Sticki Widgets

A YouTube case study was published a couple of days ago on Startup Review. It’s pretty well written. Much of the information is already well known and covered thoroughly. But, it’s still worth a quick read. The thing we like to point out is that they give credit to the YouTube video embed widget and its viral marketing impact as one of the key factors in YouTube’s success.

Viral customer growth due to widget marketing

YouTube allowed users to easily embed any hosted videos on web pages or blogs. This turned out to be particularly popular with social-networking websites, especially MySpace. The inbound links from these ‘widgets’ also helped YouTube increase its page rank on Google, thereby driving traffic via natural search..

The widget was obviously not the only reason for YouTube’s success, but it’s nice to have people acknowledge widgets when appropriate.

[via Snipperoo Blog]

The new NHL channel “NHL Tube” officially went live on YouTube last Thursday. This is great news for NHL fans everywhere. NHL Tube will provide clips for NHL Plays of the Week. The channel appears to be well received and currently has over 3000 subscribers. For additional coverage, check out Mashable.

If highlights aren’t enough for you, try NHL on Google Video. You can catch the full games there.

Check our previous post here.

Mashable reports that the NHL will be announcing a YouTube channel. The channel will provide videos and game highlights officially sponsored and approved by the NHL. Google Video already has a deal with the NHL and you can check out the NHL on Google Video page for the currently available videos. Refer to the post on Mashable for the details of both deals.

What this means for the average fan is that they will now have access to more NHL content. This is a good thing… Did you miss a game last week? Can’t remember that game back in 1995? No problem, just check out Google Video or YouTube for the game.

For the hard core fan that has the technical knowledge to customize their blogs or run their own sites, there is even better news. While the exact usage details still need to be seen, these videos (using the Google Search API) and the NHL Scoreboard widget (previous coverage) will give your blog/site more features and content for your readers.

In the sidebar are 2 examples of tools and widgets that can greatly enhance your hockey blog or site.

For additional coverage, check out Ars Technica.