In today's offering, Allen and Mike discuss Microsoft's refinement of its policies regarding Spaces blog content that violate "local laws." This particular case involves a Chinese journalist whose blog was removed from MSN Spaces after complaints by the Chinese government officials.

In the past week, I have spoken to a few executives in the video hosting/community space, attempting to get deeper insight into the trends for 2006. Specifically, I am anxious to get a handle on what business models will be tried and what business models will likely work.

It’s clear (just look down the page) that I use vSocial as the host for my clips (although you also can download them from this blog). After talking to the execs from Revver yesterday, I decided to try out their model in which consumer creators get paid a percentage of ads that are viewed when surfers click through on their videos. So, I tried it. I added a Revver-hosted clip for an older video that’s popular (I know from Google video logs). So, I am here to report I made $1.20 yesterday on that video. Now, that’s one video—an older one at that. Am I tempted to try more? You betcha. Will the ad model that rewards consumer creators who offer up interesting clips work? Not sure, but it looks promising.

In today's installment, Allen and Mike 'cast about the evolving online video market -- a subject we'll be returning to regularly.  For today, we'll focus on Apple's iTunes vs. Google's online video offering. Will consumer-created content be a deciding factor in who owns the online video market?

If you'd like to see our thoughts (Mike and mine) on Google's new video service, click here and you can read all about it on our company's Web site.

A few additional thoughts:

*At launch, it lacks the visual elegance of Apple iTunes.

*It's not easily discernable as to what videos can be downloaded to the iPod.

*There should be some promos or freebies to whet consumers' appetites.