YouTube 2007 Award Goes to...

Google's video sharing site,YouTube, has announced the winners of the 2007 YouTube Video Awards for individuals who were on the forefront of the most creative and popular original content in 2006.

The Award for the 'Most Creative' YouTube video went to Chicago-born band OK Go, whose famous treadmill video also won a Grammy for Best Short-Form Music Video. The clip was filmed in one continuous shot and, when the video shoot ended, the eight rented treadmills went back where they came from. More than 13 million people have watched this video on YouTube.

The YouTube award in the 'Best Comedy' category went to Anthony Padilla and Ian Hecox, aka Smosh, The shaggy-haired college students accrued nearly 70,000 fans who watch their every move, whether it's spoofy music videos or quirky comedy sketches like their winning video about a man who finds himself on a "stranded island.

" The 'Best Commentary' award was bagged by a Canadian vlogger who dubbed his work, the "Worst Video Ever." The Winekone's random, rambling monologue offers a hysterical glimpse of a half-naked man losing his mind and combating whiffs of wet dog. The Winekone lets literally everything that passes through his creative and hilarious mind out on YouTube and the Web.

Australian Juan Mann who set out to brighten strangers' lives in Sydney by offering 'free hugs' bagged the award for the 'Most Inspirational' video along with Fellow Aussies Sick Puppies offer the emotive soundtrack. According to YouTube, the creators have inspired thousands of fans from around the world who want to start "free hugs" campaigns of their own.

The award for the 'Best Series' went to 'Ask a Ninja' creators, L.A. comedians Kent Nichols and Douglas Sarine. The "Ask a Ninja" series features a black-clad spastic ninja answering emails from inquiring minds/ninja watchers.

The 'Best Music video' award went to the L.A.-based Terra Naomi, who went from struggling singer-songwriter to star with a major label. The third most subscribed-to musician on YouTube is now signed to Island Records and will be working in London. Terra Naomi began vlogging and broadcasting live acoustic performances from her LA apartment in February 2006.

And finally, the 'Most Adorable Video' award went to Dony Permedi's master's thesis in animation, with music by high school friend Tim Cassell. The film is about a kiwi, a kind of bird that cannot fly, who spends his life nailing trees to a cliff so he can achieve his dream of soaring in the clouds. Kiwi is the number one most watched Film and Animation video on YouTube with more than six million views.Jamie Byrne, head of product marketing for YouTube said, "2006 was a groundbreaking year for YouTube, user-generated content, and entertaining online videos. With this in mind, we established the YouTube Video awards to recognize the ingenuity and achievements of our community. These individuals put the first stitches in the fabric of the YouTube community. Instead of seeing a way to share videos they saw an opportunity for worldwide visibility and through their success have changed the landscape of how a star is defined."

Nokia Sees India as 2nd Biggest Market

Nokia expects India to become its second-largest market by volume by 2010, or even sooner, the world's top cellphone maker said on Monday.

India is currently the third-largest market for Nokia in terms of volume. It had shipped 25 million handsets as of December 2006 from its factory near Chennai in southern India, with 80 percent of the production sold in the domestic market. Nokia, which employed 3,800 people at the facility against a projected 2,000, said it was expanding floor space to 53,000 sq metres from 30,000 sq metres as part of a planned $150 million investment.

The Nokia Telecom Park in Sriperumbudur, which was inaugurated in March 2006, will also house seven component makers who are expected to commence operations by mid-2007, it said in a statement. The facility has the potential to employ 20,000 people by 2008, when it is fully operational, it said. The component makers are Salcomp, Aspocomp, Foxconn, Perlos, Laird, Jabil Circuit and Wintek.

YouTube to Present Video Awards

Brace yourself, Oscar. Step aside, MTV. The online video-sharing Web site YouTube will present awards for best user-generated videos of 2006.

Starting today, YouTube members can browse through videos in seven genres at http://www.youtube.com/YTAwards and rank their favorite short-form videos. Polling closes on Friday. Trophies will be handed out on March 26. "If you think of 2006, it was really a pioneering year for online video and for user-generated content," said Jamie Byrne, head of YouTube product marketing. Google Inc. acquired YouTube for $1.65 billion last year. Categories include most creative or inspirational, best series, comedy, music or commentary. A seventh category, "most adorable video ever"—seeks to recognize the proliferation of "so cute it hurts" sleeping cat or dog videos, Byrne said.

Nominated programs include videos from 80-something English pensioner Geriatric 1927, up-and-coming folk singer Terra Naomi, Star Trek parody Chad Vader, actress-turned-teenager Lonely Girl 15, and comic commentator LisaNova (Lisa Donovan), who recently landed a spot as a cast member on Fox TV show MadTV. The nominees can create new videos over the next five days to promote themselves on YouTube. They can also plead for votes or make acceptance speeches. One category missing from the YouTube awards is 'Best Professionally Produced Copyrighted Video'.

Last week, Viacom Inc., owner of assets including MTV, Comedy Central and Paramount Pictures movie studio, sued YouTube and parent Google for more than $1 billion. The lawsuit alleges YouTube's surging popularity last year was due in part to massive copyright infringement by fans of Viacom shows like "The Colbert Report" and "South Park," who post segments of the TV shows online for other fans to watch. In a sense, the nature of online voting makes YouTube's ceremony anachronistic. YouTube already relies on a ratings system to track the viewing habits of its fans and constantly promotes the most popular videos on its site.