If you've got a computer, you know what YouTube is.  In fact, most people, including myself, have uploaded videos to YouTube at one point or another until our accounts have inevitably been suspended.  It's the circle of life on the Internet, and I am very pleased with it.  Without YouTube after all, I would be unable to watch my guilty pleasure, America's Next Top Model.

What's the bad news about YouTube?  Well, the videos that are uploaded are typically of lesser quality.  In fact, the most common complaint that you will see on the video comment sections is about the quality.  In reply, most users will explain that "something" happened to their video during the upload process.  There is a hack to be able to view high quality version of videos, but soon, that hack will hopefully be rendered useless.

YouTube has finally announced all users have the option of watching some videos in higher quality. A blog post on their site claims they're slowly integrating this new feature, and videos uploaded in the proper format will be the first to be available in high quality. The rest of the library will soon follow, with any luck.

Simply go into your user account and select the option: "always show me higher quality when available." High speed Internet is going to work best, because otherwise the videos may suffer from lag time.  Nobody likes lag time.

I have been waiting for this feature for a long time.  Finally, my prayers have been answered, and I will soon be able to watch YouTubeHD.  There are enough capital letters in that word to make anyone excited.

Combining aspects of things that people already enjoy is one of the best ways to make an impression on a market without having to be completely original or creative.  For the past couple of months, there has been a surge of such activity in the form of ‘angry' video game reviews.  These reviews combine aspects of life that many males (and some females) enjoy, including ranting, nostalgia, cheap Photo shopping, and dirty humor.  Taken together, these form a "review" of a classic video game.  The reviews have the taste level of an episode of Family Guy, but also have the marketability, as well.

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Democrat John Edwards has gotten a lot of attention in the blogosphere for announcing his candidacy for President on YouTube. A little more quietly, another candidate, Democrat Tom Vilsack, has launched a video blog over on blip.tv (via WP Post IT blog).

Here’s one of his recent posts where he talks about “the power of the Internet to enable conversation between voters and candidates.”

Click To Play

Sounds like he’s been reading Doc Searls, Scoble, etc, huh?

During the 2006 cycle, lots of campaigns had staffers blogging but very few candidates wrote blog entries themselves. I think it is difficult for candidates to find the time to blog. And even if they do find the time, rarely can a candidate pull off the right tone. Blogging well requires a serious time investment. It’s just not a good fit for candidates. Better to have a staffer or consultant do it.

Video blogging, on the other hand, plays to candidate’s strengths. They meet and connect with voters every day. Video blogging is a natural extension of that skill. Bill Clinton would have made a great video blogger.

I’d look for just about every 2008 Presidential hopeful to do some form of video blogging.

For the tens of people that are interested, we put together a podcast about the findings of our recent campaign study. In the podcast, Ajit Verghese interviews myself and Erin Teeling (who actually wrote the thing) about how 2006 Senate campaigns are using the Internet. We talk about which sites are good/bad, how candidates are using blogs and podcasts and what we expect to see from political campaigns in the future, among other things. Give it a listen if you’re interested or just a glutton for punishment.

 

 Campaign Study [27:34m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download