DreamWorks Animation's Jack Black comedy, "Kong Fu Panda", opened with a $60 million weekend. This strong opening beat Paramount's projection of $40 million. Adam Sandler comedy "You Don't Mess with the Zohan," came in at No. 2 with $40 million.
As yet another sign of growing recognition to the Israeli start up schene,
HooQs is a proud sponsor of the event. We will be celebrating the launch of HooQs v2 (currently in Alpha) which includes the first personalized mobile media recommender system.
These are very exiting times. The party will be held at the Galina Beach Club. Full details here.
See you there!
There's a lot of fun you can have on MySpace, especially with widgets. So, we created a cool HooQs widget you can put on your MySpace profile or add to your blog.
This widget featured our recently added channels. You can see all the latest channels and then you are one click away from sending those cool clips to your mobile phone for FREE.
Here's how the widget looks like:
This week eSpew took 'music on demand' a step further by joining forces with HooQs (TM) (http://www.hooqs.com) to release a new innovative feature allowing audio enthusiasts to share music for free via eSpew.com, using The HooQs' Web to Mobile service.
eSpew, the world's largest online Free Audio MP3 Music Search Engine, displaying over 19 million MP3 songs and attracting over 1.3 million unique visitors a month and growing.
"Sending music to your mobile is as simple as selecting a song, entering in your friend's telephone number and clicking the websites 'Send to Mobile' option," say's Daniel Cohen, Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer at eSpew.
The eSpew Search Engine allows users to Search & Play Music for Free, Chat with Friends, Share Music, Create Multiple Online MP3 Music Play Lists, Save Favorite MP3 Music, and more without users being required to download or install 3rd party software on their computers or provide personal information.
According to Itay Gissin, founder of HooQs (TM), the music found on eSpew.com can immediately be accessed by any web-enabled mobile device worldwide. Users are not required to provide any personal details about themselves to send music via HooQs (TM). "HooQs makes sure users get what they want on their phones. Leveraging the wealth of music content on the Web, while offering a truly personal mobile experience will revolutionize mobile media. Media companies use HooQs (TM) to set up an effective, targeted mobile channel, directly from their website." explains Mr. Gissin.
We are very happy to announce that an embedding option has been added to each of our video channels. Now you can add our fully functional video player to your blog or site. Just grab the code at the bottom of your favorite channel, and embed away!
Here's how it looks like:
Nothing is better than technology that's working for you. Time is a very precious resource, and every day we need to find new ways to handle the flow of information on the web and in the media.
Time is even more of the essence when you are surfing with your mobile phone. Trying to stay up-to-date on the mobile internet was almost impossible.
Impossible until now, that is, because HooQs provides you with an excellent solution - your personal, auto-updated, FRESH video channels.
Want to stay updated with news on the stock market? No problem - create your channel, mark it as "Fresh", and it will be updated once a day with the freshest videos about the financial world. Need to know the news about the Utah Mine Disaster or the Earthquake in Peru? Create a channel and it will keep you up-to-date.
It doesn't have to be all about hard-core news, by the way. If Scuba Diving is your favorite hobby, create a channel and enjoy the freshest clips on that sport - right on your mobile phone - no hassle and no software needed. Easy as pie. Keep it simple, keep it FRESH.
Good morning world!
This is certainly a very exciting day for us at Syncho. After a lot of hard work and effort, HooQs launched its new look and feel - with some major changes to the site and service!
As you can see, the Homepage and the entire site have been completely remodeled. You can now enjoy our bigger, sleeker, video player, which offers you a better viewing experience. Now you can watch your favorite channels and send them to your friends via SMS - in a much easier fashion.
Another huge change was made to the Search option. We implemented a more sophisticated search engine, which brings you faster and more varied results. For each search you get up to 50 clips to choose from, all from many different sources of video on the net.
If you feel the need to stay updated and entertained without working too hard - we have got just the thing for you! We have launched HooQ of the Day - subscribe to the service, choose your areas of interest, and we will send you short clips that match your taste. One time registration and you are into a world of fun!
People are coming to HooQs from all over the world, and we are enjoying a surge in site traffic. Of course, we are still in Beta, which means you might still encounter some bugs and glitches - in which case you are more than welcome to let us know about them. Please contact us with ANYTHING you might feel like saying!
We are working hard to continue and improve HooQs, and to make it a better experience for you all. So go on - have fun and don't forget - Go Mobile!
Thank you YouTube, for your rapid & effective launch of your mobile version! Following what seemed like a typical operator-approach exclusivity model with Verizon, looks like you really mean mass-market.
Good news - No client needed, just come and get it with any internet 3G phone! That's exactly what this industry needed for a long time - an Internet giant meaning business & leveraging the Web's open model on the mobile industry. Most other internet content players view the operators as the "plug number" in their broken revenue model, trying to sell OPC (Other People's Content) in traditional content models, overlooking the end-consumer reluctance to pay premium for content mobility.
Way to go, with respect to the general business strategy of going it alone! However, in the even more important part of the strategy - product-wise - YouTube still has a lot to learn about the mobile space, its past failures and mainly - the mobile life of users. The standard portal experience on mobile has made it hard, even for the most advanced users, to become addicted. Generalized & thin content lineups make it impossible for service providers to cater to all segments & individual tastes, which is needed to make a product truly mobile.
The products that DID succeed on mobile were those that enabled deep personalization & uniqueness to its users (Phone decoration, ringtones etc.).
Heavy browsing requirements for little content is something every mobile user has on his operator portal. At least there the content is local which means it is somehow targeted to its audience. With YouTube , its the same popular stuff consumed by all, with no value-add for mobility.
When I am on my mobile, I normally have a minute. Maybe two. The only way I will choose to go on the internet is if I know I am 2-3 clicks away from something that will Hook me up, and will be unique & forward-worthy. For that to happen, content sources will have to be much more varied than a YouTube. A community system will have to be working for me - Scouring the web, fetching content, filtering it for mobile consumption, connecting me with peers' content, and more.
In some sense, YouTube will always remain YouTube - an eclectic mix of user-generated & commercial content, targeting mainly the young and the bored. To truly mobilize the internet video revolution, a new type of access mode is required - one who puts the user in the center!
