OK, so maybe it's a bit silly to talk about what a blog is ... on a blog ... but in my experience lots of folks are still a bit perplexed by the blogosphere.

So, here's a cute video that spells it out. The only thing it doesn't talk about is RSS feeds, which are critical to understanding the unique value blogs bring to aggregating different new sources. To find out more about feeds, see this article on our help pages.

Anyone who saw the last episode of The Sopranos, or consumed any news source in the weeks that followed, knows the series ended with Tony, Carmela and the kids sitting in a booth at a New Jersey diner -- with ominous figures all around.

Now, the Hillary Clinton campaign has done its own YouTube take on the series finale.

It's funny. It works. And it shows just how great a medium the web has become for communicating with varied audiences.

Bada Bing! (Psst: That's Johnny Sac at the counter...)

Open APIs (application program interfaces) seem too technical to be truly important. Yet, for communicators they can create a whole new world of opportunity.

The recent trend of social media organizations such as Facebook opening their APIs to outside programmers means popular web apps -- including video -- can now reach members of these communities. Miller TV is a great example.

PRWeb is at it again.

The company, a pioneer in the online press release, today announced the ability to embed video into releases.

To do this, PRWeb customers first need to upload their video clips to online video services including YouTube and Google Video. Then, those clips can be embedded directly into their press releases.

PRWeb said this new feature, called Feature Video, is available in its Media Visibility distribution, which costs $360 per release.

Technorati Tags: prweb, press release, video, web 2.0

The word is out that major broadcast players are looking at a new venture to challenge YouTube, which has turned web video into a mainstream distribution medium virtually overnight.

There's a post from the TechCrunch blog that talks about a possible announcement:

There have been rumors of a TV network led joint venture to compete with YouTube for months -- the first time we heard it was just a couple of days after the first rumor of Google’s acquisition of the company. Since then, we’ve heard that discussions stalled as one partner or another pulled out of the group.

First came blogging, which started as a hobby for a handful of individuals and is now widespread among companies and professional communicators. Whole Foods CEO John Mackey and Sun Microsystems President & CEO Jonathan Schwartz are but two examples of corporate bloggers, and most newspapers have also launched into the blogsphere.

Next came podcasting, which now can be seen supplementing news releases and broadcasts and is emerging quickly as a full-blown corporate communications tool.

The trend's curve is pretty clear. First, technology catches on with the public. Then, businesses pick it up. A quick glance around today’s tech landscape leaves me thinking that another new tool is getting ready to move into the corporate space: Web-based video.