Already well known for being the brains behind Digg, and now Pownce, he also has an Internet video start-up on the go in the form of Revision3.

Revision3.com has recently undergone some design revisions, and the new look gives usability, rather than aesthetics, the upper hand.

A Simplified Homepage

The homepage has been simplified providing an immediate focus with a large feature box that rotates through different site promotions. Each show now has it’s own section which is easily accessible from the “Shows” drop down menu along the top of every page. 

Streaming video flash players on each episode page have been bumped up to 555×337 which really draws viewers in. Each show has a plethora of different subscription formats which are only a tab away from the recent episode list. 

At Expense Of Visual Design

The overall restructuring is a welcome improvement, but unfortunately it came at the expense of visual design.

The new color scheme is drab and bland with a “corporate” feeling that first comes to mind. I suppose this is to appeal to advertisers that Revision3 is trying to attract to buy ad inventory but it feels like something from early 2000. 

The Old Design Was More Cutting Edge

The old design (pictured below) felt slick and cutting edge just like the network itself. But the worst offender of this new look is the typography.

For one, it is a light grey (hex code #666666) and could stand to be darker (like #333333) for increased contrast and thus increased readability. 

The line-height is also not set leaving lines scrunched together making it harder to read. In short, the new design is missing the final polish which used to set it apart from other media websites on the net.

Back To The Drawing Board

Daniel Burka has been the lead designer on most of Kevin Rose’s web projects but it looks like he didn’t have a hand in the new Revision3.com.

He must be too busy working on Digg and Pownce, two sites I really admire from a design perspective. Luckily I have no reason to visit the Revision3 site on a regular basis except to subscribe to new shows. 

I hope they take a second look at things and update the style to match the new functionality.

Russell Heimlich is a digital media engineer and technology journalist. Catch his thoughts put into words at russellheimlich.com

It even prompted the network to sue YouTube for $1 billion.

Now it is launching a site dedicated to the show, which will offer more than 13,000 clips dating back to the very beginning.

I have to be honest: I’m not sure whether Viacom’s new plan for The Daily Show is a great idea or a really dumb idea (I’m also leaving open the possibility that it’s somewhere in between those two).

A Wikipedia Style Site

According to this story in the LA Times, Viacom has spent a lot of time tagging and identifying clips so that they can be searched and aggregated by topic, guests, etc. – and even plans to allow users to take part in the cataloguing to some extent, Wikipedia-style. 

In the piece, the head of digital media at Comedy Central thanks YouTube for jolting Viacom executives into awareness:

“Without YouTube, he said, Viacom might not have recognized the true value of the archives and dragged its feet in digitally archiving and tagging” the clips.”

Henry “I used to be a famous Wall Street analyst” Blodget thinks Viacom’s move is dumb. He thinks the network should quit suing YouTube (which it says it is still going ahead with) and upload all of its clips to the site. 

An Achievable Compromise?

Part of me thinks that he’s right — why not make use of the service that everyone already associates with The Daily Show anyway? Plus it comes with built-in Flash encoding, easy embedding, commenting tools, etc.

At the same time, however, YouTube has constraints. Clips tend to be short and poor quality, for example — and to a large extent that’s what users have come to expect. 

It would be difficult, if not impossible, to do the kind of tagging and other things that Viacom is talking about, and even if they could be done they might be wasted on an audience that just wants to watch a funny clip.

I think (as my friend Steve Bryant at the Hollywood Reporter does) that in an ideal world Viacom would do both: upload short clips to YouTube and let people embed them wherever they want, and then have a much larger storehouse of longer clips and entire shows at its own site.

These would all be tagged and catalogued, with added features and possibly even HD content to make it worth people’s effort to seek out.

[The Daily Show]

Written by Mathew Ingram, a technology journalist. Catch his views on the intersection between media and the web at MathewIngram.com. This post is licensed under the Creative Commons.

Currently in beta version testing, the portal aims to be “the one place where you can find what to watch, where to watch, when to watch it — plus all the video, photos and facts you crave.”

Fancast beta is now open to the public and provides a comprehensive database of TV shows, movies, actors, directors, movie trailers and various other video clips. 

Think of it as web 2.0 meets IMDB meets TV Guide. In order to enjoy all features and use Fancast to its full extent, you must become a registered user and inform the site of your likes and dislikes by using a rating system and the “favorites” feature.

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Heard of Stage6? Maybe not but you will remember it by the end of today. Stage 6 is a new video community from DivX that has recently launched the beta version of its site.

When I first saw the alpha version of Stage 6 I was not too impressed but seeing the new Stage6 beta I’m beginning to open my eyes to the DivX way of thinking.

In fact I’m going to devote the whole of today to the video site. That’s right it’s Stage6 Day!

Look out for:

• Interview with Darrius Thompson the DivX co-founder in charge of Stage6
• Stage 6: Alpha becomes Beta
• Stage 6 Beta – Full Review
• Stage 6 DivX Player | A pain in the ass?
• Stage 6 Video: The Killer Bean 2
• Stage 6 video in consumer electronics
• Stage 6 Video: We are here: The Pale Blue Dot
• DivX Film Festival on Stage 6

Brad has a good eye for news and is a talented writer. His digital home blog explores the intersection of technology and journalism with Brad giving a more homely and personal approach to his run-ins with technology.

Did Google remove a page on my site because they didn’t like what I was saying?

I recently wrote an article stating that Google was trying to mis-lead TV companies by pretending it had no plan to offer a scalable TV solution in the future.

Google basically said it can’t do internet television because of inherent technical restrictions, while at the same time asking to partner with cable companies over video advertising

I’ve got two Joost invites left and Joost has emailed me today saying I need to get rid of them in 2 days or I’ll lose them as the company will now be moving to a new invite system.

I’ve already given out twenty two to WebTVWire readers in the past so if you haven’t had one yet here is your chance. Just leave a comment on this post. Preference will be given to anyone else who runs a blog\news site (especially if it’s web TV related).

Update: The two invites have been given out to the first 2 people who commented – please check more recent posts to see if I’m giving out any more