It’s the online fad that just won’t go away, but why?  Probably the same reason a conservative, middle aged Japanese businessman will stand up in front of a group of strangers and sing Tom Jones’ “Delilah” into a karaoke mike.  It only confirms Maslow’s theory that all humans have an innate and perpetual need for recognition and self esteem.  

Ironically, the catalyst behind the popularity of these sites might not be the need for social interaction at all, but instead the highest of all needs, fame and glory.

Teenager Ashley Qualls became millionaire and a talk show favorite when she dropped out of high school and created Whateverlife. Her site offers tools and tutorial for MySpace users to pimp out their user pages. Qualls understood that young girls, her main visitors, needed to express their own identity. For a teenager girl to have a page similar to another user is the equivalent of someone wearing the same dress as you on prom night.  The fact is, Myspace is more about individual expression than social networking.  If it truly was "community" they would have called it OurSpace instead.

You Tube's creators understood the vanity factor was crucial element in the staying power of their site. With all the wannabee actors, rock stars, and pundits online, there is a never ending supply of videos to keep that internet model going forever.  True, a user-friendly interface put them on the map, but it was that overwhelming user base that has made them the de facto video site.

Then finally there is Gaia and Second Life.  In these virtual universes the users can pretend to be whoever or whatever they want.  Again, the popularity is more fueled by keeping up with the virtual Jones’s than interacting with them.  In fact, Gaia’s homepage encourages its members to join their Avatar Arena where other “Gaians can rate your looks.” Keeping your character in the latest fashion and gear is not afterthought; it is often the sole reason for playing.

Back in the 90’s many were ashamed to admit the success of the web was largely due to the popularity of sexual content and illegal download sites. In era of Web 2.0, a similar denial resounds; perhaps The Great Digital Hearth might be nothing more than a vehicle for narcissism. Such a realization, though devastating at first, could be the key to finding the magic formula for monetizing that elusive beast.

All things considered, social networking technologies can be a powerful tool that will forever change the way in which we interact. Still, there is no denying that its recent popularity can mostly be attributed to all the posers, mock stars and web hams seeking spectators.  The entrepreneurs who both acknowledges and exploit this factor will eventually be the rulers over tomorrow’s internet and the winners of today’s Face Race.

Are you a web designer? You should want to know more about web 2.0 styles. Here I am going to tell about the process of making a web 2.0 style logo. You can use Photoshop CS+ for creating a logo like this. You just follow me.

1. Just open your Adobe Photoshop and click on the file button (In windows) then new choose the width and height as 640x480. Color mode is RGB and resolution is 72 pixels /inch. Color mode is 8 bit also.
2. Then you can get a white screen on the monitor. Just drag it and place in center. You should use 100% zooming to make good performance in logo designing.
3. Click on the horizontal type tool and type your company name with a cool font. I am used “forte MT”. You can download this from the web for free at 1001 fonts.com.
4. We are going to make a cool blue style in Photoshop. Just follow me… Right click on the layer which layer you used to type the company name. And select Blending options.
5. We can start from drop shadow. Check the drop shadow box and change the opacity to 75%. Set angle as 120 degree. Set the distance into 0 and set size into 5 doesn't change the other values.
6. The next step is putting a stroke around it. Size is 1 and the opacity is 100%. Then the color is # 4D882B.
7. Then we want to add a gradient into it. Just check the gradient box and follow the steps given below.

Gradient Creation

1. Create a color tab and put this color # 77BF1B for it and drag that into the left end
2. Create another tab and put # 56AA1F for that. Then drag it into the center of the gradient.
3. Create next tab and put #8BCC63 for that. Then drag it into the center.
4. Then create the last tab and put # 53AA20 color for that and drag that into the right end

Then the gradient should looks like this.

Then set the angle into 90 degree and set the opacity into 100%. You should change the scale into 100 if that is not preset.

You can give a reflection for that by creating a duplicating layer and flipping that vertically. Just try that if you want. I can see the result if you put a reflection onto it.

Are you OK with this design? This is very suitable for social sites and cool downloads site. I think that peoples are waiting for a web2.0 style logo like this. Try your experience with our tutorial article now. Are you ready?

We can make a logo for you like this. Do you want one now. Just contact us to make a logo like this. We can satisfy your needs. We are waiting for your mail.

Thank you for spending some time to read our tutorial article.

YouTube is a great gateway, but as video's evolve and grow, the demand for a better engine to run them on increases.

Here comes Vimeo. Vimeo is a Video sharing site, but much more. Vimeo allows users to play videos in High Definition, where YouTube's “High Quality” boast much less significant improvements.

