¶ … video streaming surrounding the presentation of products and services on the Internet, that is involving Internet advertising. The reference page appends five sources in APA format. Computer Technology

Education has done wonders and has considerably contributed towards a better world with easier and happier lives. One discipline where genius minds have been able to mint money and the remaining individuals living on this face of earth are leading prosperous and luxurious lives through the enlightenment of education is the vast and ever-changing and rapidly advancing field, Information and Computer Technology.

The apparent technological shift in technologically oriented trends is towards high quality, less expensive, user friendly and up-to-date products. All the witty firms doing good business have observed this shift but in cutthroat, challenging environment selling a product has become much greater challenge than manufacturing one. Therefore, the number of advertising agencies is increasing as new names are emerging on the marketing front. From the most conventional but highly profitable ways of advertising and marketing products and related services to the most modern and advanced developments of technologically rich methods related to marketing are being initiated, introduced and utilized by various concerns making relentless efforts to attract a large number of consumers. The need for change of technology gave birth to Internet followed by the successful Internet advertising subsequently resulting into the growing industry of e-commerce.

As computer technology advanced, it also influenced Internet advertising by providing distinct and most recent expertise, fresh and innovative ideas and equipments. Thus, this progress of computer technology resulted in the invention of video streaming. Before the paper discusses some of the facets of video streaming development, let's look into the definition of the term.

What is Streaming?

Streaming is both a technique and a form of the most recent technological development, that permits the user to view or to hear a clip, a picture, a web broadcast or anything right from the web site through the Internet by dividing the video files "into small packets, delivering these packets in small streams to your computer." (Uhrenholt, 2002)

Hence, there are two types of streaming done to advertise easily and quickly through Internet, which are as follows:

Audio Streaming (related to sounds, live broadcasts)

Video Streaming (including animations, graphics, pictures)

Looking at the above definition, it is obvious that streaming has facilitated watching and hearing the web contents by making the entire process simpler. However, video streaming offers a lot more

What Does Video Streaming Offer To Consumers?

Following are some of the basic uses of video streaming that have led to its constant development every year:

This technology has reduced the problems related to Internet downloading. (Uhrenholt, 2002)

It offers a golden opportunity to watch and hear "live broadcasts on web" ((Uhrenholt, 2002)

It saves time and money that goes into downloading both small and big clips. (About Streaming, 2002)

It saves quantum of hard drive space by giving an option to the user of deleting the required information once it has been used. (About Streaming, 2002)

The following passage of the research paper discusses the historical developments of video streaming having discussed what uses led to the technology's advancement:

Rapid Historical Developments of Video Streaming

Video Streaming has gone through many phases of development and constant improvement. From its pioneer company to major firms in computer technology, all have made changes expedient to their business circumstances and the market situation, thereby, developing the not-so-old video streaming technology time and again.

Some developments of video streaming are discussed below, as history has witnessed and researchers have recorded:

NetShow 3.0, one of the most pivotal video streaming multimedia product was launched by the geniuses at work at Microsoft as a solution supporting the firm's Windows-NT, streaming video material "at bandwidths ranging from 2.4Kbps to 500 Kbps" (Foster, 1998). However, this multimedia invention experienced a development at the hands of Microsoft later in May 1998 with the addition of beta versions...

This development was done in order to combine the functions of NetShow and Microsoft's products like Microsoft Office, Site Server and Microsoft Back Office (Foster, 1998). This combination made it possible to insert visual contents directly from the web to a Power Point Presentation. Furthermore, content providers charge their users for what they view through streaming clips only because of this development. Additionally, Intelligent Streaming, another useful feature of NetShow permits and assists it to regulate distribution of content depending "on network conditions and available bandwidth." (Foster, 1998)
In addition to the above positive change, Microsoft replaced the client of NetShow in the desktop settings with Media Player. Today, Media Player is applied to local as well as streamed multimedia file types, "including WAV, QuickTime, RealAudio, RealVideo, MPEG, and Active Streaming Format. Media Player automatically downloads new coder/decoders, or codec, from Microsoft's Web Site as they are made available in order to take advantage of improvements in compression technology" (Foster, 1998). Moreover, needed extra formats can be achieved by the Media Player Software Development Kit. (Foster, 1998)

However, where NetShow 3.0 developed, Microsoft also took the initiative of further developing beta adaptations of NetShow Theatre Server for the general public, delivering "30 frames per second of MPEG 1 or MPEG 2 video over connections ranging from speeds of 500 Kbps to 8 Mbps" (Foster, 1998). This development increased the video quality being broadcast by switched Ethernet, ATM, cable modem networks and xDSL. (Foster, 1998)

Another important development of video streaming includes the invention of Learning Space 2.6, an outcome of the backbreaking and innovative effort by IBM (Scannell, 1998). Where IBM came up with the idea of integrating both the features of viewing visual clips and the written material for the same through the development of learning Space 2.6, Lotus has offered same services to its users by combining the features of "Ubique and DataBeam" (Scannell, 1998) into SameTime which further developed into another combination of "Lotus Notes/Domino 5.0" and "SameTime" (Scannell, 1998).

Moreover, the most recent development of video streaming is the Darwin Streaming Server 4 that "provides MPEG-4 and MP3 streaming support, skip protection, and the ability to create playlists. You can serve standard MP3 files using Icecast-compatible protocols over http. You can build a playlist of MP3 files and serve them to MP3 clients such as WinAmp, iTunes, and SoundJam. You can also serve ISO-compliant hinted MPEG-4 files to any ISO-compliant MPEG-4 client, including any MPEG-4 enabled device that supports playback of MPEG-4 streams over IP." (Streaming Media, 1999-2002)

Practical Implications For Further Expansion And Amelioration Of Video Streaming

Problems and complaints regarding this technology must be dealt with and solved promptly. For instance, a number of individuals demand interactivity oriented technological development and video streaming in this regard has unfortunately failed to cater to the needs of such consumers.

Video Streaming must be made simpler by reducing the number of steps required in making system streaming-friendly for consumers demand, due to hectic schedules and fast life, easy-to-use and fast paced technological trends. (About Streaming, 2002)

Moreover, the concept is still new for the general public. Steps should be taken to spread the awareness regarding the uses and functions of video streaming.

Furthermore, all the firms doing business with video streaming should try to make it less expensive in order to attract more customers by cutting down the cost price.

Conclusion

Hence, from the above discussion pertaining to the historical developments of video streaming as connected to the presentation of products and services on Internet, we may culminate that the impact of video streaming on Internet advertising has been both strong and positive. It has given a major boost to the manufacturing facilities by creating new ways to advertise their products and services better and has considerably facilitated innumerable advertising organizations by creating newer markets for them.

Due to its various advantages, history has witnessed a constant development of video streaming with big names like IBM, Lotus,…