This is the year of online videos. With the success of YouTube and their contemporaries, many companies are looking for ways to enhance traditional services with moving images. The recently launched Gigged Up is a job site that is betting on the video phenomenon to change how employers and candidates interact.

Gigged Up allows employers to upload a video along with their job posting. Candidates will be able to get a more personal feel for the company that cannot be conveyed using text. They may also be more apt to view a video, especially if they are on the fence about whether they like a particular job posting.

On the flip side, candidates can also upload their own video for employers to watch. Gigged Up suggests that the video be treated like a first interview, and that the candidate should delineate their background information and goals.

Overall, Gigged Up is an interesting twist to the traditional job site, allowing candidates and employers to interact via online video. However, I am a bit skeptical that many candidates would trust themselves to put up a video interview.

Currently, I don’t see any real videos on the site. The only video is an example clip made by the people of Gigged Up, and the video itself is pretty bad quality. Even more foreboding is the clunky nature of their flash player. They should really consider using the same player as blip, which is simple and fast.

We should all check back when employers start uploading videos. It will be interesting to see if they make fresh and creative videos that draw candidates in more successfully than a plaintext job posting.

How does the face of journalism change when cell phone cameras and small video camera devices become ubiquitous? Instead of the appointed few recording breaking news, we have the eyes of the masses, each equipped with the necessary gear for grassroots journalism. Following in the footsteps of CNN’s I-Report, which allows users to upload video, audio, or photos, comes the more sophisticated You Witness News from Yahoo.

YouTube has already proven the ability for average people to present compelling news stories. Both the UCLA tazing incident and Michael Richard’s racial outbreak were documented by bystanders and first broadcast via YouTube.

You First News allows users to upload photos and videos and have them considered for use in articles on Yahoo News. The primary content on the site right now are a few videos and articles providing tips for citizen journalism. You First News’ stance is that you don’t need fancy equipment or knowledge to capture news–simply being at the right place at the right time, and having an inquisitive mind will suffice.

It’s great to see Yahoo forging ahead in grassroots journalism. You First News may become the outlet for citizen news breaking videos, rather than YouTube, which is a more general video site. Right now, users won’t be paid for content that is shown on Yahoo News. However, if their content gets distributed to Reuters, they will be compensated.

Pandora’s new podcast is a perfect example of how a complementary podcast can boost interest and foster new business developments in a company. Hosted by Kevin Seal, the podcast delves into the world of music theory and analysis with the minds behind the Music Genome Project.

They state on their page

We thought it might be interesting for folks to learn more about what goes into songwriting. These podcasts are our attempt to give you an inside look at the techniques musicians use to put their signature on the music they write and perform.

And indeed, for any music lover out there who wants to become a more active listener, the Pandora Podcast promises to deliver interesting facts about tonality, harmony, melodies, and much more.

The podcast also allows Pandora to show off the wide array of artists that are in their collection and foster interest from listeners to new bands. For example, the first episode features the band 20 Minute Loop demonstrating various principles of harmony. I had never heard of the band before, and, after listening to the show, I am now a fan. In addition, they give many examples of bands that exhibit the musical qualities that they talk about in the show, which they link to in the post.

The podcast serves to educate users about music theory and the principles behind Pandora. But also, it creates buzz about the artists that are featured. Both of these make the podcast a smart move by Pandora.

Bloglines is one of those services that has been stagnant for quite a while. Ever since being acquired by Ask.com, the basic interface has remained unchanged. Regardless of this, Bloglines has dominated in the world of RSS readers, even if it’s not the best.

I suppose the number one reason why I use Bloglines is because I’m entrenched, both mentally and physically. I’ve experimented with other readers, but, I never seem to have enough time to transfer my OPML and learn a new interface. I guess I’m destined to enjoy/loathe the unchanging interface of Bloglines.

That was, until they actually made a change. Gasp.

It was probably a few months ago, but I remember waking up one day and seeing the reading pane automatically refresh without reloading the page. At first, I thought I was hallucinating–no, was this really happening? They actually implemented a useful and elegant feature.

With all jokes aside, Bloglines isn’t really a bad reader, it’s just old. All the cool kids are jumping to newer web RSS readers like Rojo, Google Reader, and Netvibes. The Bloglines team should really think about a redesign, especially with some of their older features that no one uses, like the Clippings, and with some of their newer features, like the potentially confusing Playlists.

