Were you surprised that the Boston Marathon bombers were caught on video? You shouldn't have been. How about a meteor falling in Russia? Or a pizza delivery guy urinating on a customer's door after receiving too small a tip? Then there's that plane crashing on a Russian highway.

All these phenomena are part of an ubertrend I call Voyeurgasm - and it's changing our lives and maybe even your future.

CBS dedicates part of its website, called Caught on Tape, to videos like these. It's a nod to the global popularity of YouTube, which announced this March that it reached 1 billion monthly users who watch some 6 billion hours of video each month.

The History Of Voyeurgasm

Voyeurgasm, the "I like to watch" ubertrend, made its debut with the Rodney King beating in 1991, arguably one of the first surreptitiously videotaped events to make headlines. What came next was a host of candid moments caught by camcorders, surveillance cameras or mobile phones - a wave that virtually guarantees that one day just about everything will be digitally captured.

This ubertrend spurred a host of subtends, including reality shows, like MTV's The Real World, which debuted in 1992; Celebrity Worship Syndrome, coined in 2003 and propelled by "pixel paparazzis;" HDTV in 1998; helicopter police chases, including the infamous 1994 O.J. Simpson car chase; YouTube in 2005; and now Google Glass.

(See also Google Glass: What Do You Want To Know About Google's Internet Eyewear.)

The current concerns about Google Glass and the privacy issues its surreptitious use entails are just a preview of things to come. Here's how Voyeurgasm will reshape your future, including business ideas and career opportunities:

1-3. Streaming Media

With YouTube now receiving some 72 hours of video every minute, it's evident that growth of mobile videos opens many opportunities for entrepreneurs to create dedicated sites to harness the millions of hours of videos that will be uploaded each minute by 2020. Here are a few ideas that merit your attention:

1. Makeup Videos: A quick Google search suggests that this segment is wide open with Makeup Geek being the top player. Not only could beauty sites encourage the improved application of makeup, but they would also propel new makeup trends, like High Definition Makeup.

2. Nature/Underwater Videos: Nature and underwater video searches lead to YouTube channels - but YouTube is a general-interest destination and is not likely to be the first choice of dedicated birdwatchers or snorkelers. This presents an opportunity to sell outdoors or underwater gear to intrepid visitors.

3. Shopping Videos: We like to buy stuff, so we watch a lot of "unboxing" videos on YouTube. That means there is plenty of opportunity to create innovative shopping videos that provide visitors with quick, yet informative insights about buying particular products. Once again a search for "shopping videos" leads to positively benign results.

4. Video Recruitment

In the next four years, about 20 million college graduates will be looking for full-time employment. Since few possess relevant experience, a quick 90-second video might give a prospective employer a better insight into their talents. Monster accepts videos for recruiters, but few recruitment sites let you add video profiles. One new player, GetHired.com does play up this feature.

5. Looking At Cooking

As the Cox News Service reported back in Jan. 2007, "It's one of the ironies of modern life that cooking shows and books are so hugely popular when much of the time we eat on the move or settle down in front of the TV with a microwaved frozen dinner. The preparing, cooking, tasting and eating of food have become voyeuristic pleasures separated from physical reality." The trend is dubbed "gastroporn." While this segment may be well-covered by television networks, what about facility and supply management? Think kitchen demonstration studios or food prep staffers who specialize in optimizing food for video consumption.

6. YouTube Studio Rentals

So now you're ready to shoot your gastroporn or job-seeking vid - but how do you make it great? Some folks have beautiful decks or nice living rooms but few have access to camera-friendly backdrops, let alone the lighting setups needed to shoot professional-looking videos. It's odd that entrepreneurs haven't thought of opening up a national chain of "YouTube Studios" - facilities you could rent by the hour to shoot your talkshow or other viral inspiration.

7. Video Accessories

You have decided to become a pixel paparazzi- on a budget. So can you handhold your iPhone or Android handset to shoot your videos? Sure, but some kind of steady grip would be better. With the notable exception of UK-based Modahaus, which offers the iPhone Steady Stand ($20), few companies have staked out this product category. One Kickstarter project, the Paparazzo Light, failed - perhaps due to a lack of audience reach or functionality.

8. Surveillance Gear

A market research report from ReportsNReports estimates that the market for smart surveillance gear and video analytics will explode from $14 billion in 2012 to $39 billion by 2020. A poll conducted after the Boston bombing found broad public support for surveillance gear, with 78% of Americans saying they thought surveillance cameras were a good idea. Frankly, I'm amazed that those Russian dashboard cams are not more popular here in America.

Are you ready to leverage the increased transparency offered by Voyeurgasm? You know what they say, "There are people who make things happen, there are those who watch things happen, and there are people who wonder what happened." This ubertrend offers the opportunity to do the first two at the same time so you don't have to do the last one. 

