The Streamys Awards Shine A Spotlight On Webseries!

The 1st annual Streamy Awards were held last night in Los Angeles to honor kick-ass awesomeness for original web content. It was an excellent event that helped validate the efforts and creativity of those participating in original online videos. Congrats to all the winners all the good people who put this show together. I think it was a huge success.


The nominees, winners and everything you need to know about The Streamys can be found HERE.

The after party at Palomar's really was a blast. I was happy to see a bunch of people I knew and that people had been checking out eGuiders.com. The party reminded me of a Hollywood-themed Bar Mitzvah, which I mean in the highest of compliments. The one beer I had was delicious and the snacks went pretty quick.

I wish I had taken some more pictures, but I was too busy having fun and schmoozing it up.


Lisa Kudrow (who stars in Web Therapy) presents the audience choice award.


Tay Zonday (Chocolate Rain) and I outside the after party.


Tim Street from FrenchMaid.tv & Blake Calhoun, Director of Pink.


Damon Berger (Dir of Branded Content at Moderati), Ask A Ninja Co-Creator, & Jesse Cowell (Creator of Drawn By Pain).


Dan Meth (Animator and Creator of Meth Minute 39) & Shira Lazar (Web and TV Host, Lifecaster, and Online Video Power Player).

eGuiders TV Web Extensions Go Live!

We just launched a new feature to the site today called the TV Web Extension Guide.

I'm also experimenting with writing this post center justified.
I thinks it's going pretty good so far.

We've been getting some good feedback and will continue to add shows to this one-stop shop for people who want to discover what their favorite TV shows are doing with online content.

CHECK IT OUT HERE.

While I'm on my promotional kick,
Sign up for the eGuiders newsletter and get some good karma points.

The NY Post picked up the feature and gave it a little love.

READ THE ARTICLE HERE

Back From SXSW: What A Long, Awsome Trip It's been!

I'm finally getting settled and back into the work groove after 5 days of intense, mind-expanding conversations, introductions and celebrations in Austin.

It's true that I Twittered more than I ever Twittered in my life and was partially responsible for crashing the AT&T servers. Whoops.

While I did attend a handful of panel discussions and keynote addresses, I think the most interesting aspect of the SXSW conference was meeting people in the convention center hallways, the introductions at the parties and random conversations that were popping up everywhere...

The highlight of the trip for me was hanging out at the Ustream.tv Studios where they were streaming live video all day and evening long. This is where I was pulled into a panel with Jeff "The Dude" Dowd and Robert Scoble. Jeff is the real life Big Lebowski (Jeff helped launch the Cohen Bros first film, Blood Simple & is one of the founders of the Sundance Institute). Robert is a social media pioneer and celebrity blogger / photographer. After our discussion that night, we hit some great parties and met a ton of wonderful people.

It was so powerful to be in a place where everyone with similar interests and passions converged to discuss, share and celebrate the web.

Here are a couple of pics from Robert Scoble. I'll post another blog post soon about some other adventures and tweets from SXSW.

Associate Press gives a shout out to eGuiders.com

Happy Friday. I wanted to share some more good news about eGuiders. Yesterday afternoon a story about the site came out in the Associated Press. Jake Coyle, the writer of the article, got some great quotes from Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara. Many thanks to Jake for getting the human element of our story. I don't know, but I'm thinking a Pulitzer Prize could be in his future for this piece... The article has since been picked up by over 100 news outlets in North America. It may reach 200 –300 by Monday. Here are the outlets that ran the story so far:

Yahoo News
MSN Entertainment
MSNBC
ABCNews.com
CBSNews.com
Washington Post
Chicago Tribune
Newsday
Hartford Courant
Austin American Statesman
Baltimore Sun
Orlando Sentinel
Contra Costa Times
Minneapolis Star Tribune
Sacramento Bee
Seattle Times
Philadelphia Inquirer
Denver Post
The Record
Modesto Bee
AOL Canada
Myrtle Beach Sun News
Metromix.com
Lethbridge Herald
The Olympian
Metro Canada
Winnipeg Free Press
Merced Sun Star
The State (SC)
The Times Picayune
San Jose Mercury News
Seattle Post Intelligencer
The Cleveland Plain Dealer
Brandon Sun
The Canadian Press
Kentucky.com
Belleville News Democrat
Centre Daily Times
Columbus Ledger-Enquirer
Maximum Edge
Fresno Bee
The Southern Ledger
Idahostatesman.com
Monterey County Herald
Ithaca Journal
The Salinas Californian
Times Union (Albany)
NJ.com (Newark Star-Ledger)
Heraldonline.com
Examiner.com
The Oregonian
Mid Columbia Tri City Herald
WGNtv.com (Chicago)
myPHL17.com (Philadelphia)
Reflector.com
Syracuse.com
The Patriot News
KTLA.com (Los Angeles)
KWGN.com (Denver)
Fox4kc.com (Kansas City)
Myutahjazz.com
Bay Ledger News Zone
39online.com (Houston)
Daylife.com
Topix.com
Dailypress.com (VA)
Whnt.com (Alabama)
Newsmeat.com
Mlive.com (Michigan)
Masslive.com (Massachusetts)
WTOP.com (Washington, DC)
CFnews13.com (Central Florida)
CJAD.com (Quebec)
Canadaeast.com
Omaha World Herald
The Express Times
Findlaw.com
Inform.com
Medicine Hat News

Traffic for the site has been through the roof since the 17th of February. Our first newsletter also went out today. Please visit eGuiders.com and subscribe. It's a great way to stay in the loop for all the latest videos.

