Digesting Media post AOL, Yahoo, Google and You Tube

Why the hype about Digital Media? If you are still bookmarking your favorite web sites please read on.

The way media is being created, digested and monetized is undergoing dramatic change and is why venture firms are investing in media start-ups. Also developing rapidly are specialty services firms to support the industry.

For the past few years the digital media buzz has been driven by User Generated Content. The most notable places to find popular content today: You Tube, Facebook, MySpace and the blogs. Anything that was called Social Networking yesterday is now called Social Media and will soon just be called Media again.

To understand the hype you have to use an RSS Reader (a user controlled media guide: "tv guide" for the digital age ) the most commercial are Google Reader and My Yahoo but the competitive field is growing and the stakes are high.

Once you have set up your feeds you receive new content from your favorite sources as they are published to the web (and they are then pushed to your reader).

Today, your feed will likely consist of some newspaper topics and blogs you discover. Tomorrow they will be episodes of your favorite tv show, evening news clips and entirely new set of micro-publishers (bloggers) who are creating content (video, audio and written word) on subjects of interest to you. Finding and subscribing a feed is made easier by the RSS Reader. The opportunity for publishers for content is large - as feeds increase the number of "subscribers" (viewers, visitors etc...) they monetize the content by selling ads on the page and in the streams.

When the tipping point is realized the ubiquity of the Internet and the power of digital media will be fully realized.

The B to B service providers like Feedroom, and Kickapp's will see their business grow at an rapidly expanding rate and more importantly the B to C providers like Motionbox, Oddcast's Voki and their competitors who are struggling to monetize the services in the face of free offerings from... You Tube, Google etc... will realize their full potential through their ability to share in the advertising revenue stream.