Vimeo also resizes the actual video screen, allowing for native resolution over squeezing or letter boxing YouTube standard 4:3 aspect ratio. Vimeo users have the ability to password protect videos for viewing, letting the creator control the audience that sees it.

Best of all, users can allow their video to be downloaded from others, enabling growth within an artistic community and facilitating an incredible way to store and transfer videos of your own.

From the nicer looking page layout to the broader support of video resolutions, Vimeo takes the digital cake. Investigate Vimeo for what it has more of, people expressing themselves, and less about people posting video replies.

Heroes, Chuck, Bionic Woman, the Simpson's. We all love these shows. But occasionally, you may miss an episode or two. With Hulu, say goodbye to those cheap two minute episode that “summarize” the episodes you missed. Hulu has full-length episodes of Heroes and all the other shows. The reason I keep on saying Heroes is because it is my favorite show. Once Hulu gets going, it is also going to support G4 the channel, too. It is going to start showing Attack of The Show (AOTS), along with G4. They even let you share the videos, which surprised me because you'd think they wouldn't let you share it!

There is a problem here though. Is Hulu a You Tube killer? I have mixed thoughts about this. So my answer is yes and no. I think that You Tube is definitely going to be hurt by this, but it is also going to hurt the networks, because having all the network shows is what makes You Tube appeal to most people, so this is going to drive publicity away from them. For You Tube, they are going to have a big storm hit them when Hulu opens to the public. When Hulu opens, You Tube is going to lose most of its viewers, and do you know where all of the lost viewers are going? Yep, you guessed it. Hulu.

However, I also think that NBC and the others are just hurting themselves because they are going to lose a chunk of publicity online. You Tube is one of their largest websites that “advertise” NBC and others by having their shows on You Tube's website. Now, I'm going to give an opinion here. I think that rather than totally pulling the plug on their shows on You tube, they should at least put two minute pod casts on it, so it drives people to their website in the thirst for more. It wouldn't hurt them so much then. It would actually drive more people to Hulu, right?

Okay, so I've informed you about Hulu and You Tube, and now it's your turn to give an opinion. Do you think that Hulu is a You Tube killer?

GregSolomon

A self righteous video blogger, he came to prominence after attacking other popular people. Slowly claiming a following in his own right he comes across as the angry old dude down the street who would steal your football when you were a kid, because it happened to enter his yard. Well spoken and thought out, his video blogs seem to fit what some people would find admirable but as far as this user is concerned he will fall into one of two categories, you'll love him or you'll hate him.

Kayleebob

A traditional video blogger, what makes Kaylee stick out is her personality and just how genuine she is. Giving you a slice of Canadian life over in St. John's her honesty and openness is a credit to her.

Kobashii

This kid is creative, talented, funny and seriously under rated. I'm really puzzled as to why he isn't up at the top of most subscribed lists because his stuff is damn good. From his guitar solos to his interpretation of the World, to his sense of humour kobashii consistently puts out good videos that are actually worth watching, and are yet to come anywhere close to being stale.

Kwaichi

Hailing from London , England this guy stands up for anti racism but actually does something about it. Taking part in a debate with a racist over several videos going back and forth between them, he displayed qualities that a lot of people could do with copying from. Genuine, witty and caring, Kwaichi is a credit to the website and it's hoped he continues to simply be himself.

Renetto

Originally starting with a character, a following towards him begun to grow but it wasn't until he started to be himself that he really came into his own. Smart, funny and imaginative, Paul is a real nice guy with a great sense of humour. His videos are always interesting to me but he doesn't always think about himself, he's very much for the viewer which is the sign of a good channel. From his webcam giveaway to his next “let's blow stuff up” series, Renetto likes to get you involved with things too which is to be credited for.

ZenArcher

Signing up roughly the same time as myself, Zen Archer as he's known to his fans brought about something totally different. Just by preaching his non hate words it seemed people locked on to him and subscribed in the hundreds. Back then it seemed the users known as “haters” were everywhere and when Zen arrived he was a breath of fresh air. Even now when he's under attack from certain users repeatedly, he makes every attempt to take the high road. In my eyes his videos are good to watch when you need to realise that life isn't so bad, that the grass is greener on the other side.

This concludes the edition of who's who on you tube, I hope you take the time to check out all users named here and next month I'll take a look at some more. Hopefully by then you'll know who they are in thirty days time, but even if you don't you can always find me at http://www.geocities.com/stupriceuk

4 months ago I was visiting a wrestling message board when there was a link to some humorous video featuring former WWF Champion the Iron Sheik explaining how he wanted to break the back of another performer and "fuck" him in the ass to make him humble. From there I tried looking for other funny videos and found thousands.

