Kim Richards are always a delight.

Which is why this pitch-perfect impression, from “The Soup,” of Richards rating the Oscars — nominations for the annual movie awards were just announced — is even better, if possible.

On “War Horse,” for example: “There was war. And there was a horse.”

Exactly:

Honest: Jessica Alba's Now an E-Commerce Geek (Video)

Kara Swisher — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 18:05:48 +0000

From the Web 1.0 Matt Damon-Ben Affleck debacle to the stunt-casting of Justin Timberlake as a Myspace impresario and everything in between, I have been more than dubious about any online effort by a celebrity.

Not surprisingly, it is usually a lot of special effects but little in the way of substance, from an entrepreneurial point of view.

So it was nice to be actually impressed by actress Jessica Alba’s fledgling effort to break into online commerce, via a new site called the Honest Company.

Using an interesting online subscription model and aimed at the modern mom, Honest sells its own private-label, eco-friendly and hipster baby diapers and biodegradable wipes, as well as organic bath/skin care and green cleaning products.

Alba, who is Honest’s president and one of its co-founders, was inspired to bootstrap the start-up after having kids and being confused as to how to find nontoxic products for them in a marketplace of questionable offerings.

Thus, she and Christopher Gavigan, author of “Healthy Child Healthy World,” hooked up with an experienced entrepreneur — Brian Lee, co-founder of ShoeDazzle and LegalZoom — to create Honest, which just launched.

Selling its own products using a monthly “bundle” model differentiates Honest from comparable sites, such as Gwyneth Paltrow’s GOOP, which focuses on classy recommendations of a wide variety of similar fare.

Right now, the online-only Honest effort is using Alba’s high profile and online clout — many millions of fans and followers on social sites like Facebook and Twitter, for example; and also viral marketing, via mommy bloggers — to get noticed.

But the proof will be if Honest can keep its customers coming back every month for more, as it expands its line. (So far, the reviews of the products have been raves, such as this one from salt & nectar.)

Here’s Alba talking about Honest with Lee, in a video interview at the company’s Santa Monica, Calif., HQ:

[ See post to watch video ]

Viral Video: Steven Spielberg Really Is a Geek

Kara Swisher — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 09:22:46 +0000

Here’s a really terrific video tribute to legendary Hollywood director and producer Steven Spielberg, done for the recent 2012 David O. Selznick Achievement Award from the Producers Guild.

It highlights a plethora of films Spielberg has made over his long movie career, many of which — once you see them strung together — have a heavy techie, special-effects or simply sci-fi element.

It’s pretty impressive to see such a significant body of work collected so well.

Enjoy:

Viral Graphic: Visualizing the Facebook IPO

Kara Swisher — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 00:17:18 +0000

Social media dude Greg Voakes did a data visualization of what a Facebook IPO would look like, making it look cooler than it probably will be.

As I wrote last week, the social networking behemoth is planning a honking big public offering for late May, which could bring in $10 billion on a $100 billion valuation.

That is certainly a lot of dough — which Facebook will need to battle Google and others, while it also seeks world domination.

Enjoy:

Viral Video: Oscar Host Billy Crystal Is a Yeti?

Kara Swisher — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 09:19:47 +0000

Here’s a very cute video trailer, titled “Off the Grid,” for the upcoming Academy Awards, the annual movie award show that will feature the return of host Billy Crystal.

It features cameos from a few well-known celebrities. Enjoy:

Viral Video: Me Blabbing About the Latest Yahoo CEO (So What Else Is New?)

Kara Swisher — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 09:49:08 +0000

Yesterday, after much scoopage and hubbub over the new Yahoo CEO, Scott Thompson, I donned my shades and headed over to WSJ.com’s “Digits” tech show to chitchat about it.

Yet another new Yahoo CEO to stalk is like back-to-school time for me — a combo of hope, newly sharpened pencils and clean erasers.

It’s a new day, and yet the same, as you can see from the Yahoo CEO chart above, from The Journal.

Here’s the video — I am a few minutes in:

Viral Video: Secret Code About Apple's New York Media Event

Kara Swisher — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 10:14:45 +0000

Yesterday, on WSJ.com’s “Digits” online tech show, host Simon Constable asked me if some parts of my scoop on Apple holding a media-focused event in New York at the end of this month were secretly implying anything.

Simon apparently read “The Da Vinci Code” one too many times! I don’t know from clandestine signals, but here I am talking about the event, along with AllThingsD.com media ace Peter Kafka.

Enjoy:

Viral Video: Adorkable/Irksome Indie Actors Sing Cute

Kara Swisher — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 08:57:23 +0000

Why do I simultaneously like and am annoyed by Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt?

Perhaps it’s their twee names, perhaps their indie acting tics, perhaps their faux-childlike thing — all while being so dang cute.

Others must agree, since the video of the pair — who co-starred in the movie, “(500) Days of Summer” — singing Nancy Wilson’s “What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve?” has gotten more than six million views on YouTube since its posting this weekend.

Here they are at full power, with a note on Deschanel’s Hello Giggles site that says she bonded with Gordon-Levitt “over a mutual appreciation for Harry Nilsson and Nina Simone.”

Hello Giggles? Ironically juxtaposing Harry Nilsson and Nina Simone? A ukulele? Could they be any more hipster?

