Online Travel Guide – Interactive Videos Gives Travelers Breakthrough Experience

How many times when you as a traveler watch a video clip of your vacation destination like Paris and you want to have more information about Eiffel Tower? And for an advertiser, I would like to deliver advertisement of restaurants on the sidebar when the video is describing food, or hotels when talking about accommodation. Now this dream could finally come true with latest technology like Asterpix, which provides hyperlinks/hotspots in video. Here’s one of the videos I found from their website:

from asterpix.com posted with vodpod

If you don’t know what Asterpix is and how it works, I strongly recommend you to read their learn more page. It’s a free web-based service which allows you to create hotspots and associate notes/hyperlinks/tags. Using their javascript based API, you could create your web page with a tour video and displays extra information of each hotspots when mouse over. Of course you could also display direct targeted advertisement related to the objects it’s showing. Comparing with YouTube’s overlay ads or other time-based ads, Asterpix provides more control on “object” level and improves the user experience with the video content.

Since wordpress doesn’t allow me to play around javascript, I couldn’t get a demo here. However, here’s a picture from Asterpix Pro and could give you an idea how it will look like.

Top 50 Advertisers by Media Value in November, 2007

Here are the top 50 internet advertisers in Nov. 2007. What do you think how “interactive videos” or “hypervideos” could apply to them and provide a totally new user experience interacting with advertisement?

The top Internet advertisers by media value. The data are provided by TNS Media Intelligence.

Top 50 Internet Advertisers by Media Value, November 2007
Position	Advertiser	Media Value ($000)	Sector
1	E-Trade Financial	16,421	Fin
2	LendingTre	13,659	Fin
3	Fidelity Brokerage Services: consumer service	13,522	Fin
4	Verizon ISP	9,424	Tech
5	University of Phoenix Online	8,664	Edu
6	Verizon Wireless	8,233	Tech
7	LowerMyBills.com	7,722	Fin
8	Scottrade: consumer services	6,800	Fin
9	Morningstar.net	6,200	Fin
10	Bank of America: consumer services	5,999	Fin
11	Privacy Matters Services	5,866	Fin
12	Classmates Online	5,770	Misc
13	State Farm Auto Insurance	5,621	Fin
14	ING Direct	5,399	Fin
15	BestBuy	5,148	Ret
16	Charles Schwab: consumer services	4,941	Fin
17	Target: disc electronics	4,937	Ret
18	Dice	4,897	Class
19	Chevrolet Autos: Malibu	4,635	Auto
20	University of Phoenix	4,378	Edu
21	Ebay	3,993	Auto
22	LasikPlus Laser Center	3,898	H/F
23	Pogo.com	3,756	M/E
24	Target: disc misc	3,755	Ret
25	LasikPlus Vision Center	3,646	H/F
26	Delta Airlines	3,571	T/H
27	True	3,560	Date
28	Monster.ca	3,486	Class
29	Infiniti Autos: M Series	3,367	Auto
30	Progressive Car Insurance	3,296	Fin
31	Progressive Direct	3,281	Fin
32	Dell: Inspiron computer	3,187	Tech
33	AT&T Wireless	3,186	Tech
34	BlackBerry Handheld Computer	3,160	Tech
35	Philips TV	3,120	Tech
36	Chevrolet: autos and trucks	3,114	Auto
37	MyCokeRewards	2,903	Misc
38	Wal-Mart: disc electronics	2,892	Ret
39	Holiday Inn Express	2,815	T/H
40	Freecreditreport.com	2,771	Fin
41	Saturn: Astra	2,763	Auto
42	Scottrade Online	2,729	Fin
43	Circuit City	2,696	Ret
44	E-Trade Financial: consumer services	2,694	Fin
45	McDonald’s	2,619	Misc
46	American Express	2,602	Fin
47	T-Mobile Wireless	2,565	Tech
48	Capital One: VAR credit cards	2,555	Fin
49	Sears: misc	2,537	Ret
50	The Wall Street Journal	2,516	M/E
	GRAND TOTAL	$241,262
Sectors: Auto – Automotive; Class – Classifieds; CPG – Consumer Package Goods; Date – Online Dating; Edu – Education; Fin – Financial Services; H/F – Health & Fitness; M/E – Media & Entertainment; Misc – Miscellaneous; Ret – Retail; Tech – Technology; T/H – Travel/Hospitality
View: Top 50 Internet Advertisers in October 2007

Original post from here

Watch Out Hyperlink, Here Comes Hypervideo

Original from RedHerring article:

The digital world is moving to video, and anyone who can enrich the experience is bound to make a buck. One startup with its eyes on the prize is San Jose, California-based Asterpix, which on Monday launched the latest version of its web-based tool that promises to do to video what hyperlinks did to text.

Asterpix’s technology lets creators place links, or “hot spots,” in their videos on any object, such as a dog or the jersey of an athlete. Viewers click on these links to get more information directly on the screen or to connect to other videos or sites.

A video showing a sports car speeding down the highway might have a hotspot on the car’s tires, for example, which once clicked could give brand and pricing details and a close-up picture.

Here’s an example of a hot-spotted surfer riding a 64-foot wave in Maui.

Much like text-based hyperlinks, hot spots also let users bounce from point to point throughout the web as if—in the words of Asterpix CEO Nat Kausik—you’re “video surfing.”

The larger goal, said Mr. Kausik, is to help bloggers and web publishers build more customized, interactive videos. And if hypervideo technology—from Asterpix or elsewhere—were to become pervasive, one could imagine a world of layer upon layer of interconnected video.

But for the time being, Asterpix is still fine-tuning its service. It already has a free consumer version online, and with Monday’s launch of the “Pro” version, the company has its first moneymaking offering. For the latter, video owners—who host their own content—will pay Asterpix a few cents whenever a customer views videos or clicks on certain hotspots.

While there are hypervideo desktop products on the market, such as one by VideoClix that starts at $249, Asterpix is betting that its simple interface and web-based approach will attract users.

But there is big money to be made for anyone who can help make money from online video, said Gartner analyst Van Baker, and that means more direct competitors shouldn’t be far behind.

Overlay.tv is one of them. The Ottawa, Canada-based startup, which completed a $4.6 million first round of venture funding this January, launches next month.

Founded in 2006, Asterpix is backed by New Enterprise Associates.

If you haven’t seen my earlier post about Asterpix Pro, you could click here.