Ranging from high school pranks and stunts to clever, thought out videos; the website I had stumbled upon was named "you tube" and I loved it. It was nothing I had ever seen before on the Internet in the pure size of the database of clips to watch.

My first impression was that it was more for movie makers, people who had talent and were looking for a window to showcase their stuff but with a smaller group of people simply sharing clips that they found funny. By the time I had gotten there "sexxiebebe23" had deleted her videos but was very much there in spirit due to parodies and tags.

I was impressed and I decided to sign up for my first account under the name "stupriceuk", initially making videos out of footage I had from my job at the time. When that footage faded I began adding stuff such as wrestling clips that I thought people maybe hadn't seen before. My videos were alright I guess, they seemed to find a very small cult following but while this was taking place the winds of change were in full force.

Slowly but surely the video bloggers were gaining popularity, and were outweighing the actual movie makers themselves. The first one I had seen was a girl named "filthywhore" who was anything but. She came across as a real nice person with a good sense of humour, who was getting stupid comments from people for reasons a few levels below pathetic.

My first impression of this "new" style of video was that it was for attention seekers who had the idea that people would be interested in the life story of someone they didn't even know. That's not to say it's a bad thing, just that I've never been one to sit and watch soaps or buy "celebrity" magazines to catch up on the latest gossip so the concept was a bit alien to me.

But I watched, and I commented a few times too.

Then my account got suspended due to some copyright issues with a video I had made out of different clips of various wrestling promotions from the United States who I won't mention here. This was my first time caught up in the copyright saga, which made me actually look into copyright a bit more before posting my videos. I don't feel that the website "you tube" is responsible for the content that users upload as it pertains to copyright. When an individual signs up they fill in a registration form so the website does have some of that users details available to them.

Each time a company has stepped in to inform you tube that there is copyrighted material on the site, they've acted swiftly and removed it and made steps to discipline users in an effort to stop that kind of behaviour. I find that commendable of them but from looking upon the sites there still are thousands upon thousands of videos that shouldn't be there, which can't be helped with the rate of uploads every day.

My advice would be that instead of companies harassing you tube about copyright; they go right after the user uploading the content. I have no problem, if I repeatedly break the rules about copyright after multiple warnings, with the you tube website passing on my contact details to the company who has a grievance with my "work". Users should take responsibilities for what they upload to the website to try and enhance you tube, and help to keep this site online since we all spend so much time on it.

Getting back though, it wasn't long before I started my new account under the username "stoopidstu" because I'd been stupid about the copyright in my earlier videos, and went about re-uploading my original content and then something happened. Either I was drunk or I was really bored, or both, I made a video blog.

It was a strange experience, just sitting there rambling and then finding out people agreed with your opinions or liked what you were saying. I'm the type of guy who'll bottle everything up, sort everybody else's problems out but my own so to just dump what I needed to dump online it felt like a weight off my shoulders. From there I have discovered many friends who I get on with and have become my "little clique" and if anything else, I find myself posting video blogs specifically for them so they know what's going on.

But while that was happening we had the fakers emerging. The "OhioKid21" saga was the first from what I remember, who were doing it for a joke. I didn't "get" how everybody assumed it was all real because it didn't seem right in the slightest. And then there was the continuing "littleloca" series which to me with the video effects at least looked like it was someone fooling around. Finally we get to the much talked about "lonelygirl15", the impact of which seems like being more than all previous. Enough has already been said on the matter, even more will be said tomorrow and the next day.

The recent issue has been about advertising but I'm not sure if users can be scolded for doing so. I can't remember what it says in the terms of service to be honest but if it does say no advertising products, websites etc then isn't that rule absolved by the you tube company itself, because of it's allowance for artists and movie companies to showcase their material?

Each time a band uploads a music video, is the intention not for you to check it out and hopefully like it... so you'll buy it? There has been an increase with movie houses with accounts running trailers for movies, are those not there to entice you to hit the movie theatres? Even video game producers are running trailers for future games. A song, a movie, a computer game; each of those are products and each of those are being advertised on the site.
The problems people have with other users should be directed at the you tube company so they can define the difference between a regular Joe advertising their stuff, and a film company advertising their movies. I can only assume that the only real difference is that the companies are paying you tube for the privilege of advertising, because that's what it is; a privilege.

In closing I'd like to say that the you tube community is as diverse as it's ever been, somewhere you can find a video to suit any taste. Hell, if you're Adam Todd I'm sure you could find some sort of bondage to float your boat.

I simply could not describe enough how great some of the content available is, but that's part of the fun; finding it. In the coming months, with so many other sites jumping on the bandwagon, I'm excited to see where you tube will take me. My subscribers surprise me all the time with their originality and creativity, ideas and honesty, I can only wish that my content is as half as good as theirs.