See also:

• 10 Compelling Ways People Plan To Use Google Glass
• 5 Socially Unacceptable Things You're Going To Do WIth Google Glass
• Google Glass: Our Lives Are Not Reality TV
• Google Glass: Is There Any Way To Jam It?

Yahoo’s first major acquisition since Marissa Mayer took over as CEO could be the French video site Dailymotion, of all things. If the talks pan out, Yahoo will be joining a long list of companies hyped up by the booming digital video industry. And if anyone can upset Google’s hold on online video, it’s Mayer.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting Yahoo wants to buy as much as 75% of the French site, valued at roughly $300 million, in an apparent bid to diversify Yahoo's revenue stream.

"One of the challenges in Yahoo's business is that we are primarily domestic and we don't have enough of our business running it from an international basis," Mayer said at an analyst conference in February. More than 70% of Yahoo’s $5 billion in revenue is from the U.S.

Dailymotion, the twelfth-most trafficked video site in the world, was already looking for an U.S. partner, so it could potentially be a match made in heaven.

But Yahoo and online video? Really?

“It's interesting, or should I say 'telling' that as Yahoo! seeks to reinvent itself, it's first real, bold step (other than a somewhat yawn-inducing homepage redesign) is to try and capitalize on video” Jay Miletsky, the CEO of MyPod Studios, the StumbleUpon of curated online video, wrote in an email.

“I think after Google + failed to make any real splash, Yahoo! wisely decided to skip trying to launch the next pretender to the Facebook throne, and looked to video as the best opportunity for improving their brand among Web users,” added Miletsky.

AOL was able to rebrand itself as a media company, so it is certainly a transition that can be made. AOL, which used to provide Internet to households, now owns the Huffington Post and operates a slew of hyperlocal news sites through its Patch initiative.

Yahoo could feasibly rebrand itself with a strong online video portfolio, too. Its Yahoo! Screen program is already a step in that direction.

Original series like the critically acclaimed Burning Love and Anthony E Zuiker’s Cybergeddon are a higher quality than any of YouTube’s offerings. This year's Streamy Awards noticed, giving both series trophies.

Yahoo's original programming targets a much older audience than YouTube's teen and tween demographic, which gives the company another edge in the online video sector.  There's even a technical advantage to be gained: The only thing that prevented me from watching Yahoo! Screen content over the last couple of months (namely to watch Tom Hank's animated original Yahoo series, Electric City) was their bad video player. If Yahoo acquires DailyMotion, that obstacle dissolves.    

It will take time for these talks to firm up, and have the two companies' operations integrated. But if this is indeed a match made in heaven, there will be a major new content player on the scene, diversifying the growing video realm even more.

Admit it: you're that person. You're the one who spends over 23 hours watching online video every month. You're the one that is driving the online video market to $37 billion by 2017. You are the 83.3%.

Are you the same person who clicks on ads? The same person who is clicking the online advertising market into $100 billion territory in 2013?

Come on: is it you?

There's some evidence to suggest that the two go together. Most online video isn't the BBC soccer news stream that !%!%!% auto-plays whenever I visit a soccer news site (which, I will admit, is every 3.2 seconds - hey, someone needs to keep tabs on just how bad my Arsenal is). As a recent comScore report showcases, it's entertainment-oriented video on YouTube and Facebook, primarily, that people watch:

Credit: comScore, February 2013

What about online advertising? According to a 2011 WebTrends report on Facebook advertising, click-through rates (CTRs) are puny for things like healthcare and financial services ads, but for media and entertainment or tabloids? Lots of clicks:

Credit: Webtrends

Admit it: you're "that guy" who sends around the funny cat videos. You're the one watching the blurb on LIndsay Lohan being in rehab (again).

It's you!

Or maybe it's your parents, as Facebook ad click-throughs skew to the 50+ crowd. Which is interesting, since the online video generation definitely trends younger. Perhaps those who watch a lot of video aren't the same people who click on all the ads, but rather a devoted group of clickers?

There's some evidence that this is the case. While comScore finds that 83.3% of all Americans watch online video, Criteo reports that just 20% of online browsers account for 50% of click-throughs:

Source: Criteo 2012

Nor do such people stop with innocent clicking. Once they click, they buy. A lot. According to Criteo, they're 3 times more likely to buy than non-clickers. My hunch? It's the Boomer demographic, which controls 70% of U.S. wealth, that clicks on all those ads. This is a bit frightening, as it may mean that the Internet is being subsidized by a fading group. Presumably, clever advertisers will figure out how to get the young'uns to click and buy, too.

Or maybe they'll just get older and click more.

