I stayed up until 2 AM again to watch the second WebbAlert show (embedded above). I stand by my words written twenty-four hours ago: this show is a winner.
Some will comment below that I’m only giving the show a thumbs up in the hope for TechCrunch mentions (there was one today for our Amazon/Webvan story, for example). They’re right, but for the wrong reasons. I’m genuinely excited to see what is being covered and, as I said yesterday, bloggers are going to see a mention on the show as a badge of honor and buzz about it. That’s a brilliant business decision.
Some people commented yesterday that the show should allow user comments around each episode. I agree, it’s a no brainer and I hope to see it soon.
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I’d just say the host needs to take it easy on the facial expressions/enthusiasm or zoom out… but I guess it works since it’s so short. Otherwise, I would agree — it’s a great show
One of the founders of Castfire, the company that is working with WebbAlert on all of the video publishing, here. There is a known issue of IE7 browsers on TechCrunch for the video. It is an issue that we discovered yesterday and are rushing a fix into production. If you are on IE7, you can go to http://www.webbalert.com/ and will be able to view the content. It appears that certain advertising elements in the sidebar on TechCrunch are affecting the player. Sorry for the inconvenience — a fix is almost complete.
That show has the most annoying presentation ever. Perhaps it’s an American thing? Anyway, I’ll be sticking with some of the original vloggers (Josh Leo anyone? http://joshleo.blip.tv/).
Soooo painful to watch her - cringe factor is off the charts. What is with fat geeks and annoying mildly attractive dorky girls?
Still, most of us think she’s cute. But not as cute as the chick from mobuzz
No..the show sucks..same old TV glamour formula coming onto internet..
Hey! It’s her second show! And it’s already much better than the first one. At this rate she’ll be just about perfect in no-time. I hope she’ll do fine.
Hi Mike,
You say you stayed awake till 2am, what is that UK Time?
I’m from London, UK?
Thanks
your such a slut now mike. come on.
I have to say after watching her first broadcast a couple of times yesterday and seeing this one this morning, her presentation can be a bit grating. Maybe it’s her perky enthusiasm or her voice or perhaps it’s her face which is a bit too close to the camera? Perhaps they could zoom out? Anyway, there is so much potential in this show that I’m going to continue to watch it.
I feel as though she may come out of the screen and eat me alive. I’d agree with Chris—pull the camera back.
the show is perfect ! i enjoy it a lot ! good job
I have yet to watch a show all the way. if she just read it normally I might make it but I ain’t sure. Good show but I think I could do it better but I ain’t a hot woman :p
I’m going to marry her some day.
Yeah she’s annoying to watch but I’d still hit it.
Nothing amazing here. I agree that the facial expression/distortions are distracting. She’s no better than Cali Lewis. I’ve watched the first two because TechCrunch trumped the show, but that’ll be all for me. All this has done is make me doubt the objectivity of this blog.
Shez getting hotter by the show
So I get it, she is cute. Ok I get it, it is a videoblog so it is her opinion. Now, ok I dont get why she has to drag me into it. Somehow it feels she is trying to force her opinions onto me, definetly a no no for me. Also, I feel like I will eventually get epilepsy because of her facial expressions.
hi coming from a low bandwidth country i have a suggestion
why not have a audio only version of the broadcast ??
maybe u guys dont know but watching the news feed on low bandwidth can be trying on the nerves ..with her looks and mannerism ..i’ll go for the audio feed ..what say
The facial expressions, the winching and the “you are sitting on top of me” is just too much. Fix those things and you might be ok.
It’s pretty bad when the comments are mostly either “turn off the sound and watch” or “hide the video and listen.”
Michael Michael Michael …
There is something going on here, being so damn enthusiastic about any show on day 1 and 2 ? I guess we need to add this site to your fanboy list, along with digg and facebook.
With 2 shows in the bag, it seems only ok to me. Certainly nothing to keep me up late. Oh wow, a detailed section on RSS.
But again, with coveted mentions by TechCrunch, her odds just went thru the roof.
Just try not to play “favorites” so obviously.
@ Alllen Stern: Really? I wouldn’t mind it so much if she were “sitting on top of me.”
Now that’s just plain innappropriate…
I like Morgan Webb, liked her since techTv. Any reason as to why she is talking so loud? She has been in broadcasting for a while now, maybe she just inst comfortable yet.
Interesting show though, I’ll subscribe - and turn down the volume.
I like it. It’s entertaining, engaging, relevant to my interests and puts me out of my misery. Anyone who doesn’t like it can bugger off to another channel, just like with TV. As she has a degree in Rhetoric, it’s quite clear the over acting is completely deliberate and somewhat of a piss take. Entertaining none the less. Just waiting for someone to make a Ning-based Webb Alert vs Mobuzz rate my hot or not mashup thing.
How is this show “a winner” Mike? Although I will say that the segments are very well produced (the best webcast I’ve seen so far), you’ve still got the issue of content availibility. This is why NBC nightly news is pointless, because you’ve already been privy to the news via web during the day.
This girl is recanting blogs that all the blog freaks in the valley have read the day before, so in essence she is not telling me anything new (and I only read 2-3 blogs/day max).
While I do feel that the niche webcast idea has legs, they need to be doing more indepth stuff rather than regurgitating stuff we all read yesterday. This girl is obviously attractive, I’m sure she can score interviews with web geeks to talk about their websites, etc. That’s info that other bloggers wouldn’t have access to and gives Webb Alerts a leg up.
The host is very annoying and the show is old news. Anything for a buck, eh Mike?
Since I’d already seen or read every single one of those stories she talked about I found absolutely zero benefit in watching this thing. She’s cute but rehashing popular/interesting blog posts in a video format? Kind of pointless…
The show is awesome!