Yes, I’m referring to the long awaited results to the BuzzShout blogger contest that ended at the end of October. And while I’m glad my catchy title has caught your attention, I’m sorry to report that we don’t yet have a winner. All submissions are in, and James and I are working together to agree on which one should get the grand prize.

Allow me to explain what has taken us so long. We’ve spent lots of time attending events and interviewing “Web 2.0″ visionaries. The videos that we’ve been posting take a surprisingly long time to edit, though I think we’ve finally gotten through the learning curve and the editing time seems to be going down. By the way, did I mention that the two of us behind BuzzShout also hold down day jobs?

Anyway, we will have a winner picked soon. Thank all of you for your submissions, and keep your eyes on your inbox as we will be emailing the winner before the big announcement. I badly wanted to submit my own entry to win the part of the cash prize that I wasn’t throwing in, but hence I couldn’t. So, if you know of other blogging contests on another site, and if they have a prize as cool as ours, please let me know so I can send them my entry.

Cheers!

Today, Flickr launched Camera Finder, which lets people browse and track trends in camera usage on Flickr. In addition, they’ve linked in camera price comparison and shopping at Yahoo Shopping, which is a brilliant move.

Currently, the most popular camera on Flickr is the Canon Rebel XT.

When I’m in the market for a new camera, I typically peruse sites like Amazon and dpreview for specs and sample pictures. But, nothing beats looking at pictures taken with the camera from people like me. This is where Flickr’s Camera Finder comes in–they let people see the performance of the camera in the hands of the people. Amazon does this to an extent, by allowing people to upload sample pictures for products. But, their collection pales in comparison to the one that passionate Flickr users upload.

What Flickr should do is to allow sites like Amazon to get access to their photo collection for either a fee or revenue sharing. In the end, this could very well be one of the most lucrative moves Flickr has undertaken.

During the Stirr Mixer, we caught up with Adam Marsh, the CEO of PrefPass for a quick interview.

The goal of PrefPass is to personalize websites without having to register. They provide an easy means for site managers to validate users. And, in turn, the users get a quick way to login without the hassles of filling out long and tedious forms. PrefPass will also be able to track the preferences of users as they login to numerous PrefPass enabled sites. This preference data can later be used for contextual ads and other useful tools for site managers.

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Interview with Adam Marsh of PrefPass (3 minutes, direct download)

At the last SF New Tech Meetup, we did an interview with Ori Soen, the CEO of MuseStorm. MuseStorm is in the hot field of widgets, providing services that are built on top of dynamic web data. Their company is based in Israel, so it was a real treat to see Ori in the Bay Area, who was here for the Widgets Live Conference.

In addition, let’s give Joanne Wan (of Stirr and Valleywag fame) a big welcome for conducting her first interview here at BuzzShout!

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Interview with Ori Soen of MuseStorm (5 min, direct download)

411Sync, which was profiled a few months back here on the Shoutblog, has reached over 10,000 keywords created. That’s a tenfold increase in 3 months. They are seeing over 160 keywords being made everyday.

411Sync is the only company that I know of that is letting users dynamically create and share keywords for mobile phones. Think Yubnub, but for mobile phones.

Keywords are really the way to go in the mobile space, since it allows users to access a deep selection of services without the hassle of menus. 411Sync recently turned down an acquisition offer from a privately held mobile email company. The CEO, Manish Lachwani, tells us that an acquisition at this point would be too early, since they’re currently working hard on new features that they’ll be rolling out.

411Sync also rolled out an SMS bookmarklet, which allows users to easily send web clippings to their phones.

We met the CEO of EchoSign, Jason Lemkin, at the Office 2.0 pre-party. In August of this year, they took home the IBD Network “Judges’ Choice” award for best Office 2.0 application:

EchoSign solves a long term problem of handling, tracking and storing company documents that have to get signed and then manages them once they are signed. It also goes a step further than the standard Jfax service by automating the process of emailing a copy of the signed document out to all the parties that need it.” — Under The Radar, 08/16/2006

He was also coming off a big announcement at the Salesforce conference, and the future is looking bright for this contract management company. Find out why they’re one of the leaders within the online document signature space.

  

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