No, they cannot, and it works once again:

Viral Video: 15-Year-Old Korean Girl Channels Adele

Kara Swisher — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 08:19:21 +0000

If you’re impressed by British singer Adele, you’ll be wowed by this 15-year-old girl covering her hit, “Rolling in the Deep,” on Korean singing show “K-Pop Star.”

I was definitely not expecting this from the slight, sweet-looking singer:

How Not to Do PR

Voices — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 08:01:02 +0000

Your sites amateur at best my son could put together a better site than yours and you run PAX ?? Wow , Ill put my marketing team on a smear campaign of you and your site and your emails , I have about 125 dedicated people to run PR , Blogs , Articles , Videos you have no clue who I am .

– Ocean Marketing PR agent Paul Christoforo, to Penny Arcade’s Mike Krahulik, part of an email exchange that went viral after a frustrated customer sent Christoforo’s comments to a number of Web sites

Viral Audio: A Look Back at Tech in 2011, and Forward to 2012

Kara Swisher — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 09:06:46 +0000

I was on San Francisco’s public radio station today, talking about this past year in tech with “Forum” host Michael Krasny and fellow panelists, former TechCrunch writer Sarah Lacy and CNET’s Molly Wood.

2011 was a big year, as it turned out, with good and bad news for companies such as Apple, Google, Amazon, Netflix and others.

We also looked forward to 2012, which will include new online TV efforts and, of course, the much-anticipated Facebook IPO.

Here’s the chat:

Viral Video: The Making of "The Hobbit" -- Part Five

Kara Swisher — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 08:19:08 +0000

Here’s the fifth in a series of videos blogs, or vlogs, being done by director Peter Jackson on his making of “The Hobbit” movie.

I really like how he’s doing this online, especially given the interest from the huge fan base for the fantasy novel by J. R. R. Tolkien.

The prequel to “The Lord of the Rings” film trilogy, which Jackson also directed, “The Hobbit” is being filmed in New Zealand — standing in for Middle-earth — and will be released in two parts, in December 2012 and December 2013.

Enjoy:

Viral Video: "Game Change" (Or the Latest Sarah Palin Impersonation)

Kara Swisher — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 11:22:53 +0000

The ever-bickering crop of current Republican Presidential nominees dragging themselves to the first Iowa vote in the coming weeks almost makes you wish for a true political character to liven up the proceedings.

Or some nostalgia for the last go-round, which is definitely present in this trailer for HBO’s upcoming adaptation of “Game Change,” the lively book about the 2008 campaign, featuring the always telegenic Sarah Palin.

The former Alaska governor is played this time around by Julianne Moore, who really looks and sounds like the GOP VP candidate.

You betcha, she does:

Viral Video: First Trailer for "The Hobbit" Movie

Arik Hesseldahl — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 17:09:35 +0000

Since about 2004, the holiday season has been missing a little something. During the prior three years, I had become accustomed to standing in line to see a “Lord of the Rings” movie. But there were only three of them and, well, once the trilogy was done, it was done. Ever since, I’ve kind of moped a bit without a cinematic trip to Middle Earth to look forward to.

I’ve seen two performances of The Lord of the Rings in Concert, which is great fun and has been at New York’s Radio City Music Hall in previous autumns. But not this year.

But next year — and the year after that — I can renew my Hobbit habit. Yesterday the trailer for the first of two films based on “The Hobbit” hit the Internet. This one will be called “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” and will be in 3-D. It will cover roughly the first half of the J.R.R. Tolkien novel that predates the “Lord” trilogy, and includes the finding of the ring that’s central to the later story. Also there’s one surprise: The trailer sure makes it look like Gandalf and Galadriel are, or once were, an item. I sure don’t remember that from the books.

We here at AllThingsD have been paying close attention to the progress of these films, hanging on every video-blog posting by famed director Peter Jackson. (And if you haven’t seen them, they’re very fun to watch: Part 1; Part 2; Part 3.) I don’t think I’m the only member of the team that has a Hobbit habit. But I’m probably the only one who will admit it.

Anyhow, here’s the trailer. Enjoy:

Viral Video: This Year, First Round VCs Channel Rebecca Black (Rrrreeaaallly!)

Kara Swisher — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 17:30:27 +0000

Oh, dear — Silicon Valley VCs acting like teenage girls.

And there’s not even a hot start-up in sight to chase and scream over.

It must be the holidays and First Round Capital’s annual digital greeting card, which is based on one of the popular viral videos of the year.

In 2008, First Round did its own version of “Dancing Matt.” In 2009, the firm’s CEOs sang as if they were Susan Boyle in “I Dreamed a Dream.” And last year, it was partner Josh Kopelman wearing a body suit to mimic the Old Spice guy.

This year, it spoofs one of the more irksome music videos of 2011 — Rebecca Black’s “Friday.”

I like First Round’s version a lot better.

Along with the rhythm-impaired VCs, you can see a wide range of their start-ups here, such as Xobni, Path and — thank goodness, since they can sing — Birchbox.

Enjoy:

Viral Video: Walt Mossberg Demos Tangle-Resistant Ear Buds, an iPhone Beer Meter and More!

Kara Swisher — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 08:44:14 +0000

AllThingsD tech-reviewer kingpin Walt Mossberg also showed off his favorite fun gadgets at the annual Churchill Club event in Silicon Valley earlier this week.

Among his picks: Tangle-resistant ear buds; an Apple iPhone beer-bottle opener and consumption tabulator; a wireless USB drive; and the latest Ultrabooks to compete with the MacBook Air.

Here’s the video of his presentation: