Since launching our eCommerce platform for online retailers we have been exposed to loads of cool e-tail sites in our travels, so I thought it would be neat to introduce a new feature to our blog that showcases the ones that are doing really innovative things. 

At this year's Shop.org Annual Summit we met some of the gang from MyShape.com, an online retailer that finds clothes for you based on "your unique body shape." Interesting, I thought, and being someone that is proportionally challenged when it comes to clothing fit (AKA every woman on the planet!), I thought I should investigate further.

MyShape.com

Having ordered plenty of clothing online, I have come to realise that fit guides offered by most online shopping sites are dubious at best. What makes MyShape truly innovative is that it will find clothes for you based on your specific measurements and even pre-determine what size you should be for each item of clothing you select. Membership is free and once you've inputted all your measurements, MyShape will fill your "personal shop" with only the clothing that is best suited to your particular body shape. With an array of high-to low-end designers and brands there is something at MyShape to fit not only everyone's size, but also everyone's budget.  Alas, they do not ship internationally, so my investigation stops here, but it looks as if they are working to fix that, and judging by the feedback peppered throughout the site, there have been a lot of satisfied customers!

Know of any eCommerce sites, or just cool sites in general, that you feel are doing truly innovative things we'd love to her from you! Leave us your suggestions in the comments section or tweet us @OverlayTV.

UPDATE: Good news! Just heard from @MyShape and they told me that customers outside the U.S. can get their "shapes" shipped internationally by using  BongoUS.com. And here's the bonus: international customers who use Bongo will be offered a MyShape.com gift certificate!

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Overlay.TV is expanding and so is our team. We are currently looking for a talented Flash developer with experience developing interactive user interfaces using object-oriented ActionScript. The ideal candidate has experience creating or using UI frameworks, delivering video using Flash, working with the camera and mic, publishing live video to media servers, integrating with web services, working with CDN’s, handling cross-domain issues and using various skinning techniques.

A solid grasp of object-oriented programming, unit testing, debuggers, source control systems, build management, HTTP and web development, code profiling and performance tuning is expected.

The candidate will be passionate about creating robust designs that perform well, look great and are easy to use. He or she should also be comfortable working in a small team, collaborating and presenting ideas.

Required Skills

Flash AS3

AJAX, JSON, XHTML, JavaScript

XML, Regular expressions, text manipulation

Photoshop, Illustrator

Desired Skills

Flash Media Server or Red5

Experience specifically building AS3 video players

Adobe Flex

Ruby-on-Rails

Contact Information:

 If you think this sounds like the perfect job for you please contact us at careers@overlay.tv.

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Just read an interesting article on AdAge today, which talks about a sharp decline in percentage of users who click on online display ads. Couple this with recent numbers of online ad spend decline and you’ve got yourself a pretty scary picture of the state of content monetization. But is it really?

Semi, or unrelated display ads, are not like other links on the page. They usually bring no utility or immediate value to users; more like “content high jacking” than “content monetization”. It’s no surprise then that people are fed up with this noise. We do still click on things  - to get to more relevant content - so click-through is not dead, just getting smarter.

I think it’s got something to do with the packaging. When we visit web pages we very easily separate between “content” and “noise”.  The former is what we came in for, while the latter is what we have to put up with because we are not willing to pay for the real content. We’re obviously less likely to click on the “noise” which drives its price down, making it even more difficult for good content providers to survive. It’s not the underlying content though, it’s the ineffective way of associating the message with a call-for-action.

One of the main reasons for this, I believe, is the lack of relevance due to weak contextual association. In order to have an effective “participation” from viewers, one has to bring closer the enabler (primary content) and the CFA or ad (secondary content). There are two dimensions to this. The first one is space: if it’s relevant to the content then couple it with the content, don’t just throw it into the same container (page) and expect the two messages to stick. The second is time: most content is fundamentally linear (text you read through, video you watch though, or audio you listen to) and comprises of lots of smaller pieces of information (a sentence, a frame in a video or segment of audio). It is those pieces, rather than the big piece, that could be monetized, just like hypertext links to relevant/contextual content are being followed.

The ultimate goal is to personalize this, to get the right message delivered to the right person at the right time in the right context. Lots of progress is being made towards these goals by my company (Overlay.TV) and others.

Click-through is not dead, it’s just getting smarter.

[Orginally posted at  http://kishkush.com/2009/10/01/is-click-through-really-dead/]

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In my last post I mentioned that I would be sharing some examples of companies and organizations that have integrated the Overlay.TV for Retail platform into their websites. Despite what its name implies, our retail platform has many functions that go beyond just allowing users to shop through video, it can also provide them with an opportunity to share and even give through video. Sounds like a lot of work but it's actually quite simple.

Case in point: Our friends at United Way Ottawa, United Way Toronto and the Government of Canada Workplace Charitable Campaign (GCWCC) have all implemented a version of the Overlay.TV Community Recorder, whereby their users and staff can record or upload videos of themselves sharing ideas and stories about helping the community. You don't need to be a computer whiz or filmmaker to use the recorder either. All you need is a web cam or video camera to get started. Giving doesn't have to be just about a monetary donation, it can also be about communities coming together to share their collective experiences about how we can make our workplaces, cities, environments and the world better and cleaner and about teaching others to be more tolerant of our differences. Simple.

United Way Ottawa

Have a story or an idea you would like to share? Check out the links below to record your own video and to find out what other people in your community are doing to give back. Feel free to share your video, or any other video you find inspirational, either by email or to Twitter and Facebook by using the share tabs located below the player.

United Way Ottawa

United Way Toronto

GCWCC

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Time for an update on what's been going on at Overlay.TV. A few months ago we launched a new platform called Overlay.TV for Retail. At the time, the focus on our site was split between user-generated content and our new eCommerce video platform, but it became clear in the months that followed that interest in the UGC side was dwindling and that our energies would be better spent if we concentrated solely on our retail platform. It wasn't an easy decision to make as we had some very loyal users, but we felt that the new platform needed all of our love and attention, especially in these early stages, in order to deliver the best possible product  to all of our clients. Check out the revamped site to see how our focus has changed and to find out more about Overlay.TV for Retail.

So, with our sites set on making Overlay.TV for Retail the most widely used eCommerce video platform, we thought it was time to have a coming out out party of sorts, and what better place to do that than in Las Vegas! Myself and some of the gang from Overlay.TV traveled to Vegas for the Shop.org Annual Summit 2009 at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino where we set up shop in a 10x20 booth.

The Summit was 3 days of non-stop meet and greets. Not only were we able to introduce ourselves to loads of people from all over the world, but we were also given the opportunity to see what's new in the world of online retail. What we heard a lot was that online retailers are looking for new ways to integrate video, product and user-generated,  into their sites to better engage existing customers and entice new ones. It's not just about pushing products and shopping, but about building a community of like minded consumers and giving them the ability to share their experiences with others. If you you missed the Summit, check out the Shop.org Blog for recaps on the show and keynote speakers. Thanks to the Shop.org crew for putting together a fabulous trade show. We couldn't have asked for a better coming out party.

Stay tuned, because over the next coming weeks and months I'll be posting stories and examples of how our clients are successfully integrating the Overlay.TV for Retail onto their sites.

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Overlay.TV is pleased to announce today the launch of its latest platform, Overlay.TV for Retail. Overlay.TV for Retail is an all-in-one eCommerce video solution with all the tools a business needs to provide its customers with an interactive shopping experience combined with outstanding customer care, in one easy-to-use environment. Our new platform seamlessly integrates into existing websites and offers custom branded players that allow customers to click and shop directly from your inventory catalog right in the video.

Example of Overlay.TV for Retail Authoring Tool

Example of the Overlay.TV for Retail Player Website Integration

We have created a demo website, www.flixtore.com, that showcases our tool and how it can be used to engage consumers and enhance their shopping experience with clickable video. For more information download our White Paper for Retail or contact us at retail@overlay.tv. Read full press release here.

Stay tuned! We have a major retailer signed that will be launching this summer!

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Welcome to the new and improved Overlay.TV. Over the past couple of weeks our team has been diligently working away to give our site a new facelift. Our goal for the re-design, based in part on community feedback, was to make information more accessible for people with business and development interests, while still maintaining the UGC aspects of our site.

The hompage now has three options to choose from: Creators, Business and Developers with each of these sections providing more information specific to your needs, including features and benefits, demos, downloadable PDFs and contact info.  There is also a promo video explaining what we do and showcases how clickable video can enhance your audience's viewing pleasure.  As always we welcome your thoughts and feedback regarding our site changes and encourage you to leave them here or on our official Twitter page @OverlayTV.

Ahhhh ... now that's refreshing!

Special Thanks to The Anybody for graciously allowing Overlay.TV to use their music for our promo video.

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One of the joys of a startup is that it's a continuously evolving process, one that's always adapting to market conditions and the needs of customers.  We've changed a lot over the past two years, from a focus on building our player, to working with Disney to help them build a massive interactive UGC campaign.

Now, we're evolving even further, and we wanted to make sure that this redesign better illustrates who we are as a company, and what Overlay.TV is as a product.  We wanted to show Overlay.TV as more than just a player, but as a business solution for many types of organizations.

Our course now is still true to what we set out to do at the beginning - to bring interactive, clickable and revenue-generating video to market in a way that is simple to create, manage and explore.

I hope you like the new site - and would love to hear your comments.  Feel free to leave them here, or message me on Twitter @RobLane.

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Backbone Magazine, a Canadian IT magazine that itself has had remarkable growth and staying power, establishing itself as a trusted source of IT information in the frosty nether regions has recently published its second annual Top 25 Up and Comers, a list that recognizes the leaders of tomorrow within the Canadian ICT industry. To make the list, companies had to be established no earlier than 2005 and were selected for their innovation, uniqueness and long-term potential.

The list is from Canadian ICT companies appearing on the 2009 Branham300 Edition and their combined force surpassed $70 billion in revenue for the first time in Branham300 history! Overcoming increasing economic pressures, these Canadian companies experienced a whopping 18 per cent growth - collectively generating $75.97 billion in revenue.

The envelope(s) please...(in alphabetical order, not ranked): (more...)

backbone · branham 300 · canada · ict · new technology · revenue · top 25 · up and comers

Today we are taking the wraps off what promises to be our most widely adopted technology to date - Overlay.TV for Interaction.  This breakthrough technology has been in the works for some time now and we are proud to be delivering it as a first-time extension for interactive overlays that transcend online video.  Already this morning we have seen thousands of examples of it in use.

The premise is very similar to the Overlay.TV technology we have been working with in the past with one major difference - it does not require an online video and targets.  Instead real objects are placed in the path or line-of-sight for a user and they are able to fully interact with the objects.

To illustrate the difference, take a look at the two examples below, courtesy of our new user, charlesandmarie.com and their creation, Fab5TV.  In the first model, we see the person enabling interaction with the object through the use of an Overlay.TV product widget that allows viewers to get more information on, or even purchase, the product in hand.

In the second example this powerful technology takes over, and we see the person actually interacting with an object themselves - a fully tactile experience that perfectly replicates how we interact with objects in real life.

We expect to see massive adoption for this in a short time, and are already working on cases such as:

• being able to actually drive the car you see in an advertisement or movie
• shopping in physical stores for objects you see online, or interacting with them after shipping from e-commerce
• meeting people in person and shaking their hand or hugging them

This also opens up new possibilities in word-of-mouth or viral marketing, wherein people will describe the experience they have with these objects to other people.
Overlay.TV for Interaction will continue development over the course of the year, and we will keep you informed as we uncover new and exciting use cases for everyday interaction with objects new and old.

(please bear in mind that this was originally posted on April 1st)

fab5 · interaction · objects · overlay · Overlay.TV · technology