Xianz.com, the faith based alternative to Myspace, has now launched it’s own video service. Xianz Watch will now enable members to view, upload and share videos. Although just launched, Xianz Watch has hundreds of videos already uploaded. Being called a family friendly alternative to YouTube, Xianz Watch supports over 20 video formats. Other features include a video messaging system that allows easy communication and the ability to add video sharing buddies.
“By the end of February, we hope to have several thousand videos”, says Robbie Davidson, founder of Xianz.com. “We are very excited and a bit surprised to see how quickly our members are embracing Xianz Watch and adding content to it daily.”
Xianz, pronounced ‘Zanz”, is shorthand for Christians. The ‘X” is from the Greek letter, Chi, the first letter of Christ.
Here’s one of the videos recently uploaded on Xianz Watch - a ‘Get A Mac’ spoof featuring Christian and Christ Follower (rather than PC and Mac), part of ‘Christian No More’ from Community Christian Church in Naperville, Illinois. Ironically the four videos uploaded by Danny Z question the whole premise of Xianz. Is being a follower of Jesus really about developing a parallel universe distinguished by bumper stickers, good Evangelical reading, JPod Contemporary Christian music, and best Sunday clothes? Is it really about living in an environment populated only by family-friendly Christians?
It’s good to see the series is up on YouTube as well:
The series is available to purchase in high resolution MPEG2, MPEG4, and low resolution Windows Media Video formats from the CCC Estore.
I’ve just sent out an update for Duncan’s TV Ad Land. It’s a monthly post of what should have been four weekly posts. Never mind.
Duncans TV Site Development
Posts now have words rather than numbers in the permalinks. It took a few days to get this right. I discovered that I really do need to have a date in the title to avoid mucking up RSS feeds.
All RSS subscriptions now are channeled through my Feedburner account, which gives users capacity to email, add to del.icio.us and submit to Digg. At last count there are 133 RSS subscribers.
I’ve added a favicon to the site - which means that in most browsers there’s a little television beside the title of each page.
I’ve started adding Technorati tags - though they’re invisible in the posts.
I’ve added a page of links to advertising agencies, under ‘About This Site’. More to come on production, edting, post production and sound/music companies.
You’ll notice that more recently every third ad has been connected with the FIFA World Cup. I’ve placed an asterisk beside those spots. The top search engine on Duncan’s TV works perfectly if you want to find these spots.
April
Mercedes Sound of Summer
Adidas Hello Tomorrow
Nicorette No Gary No (AU)
Subaru Impreza Numbers (AU)
Budweiser Stadium Wave
May
Duncan Yo Yos - Throw Duncan
Global Warming - Tick, Train
Inghams Chicken - Swearing Mum (AU)
Carlsberg - Old Lions *
Ford Courier -� Barbecue (AU)
Virgin Mobile Russell (AU)
Finnish Finishing Sauce (AU & NZ)
Starburst - Party (AU & NZ)
Assistance Dogs - Pick up the Phone (AU)
TLC - Life Lessons
Toyota Prado - Ice Sculptures (AU)
Quit Smoking - Gangrene Amputation (AU)
Amoisonic Mobile - Phone Reincarnation
Red Meat - Evolution with Sam Neill (AU)
Adidas Adicolor Pink
Lamb Fragrance (AU)
Adidas Adicolor Green
Jaguar - Gorgeous
Bud Light - Secret Fridge
Nike Football - Joga Bonito *
Sydney Anglicans - Challenging the Da Vinci Code (AU)
Honda Fit
Virgin Mobile Exciting Ad with Russell (AU)
Squeezy Marmite - Man with broken Arm & Mother with Baby sick of Marmite-flavoured milk
Adidas +50 TUNIT Modular Man *
Suncorp Bank/Insurance sponsors Skin Cancer research with Aint No Sunshine (AU)
BNZ - Piggy Banks (NZ)
Adidas -� Football Recruitment *
Peugeot 207 - Ladybird and Firefly
March of the Penguins and too spoofs
Coca Cola Argentina Football stop motion ads *
Libra Tampon - The Comparison (AU)
Burger King - Kiwis Love Eggs (NZ)
Sure Deodorant - Wild Animals *
Apple - Get a Mac with John Hodgson and Justin Long
IKEA - Moo Cow Milker
ESPN World Cup Soccer - C�te d’Ivoire, Tartan Army, Sick Days, Anthem *
Pineapple Lumps - Sweet As (NZ)
Absolut - Cut the Crap (AU)
BBC - FIFA World Cup Imagination *
Boots Sun Shop - Summer Rush
June
American Express - Kate Winslet
Nike - Juggle Chain *
Geico Gecko - New Voiceover
National Bank Student Life (AU)
Christ Jesus - What A Ripper combination (AU)
Subaru Impreza Accelerated (AU)
Carlton Draught - Worth It and Deep Cleansing Formula (AU)
Dictators Wearing Fur
Adidas Oliver Kahn Bridge
Today I’ve joined up with Amazon UK’s Beta advertising program, Self-Optimizing Links. That’s the feature at the top of each page, with three items ranging from iPods through to books. The theory is that the script in the page template will find the most appropriate products to go with the contents of the page. After the page has been loaded four to five times the ads do start to provide relevant material.
So that explains the the prominence of Highlander movies on the main page of Pacific Highlander. Put ‘Duncan Macleod’ and ‘Pacific Highlander’ together and that’s what you get. But hopefully there will be some useful connections for readers, particularly for those living in the UK. I have an account at both Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk, for the sake of some products that just can’t be obtained through the American base.
The Amazon contextual ads can’t be used on pages that have Google Adsense contextual ads. So I’ve kept the Google ads on Duncan’s TV and am putting Amazon on other sites where appropriate.
Interested in your feedback on how this is working for you…
