Well, not literally, but regardless of what you think about YouTube, there is no question that it has been a blessing for some of us. For instance, you wouldn’t know about all the activity that is going around the RNC even at St. Paul, unless you checked the videos of anti-war demonstrations. Or you wouldn’t see how people interrupted McCain’s speech last night. Of course, our republican friends tried to silence the war critics with their U.S.A chants but with YouTube, there is always someone watching you. Whether it is the lady who was bloodied by the police at St. Paul or the husband who was caught cheating on video, YouTube has it all. For that my friends, we should be grateful, knowing that would still not satisfy Google’s ambitions to get their return on investment on YouTube.

Don’t you just love YouTube? Not only you get free content and pirated content (literally) on it all the time, you also get precious moments that politicians have on hot mic (like those that seem to be happening a lot lately on MSNBC). In the latest unintentional (?) MSNBC hot mic episode, Hutchinson and the Palin choice were up for discussion and our good politicians do show their second face off the mic. Regardless of what you think of YouTube, one can’t stop but admire this amazing channel that has brought us so many long-lasting memories (such as the face of the poor boy that is forced by Mrs. Palin to marry the daughter as we all know what happened to Mrs. Palin’s brother in law). Besides, the RNC has been tearfully boring so without these slip ups on YouTube, I am not sure how Republicans and their whole exclusive elite party can get any coverage (especially when they have been bashing the media for the past few days to preempt any attack on Mrs. Palin).

Regardless of what analysts say about the future of Twitter and Microblogging, you can’t help but acknowledge the power of Twitter and its community. But what people don’t realize is that Twitter is already more effective for marketers than FaceBook and is gaining fast on e-mail. Now a NY Journalist is planning to publish a book on Twitter. I personally think it’s absolutely a great idea. Will it succeed? It depend on how it will be done. But one thing is for sure. You sure do get a lot of publicity for doing new things on Twitter, and the book may actually end up having more followers than it would through traditional publishing. Watch this space for more developments.

Google has taken another step to world domination by introducing Chrome browser which at the very least beats IE 7 in most departments. Google has been the most innovative web company for years now but with their own browser and their entrace to the mobile OS market, they are now declaring an all out war against Microsoft. Google Chrome comes equipped with Google Gadgets technology which allows you to bookmark and use Web applications without accessing your browser. Chrome is not available for Mac platform at this moment but Google has indicated to desire to introduce a Mac version soon.

As you all know by now, hurricane Gustuva was not as bad as it was feared, but nevertheless the damages were significant enough to call for a relief effort by the government. But this year unlike last year, we had people twittering from their homes describing their experience with the hurricane. Now, I never recommend staying and riding out a potentially devastating hurricane like Gustav, but nevertheless sites suchas Twitter now allow us to communicate better and even help the relief effort. It’s good to see that people have taken matters in their own hands when the government is failing. Who says Twitter is useless? Check out this cool story about twittering in hurricane.

FaceBook folks are very smart people. They understand that Twitter and Microblogging as a trend is catching fire. So it was not surprising to see them release their Live Feed service. The Live Feed is not technically a clone of twitter, but you can technically use it as you would Twitter.

The Live Feed feature shows FaceBook’s intention to be more than just a player in the microblogging market. They want to own it, and one wouldn’t be surprised if people switched from Twitter to FaceBook with all the problems that the microblogging has been experiencing lately. Out of curiousity, will you switch to twitter now that they have added Live Feed?

In a shocking move that could effectively end the way we consume Internet bandwidth these days, Comcast has announced that starting October 1st, they will be putting a 250 GB data cap on their customers’ accounts. Comcast argues that 250 GB monthly data usage is good for any of the following:

- Send 50 million emails (at 0.05 KB/email)
- Download 62,500 songs (at 4 MB/song)
- Download 125 standard-definition movies (at 2 GB/movie)
- Upload 25,000 hi-resolution digital photos (at 10 MB/photo)

While I agree that the 250 GB cap is fairly reasonable for average consumer, with people spending more time online watching videos, Comcast is going two birds with one stone. After all, if you have a cap on how many movies people can watch online, they will be forced to get the Comcast Digital Cable services, which by the way is unjustifiably too expensive. I wouldn’t be surprised if other companies followed on this trend which means the unlimited Internet that we know today can be extinct real soon. What’s next, we wonder. Paying a cent to send emails?

Facebook is the top dog in the social networking community. A whole lot of people log on to FaceBook everyday to catch up with their friends, the latest applications, and even their favorite blogs. While Facebook dominates the social media market, LinkedIn seems to be a more viable social network for the future. The FaceBook generation are much younger than the average overall LinkedIn users. In essence, at some point, FaceBook users graduate to LinkedIn, and while they continue to use FaceBook, they will use LinkedIn and similar sites to advance their networks and business relationships (see diagram below):

There is no question that FaceBook has all the tools to retain the majority of its users, but LinkedIn is a more niche social network that continues to grow faster than LinkedIn in the foreseeable future. One thing that gives me the impression about LinkedIn’s bright future is the fact that you need to network to be successful in your career and while networking on Facebook could work out well for you, LinkedIn is a more professional way of networking, which goes beyond people’s hobbies and personal stories. Can LinkedIn catch FaceBook eventually? That’s hard to tell, but with the current 10% monthly growth rate, I wouldn’t be surprised.