A new spotlight section is also going live on Monday and it's gonna be a good one!

Okay, it's time to play with little Mitzi. She's just too much fun!!

Marc

Marc Ostrick & eGuiders.com on Fox Business Network

Today, I was interviewed on Fox Business Network live via satellite from Los Angeles to discuss the launch of eGuiders.com. It was one of the most unnatural and anxiety provoking experiences I have had in a long time. But I have to admit it was still a fun challenge.

It's tough to stare directly into a camera (with a 1970s smiley face taped on top) and pretend like I am talking to a person who I can't see. I had an earpiece jammed into my ear and could only hear their tinny audio - the audio feed sounded as if it was coming from China.

Overall, it went well, but the two hosts, Tom Sullivan and Cheryl Casone I don't think visited the site over the weekend just to get the idea of what eGuiders.com was about. They busted my balls a bit, but what do you expect at Fox. I'm just happy to have a platform to get the word out. It took a few seconds for me to loosen up a bit, but by the end I was getting the hang of it. I'm curious to hear your thoughts...

eGuiders.com Gets Some Love

Wow. What an exhilarating 24 hours...

Today was a great day for eGuiders.com, a new online video site that I launched in December. We had two really fantastic write ups from Mike Snider in the USA Today. We were also featured on ABC News and several other major publications.

The first piece, "eGuiders cuts through clutter of a gazillion videos online" - was on the cover page of the Life section of USA Today. It establishes the mission of eGuiders as the "TV Guide for the Internet" and discussing the impetus for the site.

The second piece - "eGuiders' human voice' leads the way to worthwhile videos" - highlights the human element that makes eGuiders unique and discusses the talent involved, including a sidebar of video suggestions from eGuiders.

Following the USA Today article, ABC's Tech Bytes -- a consumer technology news site that is distributed to all ABC affiliates nationwide --

featured the launch of eGuiders in a segment: "TV Guide' for Internet
Videos - New Web site organizes the seemingly endless numbers of videos
available online."

eGuiders is currently one of the top tech stories on ABCNews.com and is
the lead segment on Tech Bytes.

Last Friday, we were also very fortunate to have a mention in Time Magazine. The article is entitled "Viewing Outside The Box" and it looks at the various websites that are giving consumers additional choices for where they can watch their favorite programming online.

We also got a great nod for eGuiders on David Bianculli’s blog, TV Worth Watching. The whole day was quite thrilling, full of hugs and high-fives...

eGuider Update

Just Getting Familiar With This Cool Facebook Feature.   I haven't posted in a while.  Just slammed trying to get my site running like butter.

Check out eGUIDERS.COM when you have a chance.

Thanks,

MO

The Daily Online VIdeo Fix: Merry Christmas

Okay, a friend of mine from high-school and fellow eGuider, Nicole Snyder, turned me onto John Roberts' YouTube videos. When I started looking at some of his other very funny Jewish Mom impersonations, this one struck a chord for Christmas. This guy just nails this character. If you're not a kid from Long Island, Miami Beach or some other Jewish suburb, this may be a bit strange. But trust me, this kid brings up some funny and horrifying memories. Thank the good lord for overbearing moms and the comedy they have subsequently produced. As my mentor, David Milch, says - Storytelling is turning the pain of the past is the future tense of joy.

Merry Christmas everyone. Have a piece of honey-baked ham for me!

The Daily Online VIdeo Fix: eGUIDERS.COM BETA IS LAUNCHING

I am proud and honored to present my latest project: eGUIDERS.com. We have great people recommending great web videos. So, stop searching and start watching!

Over the last year, I have been working with a talented team of designers, developers, reviewers, writers and online media junkies who have given their best to make sure we have a successful launch. Today we are one step closer with the beta version going live.

Please take some time to check out the site, subscribe to the newsletter, watch some amazing videos and see what we're about. Please spread the word about the site to friends and family!

Thanks to the team at Plank Design in Montreal for burning the midnight oil to get us up for the holidays. Shout out to CatalystSF for their strategy and support. Evangeline Morphos for her great ideas and super-sharp mind. Adam Klein for saying the right things at the right time. And a huge thank you for all the incredible eGuiders who worked diligently to make sure we are kicking things off on the right foot. But most of all, thanks to David Milch, who with his unwavering support and vision has helped make this all happen!

So, what are you waiting for. Check out eGuiders.com and start spreading the word!

Thanks,
Marc Ostrick

The Daily Online Video Fix: YouTube HD

Will this be the death of Vimeo?  YouTube just released their HD section with a super huge player.