Meebo's Share Functionality on TechCrunch: Drag & Drop onto Facebook & Twitter

If you have visited TechCrunch today, you likely noticed the Meebo chat integration in the page footer. The Meebo bar allows users to connect via Facebook, AIM, and other popular clients. It also acts as a carriage for rich ad-units (similar to VideoEgg's roll-over ads). I accidentally happened upon a different, equally interesting component of the Meebo integration: you can share images and content directly onto Twitter, Facebook, email and instant messaging. Simply hover over an image and then drag it into the header's drop down icons. Very slick and an obvious value-add for the publisher: one click viral promotion.

Facebook uses the "Facebook Share" functionality to post to the feed (I imagine Facebook Connect would be the next version). When posting to Twitter, it populates your Twitter.com speech box with a "short" URL (go.meebo.com/techcrunch.com/uid) and the article's title (I imagine the next version will have a bitly-encoded URL):

http://go.meebo.com/techcrunch.com/8n Right Before Facebook Bought It, FriendFeed’s Real-Time Stream Saw A Flood Of Usage

Google AdSense Expandable Ads... No More?

I was very excited to read that Google AdSense was launching Expandable Ads - essentially growing rich media units that are more interactive and likely draw greater CPMs. I am excited because it is an opportunity to expand the reach of richer ad units which are making waves in video (see VideoEgg, Tremor Media, etc) and in widgets (Widgetbox). Venturebeat had this screenshot:

But strangely, Google has since removed their post about the product that has been linked to from various sites... was this intended as a private beta launch? Or did it leak? Not sure - but hopefully it will make it way onto this blog!

Page not found Sorry, the page you were looking for in the blog Inside AdSense does not exist.

Update: Google's blog post is now live again.

RedLasso Video Is Taking Off... Out of Nowhere

I am starting to see RedLasso video embedded through the web and would anecdotally say that, on newer content, I've seen more RedLasso videos than YouTube. The Janet Jackson video before is from a recent PerezHilton embed (one of his many).

The player is so-so (I still prefer VideoEgg's) - but what makes RedLasso interesting is how much televised and near-live content they are indexing. There isn't much information available about RedLasso (including on their website), but here is an overview of their service:

RedLasso offers a one of a kind TV and Radio search engine that starts by recording and indexing live television. Recording TV enables RedLasso to then index all the video while translating the voices to text. Searching for a particular term will return results from a number of networks. Users can then use the RedLasso video player to create up to ten minute clip from any search result. I searched for "free agency" on ESPN and found a clip about the upcoming baseball free agency pool. I have included the clip I created below though RedLasso also enables you to send it to a friend or directly link to it. I think RedLasso is a great idea as it offers a way for content producers to find and embed content that was previously not easily accessible. Read More