Personally, I don't think I've ever clicked on an online ad (Adblock Plus keeps me from even seeing them anymore, bless its soul), but I'm grateful that someone does, whatever their age. My walk down memory lane, watching old Duran Duran videos? You or perhaps someone older paid for it with their clicks. That Facebook service my friends still frequent? Others pay for that, too. Others' click-and-buy mentality keeps the Internet running.

So, thank you, whoever you are. Please click more.

Image courtesy of Shutterstock.

Unless you're Tim Cook, you probably don't have a front row seat lined up for President Obama's State of the Union (SOTU) address on Tuesday night. That's okay though, because the ever-more-interactive speech is best experienced online, where it will be accompanied by more context and conversation than in any other medium. 

When it comes to tuning in online, this won't be anything like the Summer Olympics. There will be plenty of free livestreaming options across a variety of devices, as well as any number of social chats, on-camera analyses and interactive features from media outlets, journalists and the White House itself. 

Livestreaming The State Of The Union Address

The White House will not only be live-streaming President Obama's speech Tuesday night, but it will be displaying relevant charts and data in sync with whatever the President happens to be talking about. The White House's "enhanced livestream" begins at 9pm Eastern Time (6pm Pacific Time) and will be followed by a live panel discussion with policy experts. All of this will be available on the White House's website, as well as its official iOS and Android apps. 

If the White House stream freezes up right as your SOTU drinking game is just getting rowdy, you can always jump over to C-SPAN.com, which will be streaming the speech as well. On C-SPAN, you can also compare Obama's fourth State of the Union with archived addresses from the past. The C-SPAN folks have written transcripts dating back to Franklin Delano Roosevelet and archived videos as far back as Ronald Reagan's fourth State of the Union address in 1984. For even more historical analysis, check out Al Jazeera's interactive tool comparing Obama's past State of the Union speeches. 

And if all of those options aren't enough, CNN, Wall Street Journal, YouTube and HuffPost Live will also be live streaming the speech. 

The State Of The Union Is… Interactive

These days, it's pretty much a given that any big news or entertainment event is the "most interactive" instance of that event that's ever happened. That's what progress is all about.

The State of the Union is no exception, and not just because people are increasingly connected and more prone to live-tweet TV events in general. The famously tech-savvy Obama administration has been proactive about baking interactive elements into the speech and encouraging online participation. 

On Twitter, the White House has officially endorsed the #SOTU hashtag and is encouraging users to use #WHChat to submit questions to on-air policy experts after Obama's speech. The administration will also be actively maintaining conversations with citizens on Facebook and Google+. 

Meanwhile, Republicans will be live-critiquing Obama's speech on the official GOP website and encouraging rank-and-file conservatives to do the same over various social channels. 

Media outlets are running their own interactive features during the speech as well. Huffpost Live, for example, will be doing its usual thing, live-streaming the speech and post-speech reactions while inviting viewers to join on-air discussions and live chats. 

Top YouTuber Ray William Johnson has been dethroned as the most popular YouTuber by Smosh, the manic comedy duo comprised of Ian Hecox and Anthony Padilla.  It took 6.8 million subscribers grab the crown, which Smosh achieved over the weekend.

Skewing Younger!

The secret to Smosh's success? Make content for viewers under 18. 

Like every YouTube act that has owned the coveted #1 spot, Smosh's YouTube content is decidedly aimed at a younger teen and tween audience. 

Johnson, who riffs jokes on viral videos pre-Tosh.0 and also runs the popular animated channel Your Favorite Martian, has held the title of most-subscribed YouTuber since June 28, 2011.  Johnson’s content is less teen friendly than that of Smosh or Asian vlogger Ryan Higa (Higa held the top YouTube spot before Johnson) but his audience is still decidedly underage.  

Reclaiming Their Throne

Smosh’s ascent to the top is actually a reclaiming of the throne -  the duo held the #1 spot back in 2006, before YouTube became the do-it-yourself micro-Hollywood it is today.

“[C]ongrats to SMOSH for being #1 on youtube” tweeted longtime YouTuber Shane Dawson over the weekend. “[T]hey prove that being a youtuber doesn’t mean you have a short shelf life & thats very inspiring!"

Besides their signature channel Smosh, which averages 4 million views per video (be it a skit or them joking while driving), the 25-year-old Hecox and Padilla operate seven other YouTube channels including the insanely fast-growing Smosh Games (focused on - you guess it - video games), the news and entertainment show SmoshPit Weekly, El Smosh, which is SmoshPit Weekly in Spanish, and Shut Up! Cartoons, which was partially funded by Google as part of its original content initiative. The duo even has their own bobble-head dolls - so you know they must be big time.

