ldsWebguy

According to comScore Video Metrix, 63.6% of all US Internet users streamed some online video in August 2006 (that’s 110 million people).

Over 20% of the video streams were delivered by Fox Interactive (including MySpace), followed by Yahoo! at 11.8%, and YouTube at 9.9%. Google was well down the list in seventh position with only 1.5% of video streams, which may be why Google’s move to buy YouTube was savvy.

Yahoo! had the most unique streamers at nearly 39.9 million, compared to 39.5 million for Fox Interactive, and 35.5 million for YouTube.

The US population recently reached 300 million, according to the US Census Bureau.

63% of the US population (180 million people ages 3 and older) uses the Internet at least once a month according to eMarketer.

51.4% of the US Internet users (92.6 million) are women; 48.6% (87.5 million) are men.

26% of all US Internet users (46.8 million people) are 50 and older. That percentage has grown quite a bit in the last few years.

40.1% of children (ages 3-11) and 73.7% of teens (ages 12-17) use the Internet at least once a month.

14% of the US population (42 million people) is of Hispanic origin, according to the US Census Bureau, and 16.7 million of them are Internet users, comprising 9.3% of all US Internet users.

I suppose you’ve heard that Google has agreed to buy YouTube, the largest online video watching and sharing site in the world, for $1.65 billion worth of Google stock. Yes, $1.65 BILLION.

For a good review of the reasons why, and some analyst opinions, see eMarketer.

I’m always in awe of Google’s mission statement “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” (see http://www.google.com.au/profile.html)

Those of us who focus our attention to the Internet shouldn’t forget the value of traditional media. Lexis-Nexis reports that during major national events, consumers turn first to TV, radio, and print. According to their study, half of the respondents said they would use network TV during a news event and 42% would turn on the radio. One-quarter would visit a Web site and 6% would visit some form of online user-generated content such as a blog or chat group.

Two great magazines I read:

1. Internet Retailer. Although I’m not involved in retailing per se, it’s all about matching the needs of users with what you have to offer.

2. eContent available in print (free) and on the Web (subscription).

eWeek and Business 2.0 are also good for keeping up on technology in general.

Google the word “Church” and you’ll find LDS.org in first place. Mormon.org comes in at #7.

Google the phrase “Mormon Church” and you’ll find LDS.org #1, FamilySearch #2, and mormon.org #3.

We have added titles and thumbnail pulpit shots to all English MP3s of general conference. All users downloading or streaming MP3files after 10:00 am this morning will receive the updated metadata in the MP3 files.

We invite your feedback.

English text of all the talks from last weekend’s general conference is now online.

As additional elements are added online, we will note them on the general conference page.

My previous post about General Conference Materials Online has generated questions about the formats for audio and video files on Church sites.

Our current standard for all new audio we create for download is to create it as MP3 with an ID3 tag version of 2.3 or newer.

Our current standard for all new video we create for download is to create it in the following:

• Windows Media 8 300K (Broadcast archives include 56K version)
• Windows Media 10 MBR (Multi-bit Rate, allows multiple quality levels in the same file)
• Quicktime h.264 MOV 320×240 (File is optimized for Quicktime desktop play and to work on current Apple Ipod Video devices)
• Mpeg 2 VOB (Format is for purposes of copying to a DVD to be played through DVD players)

Note: Not all audio and video on Church sites currently meet these standards, but all new media we create will meet these standards.

We believe these standards provide an acceptable experience for both broadband and dial-up users.

You comments are welcomed.

See the new post Formats for Audio and Video on Church Web Sites.

We are pleased to announce that audio files (MP3 format) are now online in English, Spanish, and Portuguese for all sessions (except priesthood session) from last weekend’s general conference. These files are segmented by speaker and are of higher quality than we have provided in the past. Video files are also available by session for English and Spanish.

Audio and video files are also available in many other languages by session. To see when other conference materials will be available, see http://www.lds.org/broadcast/gc/schedule/0,17268,7057-1,00.html. As additional elements are added online, we will note them on the general conference page (http://www.lds.org/conference/oct2006/archive/0,20232,7058-1,00.html).

We would appreciate your feedback.