News: Several commentators have posited explanations for why MySpace may have come out of head in a survey of the number of streamed videos from its site, even over YouTube. I discussed the comScore survey here.
Loren Baker of Search Engine Journal points out: (1) MySpace automatically streams video upon entry to a user’s page, meaning that if a friend visits your MySpace page several times a day, the videos will stream each time. (2) a recent study of number of hits placed YouTube first, with 45.45%, and MySpace videos second, with 22.99%
Perhaps more importantly, Baker concludes: “Regardless, Google, Yahoo and MSN still trail behind newcomers MySpace and YouTube in one or more studies, which should have the major media outlets and search engines looking for ways to plan to do battle with these new media outlets.”
Analysis: Baker’s explanation of the comScore survey seems fairly persuasive. To the extent MySpace allows automatic streaming without the need for the user to click on a video, that would raise the possibility of an inflated number of streamed videos.