Padilla began building Smosh'a new-media empire back in 2002 with the creation of Smosh.com, a Huffington Post-style aggregator of funny Internet stuff. The first video featuring the duo hit YouTube in 2005 and happened to be a lip dub of the Pokemon theme song Gotta Catch ‘Em All. It went viral, with 24 million views (which was huge in 2005) before it was removed for “copyright infringement.”

It's All About The Underwear

Part of Padilla and Hecox’s long standing success on YouTube - besides making content for minors - is heavily related to how they pander to young teen girls, aka fangirls. (Higa and Shane Dawson also appeal to this demographic.) The YouTube community often reacts negatively to women and girls who flaunt their sex appeal, but seems to approve of men dancing around topless in their briefs.

At last year’s unofficial YouTuber's conference - VidCon - Padilla and Hecox’s booth featured them in their underwear. The crowd of girls they attracted was in serious danger of hyperventilating. 

Despite corporate YouTube’s best efforts, viewers under 18 still rule the video-sharing site, relying on it not just for entertainment and music, but for news as well.  Hence, Smosh's dominance.  

Smosh was acquired by new media network Alloy Digital in 2011.

Photo courtesy of Wikipedia Commons.

It was a packed house Tuesday night at Busby's East in Los Angeles as online video heavyweights gathered to discuss the future of the medium. Tubefilter founder Drew Baldwin moderated a panel that featured Chill co-founder and chief-executive Brian Norgard, mainstream actor turned online director Michael Urie, and Dan Dobi, the filmmaker behind the YouTube documentary "Please Subscribe" (ironically, not available on YouTube).

The forum was hosted by pay-to-play social video services Tubefilter and Chill. Last week, Chill debuted Chill Direct, a marketing tool inspired by comedian Louis C.K.'s direct-to-consumer model, allowing creators to sell content direct to fans with a 70/30 profit share. (See Chill Direct: A Farm System For Video Distribution). 

The audience of 100 plus was treated to the panel's insights on the current state and future of online video, and why creative control, community building and the changing economics of video will make the platform sustainable. 

Why It Works

While the studio system market for buying films is small, the market for people to pay for films is huge, said Norgard. But if supply is determined by demand, then something is wrong with the current mainstream distribution system, and by extension, this is one major reason there's such a big market for online content. 

"You can't just make an indie movie and get into a festival," said Urie, who parlayed his success (and cash) from ABC's Ugly Betty series to direct his own film, "Thank You For Judging."  But Urie added that it's no longer a failure to not sell your film to the studios. He knew his film wasn't Sundance material and if he took it to a small festival, he wouldn't get sales. So Urie chose to take his finished project straight to Chill Direct. As did Dobi, who says he doesn't expect his YouTube doc to be on that platform for several years.

Dobi, who described himself as a filmmaker who doesn't go to the movies, says he watches more content on his computer than in theaters (and via BitTorrent and pirated software to boot). He thinks the affordable model of streaming video alongside of keeping people in the comfort of their homes, makes this platform attractive. "If something's affordable, people are going to pay for it," Dobi said.

Both Urie and Dobi think smaller films have a better chance online than they would in mainstream channels. 

As consumers keep voting with views (and increasingly with dollars) moving away from mainstream media and demanding premium online video, Norgard said he expects this will help reorganize the current economics of the system. Unlike iTunes or other services difficult for regular people to get into, open platforms let creators bring along their own communities of followers and brand advocates, and let them quickly build new followings - depending on the quality of the content they release.

Norgard added that this kind of content has a longer shelf-life than traditional media, which often quickly fade to obscurity if not seen in the right amount of theaters, or when they are sold to a television network after the theatrical release. Conversely, online content can be viewed and shared  for as long as the material is available online. And it can then be sold and distributed to major networks and content providers at any time. "The digital/social window could make the theatrical window look like a side car," Norgard quipped. 

Straight From The Horse's Mouth...

Actresses turned YouTubers Kimmy Kim and Frutron have been making episodic short videos for the past year. They have a following, but said they've made enough money to buy a burger, blender and a cheese grater. The 20-something L.A. transplants attended the meetup not knowing what to expect, and left excited to get involved with new platforms.

"We weren't quite sure what it was all about and how sustainable it is and if its working for people," said Kimmy Kim. But "people sounded really excited about the possibliies of it. There are even more options for us. It's encouraging for us, because we can do that too."

The creators took to YouTube to create more personal material, but like many others their goal is to use their content as a springboard to television and feature films, Frutron said. They hope to use the pay-to-play format as a forum to try to do just that, and make some money along the way.  

"We're all experimenting," Kimmy Kim said. "We're still at the let's see what sticks phase."

Photo courtesy of Brian Norgard.