| December 8, 2009 | Jimmy Kimmel Tries Out Yoostar (Again!) Tonight |
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Tonight Jimmy Kimmel will debut another Yoostar video on his show "Jimmy Kimmel Live" which airs at 12 midnight ET and 12 midnight PT on ABC. It's the best one yet. We hope you tune in. Last month, Jimmy recorded and aired two Yoostar performances of scenes from "The Godfather" and "Friday the 13th, Part 3." Here they are, in case you missed them... Jimmy Kimmel as Don Corleone in "The Godfather" (aired on "Jimmy Kimmel Live" on Wednesday, November 11, 2009) Jimmy Kimmel as Jason Voorhees in "Friday the 13th, Part 3" (aired on "Jimmy Kimmel Live" on Friday, November 13, 2009) Labels: jimmykimmel, media, press, video, yoostar posted by Jess Barron @ 3:39 PM 
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| December 3, 2009 | Yoostar Among "Today" show's: Hollywood's Hottest Gift Ideas |
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This morning on NBC's "Today" show, Yoostar is recommended as one of "Hollywood's Hottest Gift Ideas." "Today" show hosts Matt Lauer and Al Roker used Yoostar to perform in a classic scene from the "Blues Brothers." Check it out: posted by Jess Barron @ 8:28 AM
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| November 27, 2009 | Yoostar Tops Tons of 2009 Holiday Gift Idea Lists |
| November 3, 2009 | Yoostar Video Backgrounds... for Blogging and More |
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Yoostar allows you not only to insert yourself into scenes from popular movies and TV shows, but also to put yourself into just about any type of scene you can imagine with Yoostar Video Backgrounds. With over 100 different backgrounds -- from urban cityscapes such as Times Square New York and Hong Kong at night to well-known wonders of the world like the Taj Mahal and the pyramids, you can put yourself almost anywhere without leaving your living room. What kinds of clips would you make with video backgrounds? Here are 5 different ideas that Debbie and I had: 1. Video backgrounds are perfect for video bloggers or vloggers. It's quick and easy to record a video, and incredibly easy to embed the video into your personal blog. For example, I recently put myself into an underwater background to create this video blog about three of the best digital underwater cameras of 2009. I was standing in my kitchen the whole time, but was able to transport myself to a location that better suited the topic I was talking about. 2. Send a quick personalized message to someone. Debbie posted this video showing her lounging in a tropical beach setting, assuring her boss that she's working during her vacation. (For some reason, I'm not 100% sure I believe her, by the way...) If you want to send a personalized message telling someone you miss them or Happy New Year, video backgrounds are a cool way to add some style and creativity to your communication. The Yoostar widget makes it easy for you to embed your video messages into Facebook or send them in an email. 3. Perform a poem or sing a song. During a recent stop in Austin, Texas on the Yoostar Casting Tour, there were a number of people who used Yoostar's Video Backgrounds to showcase their original poetry and music. Texas State University student and Austin slam poetry champion Faylita Hicks gave a performance of one of her original poems in front of the Times Square at night background. 4. You can use Yoostar's video backgrounds to tell a story -- real or made up. I tried out the video background called "Letters Rain Down" to share a "Matrix"-inspired tale about a recent evening out at a club. I called my video "Don't take the red pill," and you can decide for yourself whether it's fact or fiction. 5. Give us a report. Yoostar's Video Backgrounds are great for independent journalists posting video updates. There are great backgrounds specifically for financial reports and even legal reporting from the steps of the Supreme Court. I created this quick report on the housing market as an example. (NOTE: I'm no economics expert, but I have been known to play one on Yoostar.) Those are just five examples of ways to use video backgrounds. We can't wait to see more of what people do with them. Check out the complete library of Yoostar video backgrounds, and leave a comment below to let us know if there is a particular background you want to see. We're adding new ones every week. Labels: blog, blogger, media, video, yoostar posted by Jess Barron @ 2:43 AM
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| October 13, 2009 | Chris and I Went on CNN |
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When we woke up yesterday, we were supposed to look at a wedding location in Malibu, but they canceled on us. Then we got a voice message from a friend who said, "You should call me. CNN is looking for people for a segment that you guys would be perfect for." A full week after the announcement of David Letterman's affairs, office relationships are still something everyone is talking about. CNN wanted to speak with people who had gotten engaged/married after meeting in the workplace. Chris and I met in 2005 when we were working together at Yahoo!. We met in a company-wide editorial meeting in Sunnyvale in a conference room called Apollo. There was an initial attraction for both of us, but since our careers at Yahoo! were incredibly important to us, we debated whether or not it was worth risking an involvement with a co-worker. We sat 30 feet away from each other in an open newsroom. Overall our advice to anyone contemplating a romance with someone in their office was to take it slow, and be aware of the rules in your workplace. Chris and I waited four months before we ended up kissing each other. We also researched our company policy about workplace romances. I was an editorial manager at the time, and I didn't want this to reflect poorly on either of us. We were honest and up-front with our co-workers when we started dating, and we tried to be self-aware with no PDAs or flirting in the office in order to make sure none of our colleagues were uncomfortable. I was nervous about telling them about the relationship, but surprised at how supportive our co-workers were. My hope is that we had some good advice to offer, but sometimes I think luck plays such a big part in success. There is no doubt about it that we were lucky. I'm not entirely sure I would recommend a workplace romance to anyone who is contemplating it. I have heard the opposite side of this tale (the horror story) from many friends, and I know if the relationship ends up badly it can have uncomfortable consequences. I guess the important thing is to go in understanding the risks involved. Here's the video from CNN: posted by Jess Barron @ 4:56 PM
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| November 8, 2006 | Elex Success |
Even though I've been awake and working for most of the last 48 hours, I'm definitely excited about the Elections results, AND  I'm excited to point out that SearchEngineWatch just published a post titled "In the Elections Results Race, Yahoo!'s the Winner," saying that Yahoo!'s Election Day 2006 coverage was better than Google's, MSN's, and AOL's. They called out this interactive map that Chris built in the post. Considering this is pretty much one of the only positive pieces of press I've seen about Yahoo! vis a vis Google in the past year (see this Drift post "The Swift-Boating of Yahoo!" for more info), I'd say it was a smashing success.See, just as I pointed out two years ago in my post and flickr photoset describing how the 2004 Presidential Elections as covered at Yahoo! there are benefits to having actual human journalists taking care to gather and present information, rather then computer algorithms choosing and presenting news -- especially about important, controversial, and complicated topics. Labels: chris, elections, google, journalists, map, media, news, reporting, yahoo posted by Jess Barron @ 2:58 PM
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| September 28, 2005 | I'm in "The Economist" (sorry Allyson, it's no "Star" magazine...) |
In yesterday's Yahoo! Broadband portals' team meeting, my boss Jim walked in and announced -- "I was just reading the latest issue of 'The Economist,' and there's a picture of Jess in there from Burning Man!" "Please tell me that I have my clothes on in the photo," I joked. (I already had some advance warning about this possible "media appearance" because I had spoken with writer/journalist Kurt Opprecht on the playa while I was inside my art project -- the Playa Psychiatric Help Booth -- and he had mentioned he was writing a piece about the economy of Burning Man for (who else?) The Economist. He talked to me for a while and asked if he could take a photo of the booth.) You can find Kurt's piece (and this photo) on page 41 of The Economist for September 24th-30th, 2005. The article is also available online as premium content, if you have a subscription to The Economist. You can view a snapshot of it here on flickr. Anyway, back to the Yahoo! Broadband portals team meeting where this was all mentioned before I had seen the photo or the piece (before I knew what I was wearing or how it was all presented)... At this point, Allyson looks across the table and says, "Jess, I'm aware that The Economist is a well-respected publication, but I'd honestly be more impressed if you had your photo in "Us Weekly" or "Star" magazine." (Allyson's comment certainly sheds some light on the state of American Culture in 2005, and as a scholar in this department I promise you I will get to the bottom of it...) Labels: americanculture, art, burningman, economist, media posted by Jess Barron @ 11:46 AM
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| April 4, 2005 | Will Our Next Pope Be a Blogger? |
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This ABC News piece describes how Pope John Paul II used his media-savvy to become a global superstar. (He released a music video, featuring him singing and reciting psalms and the Gospels. He also recorded the rosary.) It's also interesting to note that he became pope in 1978, the same year that instant global television became available. An AP news article published on Yahoo! News today explains the difficult process of determining the next pope, there's an aside mentioning the Internet and how it may affect the selection of the new pope: ...And there's another source of information that wasn't around in 1978 -- the Internet. A cardinal's every utterance is now stored there, if his fellow churchmen are curious. That could also make or break some of the "papabile," as potential candidates are known in Italian. I wonder if it would be possible to have an Internet-savvy pope. Do the cardinals ever go online? Could we ever have a pope who had his own blog? Labels: blog, blogger, media, news, pope posted by Jess Barron @ 11:35 AM
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