Afternoon all,

There has been a lot of talk of late in meetings and presentations I have attended about how the TV format is evolving and the rise of the Audio Visual future where a “TV” is simply a screen capable of playing audio and images, be that a phone, a tablet, or a screen connected to an Xbox.

These are all AV units and all capable of giving us great immersive and resonant experiences. TV is not dying it is just evolving and we are evolving with it.

Bearing this in mind I was really impressed with a new entertainment network that launched on YouTube this week Geek and Sundry

Why should we pay attention to what they are doing?

Simply because they understand how the game is changing at they are at the front of it. The journey started a back in 2007 when a little know bit part actress/comedienne on Buffy the Vampire Slayer decided she needed more work during her bit parts. So taking her love of World of Warcraft and Dungeons and Dragon games she made a web only series called the Guild all about those who play. It was unashamedly “by geeks for geeks” in her own words. TV studios told her it was too niche but YouTube was the perfect platform. Its first season generated 9m views and Xbox commissioned Season 2 for the Xbox Live platform. It is now launching its 5th season.

I think web video is finally reaching a tipping point this year for sure. People are getting used to consuming video on all of their devices, and they want it whenever they feel like watching it. Appointment viewing is rapidly disappearing. – Felicia Day in WIRED

She has this week officially launched Geek and Sundry a whole channel on YouTube where she and her team create the content and effectively run a TV network – trailer here

Already they have 135k subscribers (all who will be alerted when new content gets added) after just one day; ITV by comparison has 36k subscribers, Channel4 has 90k.

As is the way she also understands the power of social and their Google+ page is a great example of making all your touchpoints work .

Creating all cast Hangouts so viewers can get involved, launching exclusives that can then be shared out, and also understanding that it isn’t just about them – they are happy to share the cool things they find across the web and give further entertainment value.

Watch with interest, this will grow mega fast and really raise eyebrows.

Random top G+ tip: Want to know how a post of yours has spread, who the key influencers were? Then click on the right hand down arrow by the post then hit View Ripples

Ads in Gmail – it will never work: When you are one of the uber early people at Google you get involved in the development of things that completely change the landscape. Watch a short video as Marissa Mayer (20th in) discusses how she tried to stop Gmail ads and how big they have since become.

April fools online: And just in case you missed them last Sunday here are some of the more noteworthy online April fool’s jokes.

Google Maps goes 8-bit as it gets reformatted for the original Nintendo

This is the centre of London and you can pick out Buckingham Palace, with some of the guards trooping, Big Ben and Nelson's Column.

Here is the full video introducing it

Not to be outdone by James Cameron actually tweeting from the bottom of the ocean, real story, Virgin decided to tunnel to the centre of the earth with the Virgin Volcanic, a massive corkscrew type vehicle. As well as various online articles they also supported it via social with Branson tweeting about it

And supporting it on his Google+ page too.

And my absolute favourite, Assassins Creed on the Xbox Kinect. What makes this even more amazing is that it was done completely by fans, no involvement with Xbox or the game developers.

Specially for Gavin: When telling a story or explaining something it is great to bring it to life in a way that reinforces the point. An interesting article on Gaming from the NYT that opens with a fun little game

Google Glasses: Finally, not an April Fool gag but the envisioning of the next mobile phone and portable computer the Google glasses project They aren’t saying these are ready for building but they are taking the initial rumours and corroborating them and almost crowd-source designing them.

Have a great Easter w/e.

Oli.