YouTube, by far the most popular video site on the Internet, is seeing massive changes in how people use the site. The takeaway: People are watching fewer videos on YouTube, but they are watching longer videos and spending more time on the site.

Elroy Klee used wigs made out of Legos for an ad campaign for “Mindplay Bricks On Me.” These are just flat out brillant.

Because Flickr wasn’t as profitable as some of the other bigger properties, like Yahoo Mail or Yahoo Sports, it wasn’t given the resources that were dedicated to other products. That meant it had to spend its resources on integration, rather than innovation. Which made it harder to attract new users, which meant it couldn’t make as much money, which meant (full circle) it didn’t get more resources. And so it goes.

As a result of being resource-starved, Flickr quit planting the anchors it needed to climb ever higher. It missed the boat on local, on real time, on mobile, and even ultimately on social-the field it pioneered. And so, it never became the Flickr of video; YouTube snagged that ring. It never became the Flickr of people, which was of course Facebook. It remained the Flickr of photos. At least, until Instagram came along.

I still use Flickr. It is still a “solid” service. But I used it before Yahoo bought it years ago and it was better than. It is just sad this happens so often.

When you advertise fire-extinguishers, open with the fire.

— David Ogilvy