It’s nice to get good tech news from video source like this.
…and I think she’s cuter than the girl at mobuzz.
I too am part of the big crowd that doesn’t understand this fervour you have.
There is nothing other than a pretty face that differenciates this from an audiocast.
The show packs a lot of info in a short time, which I like, but I think she could tone down her delivery a bit. I’m pretty sure she’ll be refining and improving the show according to feedback, so let’s see how it evolves.
I can’t believe you thought this show was better than rocketboom. I find her quite annoying as a matter of fact with the use of extreme expressions.
What is it with the back-to-back double plug for this show? I smell something fishy.
Mike - I think you need to tone down your “promotion” about as much as she needs to tone down her hyperactive onscreen presentation.
Lets see Gizmoz try to recreate *those* expressions.
I’m hanging for naked news 2.0! ….. RLY.
I find the content covered interesting but she smiles way too much and it makes her look phony.
Though I think video news blogs are an emerging phenomenon, I don’t see WebbAlert as having it quite right yet. But it’s only episode 2, so maybe it’ll get better.
As others have mentioned, among the issues are the close-ups, the excessive facial expressions, the repetition of major news stories that everyone’s already heard about , the lack of new insight on those stories, etc.
While it is well produced and she is attractive and presents very well, I think something more needs to be happening. At a minimum something needs to be done about the production. But more important is that there needs to be something more distinctive about the content - deeper treatment of issues, more original analysis, etc.
Will be interesting to see how it evolves, but I don’t think this yet rates as a must watch.
Arrington must be banging her or something…..
I can tell she’s a little nervous she also reminds me of the girls from the film “Mean Girls ” I keep expecting her to say “Yeah Whatever” or “Hellllo”..
Anyway goodluck to the girl, a year down the road I’m sure she will have a decent following…
CenterNetworks has a very good point (click my name)… Federated Media developed her site and handles her ads. Federated Media also handles TC ads. Over 50% of the sites she links to are Federated Media sites, and a lot of the Federated Media blogs linked to *her*, and complimented the show… AND compared it to RocketBoom.
Now, I’m not saying you’re getting paid for the posts here, but what *are* you gaining?
I don’t get it. The host is cute and the production values are pretty high, but the show is *terrible,* IMHO. Webb isn’t really insightful and she’s not at all funny. Which mean’s she has no chance at all of holding my attention for a minute, let alone 5. I’m sticking with Digital Daily. Paczkowski’s funny and smart and, more importantly he brings a perspective and history to bear on tech news that I haven’t really seen anywhere else. Seriously, Mike you should check him out. If you don’t know him already, you should. Get him to appear at one of your parties or something.
http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.....ily-video/
You guys again seem very gay… Go Morgan go! You ROCK!
Good show… just wondering if she’ll ever make it a paid subscription show? I saw the $5/month donation option on her website… interesting…
Boring boring boring! I too smell something, with WebbAlert and Facebook now getting 85% of the posts lately.
Her content and delivery suck although i’m confident she has a nice ass. If Valleywag had a webcast that may be interesting, as I find their style of humor amusing.
Content aside, she did a great job with the structuring, pacing and some other bits of cleverness (lcd display instead of chroma key, etc). I put up a mini review here http://www.uprocket.com/2007/0.....one-right/
and here’s a budding guideline list for other podshows, which she scores well on:
http://www.uprocket.com/2007/0.....how-hosts/
I have a website that contains questions related to new stories for teachers. I decided to embed this video on my front page. It makes my front page look better. Check out the website: http://www.pass-ed.com/Living-Textbook.html
snoooooooze. somebody obviously knows somebody for this to be mentioned 2 days in a row. i know it’s your “blog” and you can blog about whatever ya like but damn…not sure if I care about what you’ll cover in the future if this is what you’re covering and how you’re covering it.
by the way…a quick pageview of techmeme once a day gets you all the news webbalert overs…and techmeme doesn’t annoy me while I get my news fill.
Wow, two TC posts in as many days + Arrington staying up for, for, this? Watching news we’ve already read from a host who over smiles?
Good traditional type news production (zzzzz), good looking host, nothing revolutionary or new in production nor use of the media. What happened to show, don’t tell?
No comnments or trackbacks as mentioned (lame) and worse yet questions are being left on other blogs unanswered by Webb and company. Talk about going backwards compared to a videoblog like Rocketboom.
Techcrunch soon to be covering web 0.5? Mike, what gives?
All these negative comments on here are from a bunch of loser geeks whose only girl friend is their pink Mac. If you don’t like the show don’t watch it. But damn shut the hell up and don’t be mad cause you could NEVER get a girl that looked like Morgan Webb nor can you do anything with your lives that is productive.
I find it annoying big time!
But even more annoying is Mike endorsing this show so heavily (clearly there is an agenda there). Although, I don’t think it’s horrible, I think most would agree that it’s just average, yet Mike has to stay up late for this….I think he needs to give his readers a little more credit and be a little more upfront.
One more post on this show and I’m out…I hope other readers do the same.
I have to say some of these comments are quite funny.
Mike @ 48: On the contrary, the comments that are so supportive are from nerds who couldn’t even get laid in a porno film.
For the rest of us who actually have been with attractive women, I see nothing special here. She is cute, but so what? Get over it. The content isn’t all that great and she isn’t very entertaining to watch unless you have a thing for her. But how superficial is that.
I second Roland Tourvelle’s post. The Digital Daily guy may have a smaller cup size than Webb, but he’s waaaaaaaaaay funnier.
And two posts in 24 hours about this? You know she’s married, right Mike?