It had appeared as if web video might offer a joint reprieve for US soap operas One Life to Live and All My Children following the decision of mainstream TV network ABC to cancel both. But alas for fans of those two shows (you know who you are), this digital rescue mission has now been called off.

Whatever you might think of the shows’ artistic merits – or lack of – the choice by ABC to put One Life to Live and All My Children out to pasture created a notable footnote in US small screen history, given the combined broadcast lifespan of 84 years between them.

However both shows were tossed a potential lifeline earlier this year by production house Prospect Park, which had plans to broadcast new episodes in web video format, thus making the series the keystones of a new online channel.  

Prospect Park has admitted defeat in this endeavour though, a concession outlined in an issued statement: ‘We believed the timing was right to launch an online TV network anchored by these two iconic soap operas, but we always knew it would be an uphill battle to create something historical, and unfortunately we couldn’t ultimately secure the backing and clear all the hurdles in time.’  

Much like the UK government’s verdict on the upcoming public sector strikes, Prospect Park has honed in unions as the source of the problem, it citing ‘contractual demands of the guilds’ as key to the failure of the effort to revive the shows.

ABC soap junkies still have other highs available to them, mind, including General Hospital, which hin recent years has been graced by appearances from Spider-Man star James Franco as ‘Franco’, in what he, in a not-uncharacteristic foray down Pretentious Turnpike, has heralded as a performance art project.      

If you want to keep up with the latest web video news, then keep our blog bookmarked.

Microsoft have just purchased web video start-up VideoSurf for a fee thought to be around $70 million. The site acts as an online video search engine much like YouTube except that it gets results for all the video sites including; Daily Motion, Hulu, MetaCafe, YouTube and more.

What makes VideoSurf different is the attention to detail of its search results, focusing on finding specific episodes of shows as well as famous individuals. The search also separates production quality videos from user-generated web video.

It seems likely that Microsoft want to bolster their video searches on their own engine Bing. With web videos taking over the Internet and more people turning to the web for original content, having a powerful search engine that can discriminate between the crazies and the videos with higher production values is surely going to be popular.

Will this addition to Bing take it a step closer to competing with the might of Google? Probably not, but the technology will most likely make a lot of Xbox Live fans happy as it will surely be rolled out in the forthcoming updates for the incredibly popular games console cum media device.

If you want to get your video production made and up on the web without the hefty price tag why not get in touch with SpectreVids.

Viral videos have always taken multifarious forms, and the right kind of star power can not only tip the most amateurish of videos into viral territory, but can also create something very special indeed. A perfect example of this has popped out of the flux capacitor recently, as Michael J Fox, legendary actor and Parkinson’s sufferer, rekindles some 80’s magic for fans. Rocking out his iconic routine from Back to the Future on guitar, Fox shredded at the ‘Something Funny Happened On The Way To Curing Parkinson’s’ benefit event, leaving many fans commenting that it was the “single coolest moment” of their lives.

An enjoyable publicity gesture for a noble cause, this is a perfect example of a video going viral for all the right reasons. Shot entirely on a fan’s mobile phone, this video has found over a million hits on YouTube, and has brought awareness of the charity, set up by Fox himself, to a much wider audience world-wide. It just goes to show how a mix of star-power, nostalgia-value and noble intentions can create internet wild-fire when enshrined within video-production.

Are you putting on an event of some kind? Contact us now to get some creative ideas on how to publicise it with a viral campaign.

The claws of video marketing campaigns are out of late, with Samsung’s new viral commercial showcasing the Galaxy S 2, with enough tact to fall a hairs breadth from law-suit territory. Turning catty toward Apple’s new I-Phone 4S, the video production shows a long line of hipsters waiting for the new Apple product, being gradually transfixed by friends who already have a Samsung device. There are also direct digs at Apple and their cultists, with one line referencing that pesky battery problem with I-Phone 4S, and some dialogue stating “I could never have a Samsung, I’m creative”.

 Apple has no ground to play the innocent victim though, as their relentless tirades of cavalier campaigns against Microsoft in the past have actively provoked querulousness. This video by Samsung is a side-splittingly creative advert which gives Apple and its Jehovah-Witness followers a taste of their own holier-than-thou medicine.

Last time web marketing would-be monolith Google+ got a mention on this blog, it was because a Google engineer had accidentally made public a blog post in which he described his company’s flagship social media platform as a ‘pathetic afterthought’. Oops.

But while Google+ may still be lagging some way behind Facebook in terms of popularity (like a limping snail trailing behind a fleet-footed cheetah, if truth be told), it has just received a boost courtesy of the news that Barack Obama has created his own profile page.

Well, likely someone else did the page-creating for him, given that the President of the entire US of A likely has more pressing matters to attend to than assuming personal command of his own web marketing drive.

Because make no mistake, Obama’s arrival on Google+ is all about self-promotion. He and his team were widely lauded for their innovative approach to online fundraising during his successful 2008 run to the White House, and with him facing a tough re-election fight next year, he needs to get that winning machine back up-and-running, and sharpish.          

In terms of that fight, the downside for Obama is undoubtedly that the American economy remains sluggish. On the plus side, he is facing an ostensibly clownish field of Republican challengers, including Herman Cain (see the below clip).   

Obama’s web marketing power remains most potent via Twitter; indeed, his is the sixth most popular profile to follow (he is sandwiched between Britney Spears and Shakira, likely making Bill Clinton exceedingly envious). However the Prez’s arrival on Google+ is still sure to give the newer platform a useful leg-up on the popularity ladder as it seeks to claw back ground on its main rivals.      

Want to know what the Google+ fuss is all about? Then start by checking out the Spectrecom page.