Natalie Wood has resurfaced as one of the most popular searches, due in large part to recent information that led police to reopen their investigation; it’s unclear just yet if any of the new information links Robert Wagner to the death of Natalie Wood. The pair, married at the time of her death, had been on a Yacht with Christopher Walken, a co-star of Natalie’s in the movie Brainstorm (1983) that the two were acting in. From there, what happened to Natalie Wood and how (or if) Robert Wagner or Christopher Walken were involved or what they know is foggy at best.

And that’s likely the reason law enforcement was never able to pursue charges against anyone. With out some kind of evidence of foul play, not merely suspicion, how can they prove that Natalie was murdered and didn’t just drown? And while some question why Walken would hire an attorney if he had nothing to hide or worry about, I think he’s being prudent and making sure he doesn’t get somehow railroaded in a 20+ year investigation. The same holds true for Robert Wagner; how would any of us act if we were suspected in the death of a loved when because there just wasn’t any evidence?

Is it plausible that Natalie Wood simply had too much to drink and got too close to the edge of the boat? Sure it is, it wouldn’t be the first time someone fell off a boat, drunk or not. However, that doesn’t answer the suspicious circumstances- the witness (Marilyn Wayne) who says her boat was anchored nearby and she heard a women screaming for help; why Robert Wagner didn’t call for a rescue boat the instant he thought she was missing, etc…. Instead there are reports that Wagner said of Natalie’s disappearance “We thought she was off on another boat screwing around because that’s the kind of woman she is.” Really, you’re on a boat and somehow your wife managed to get on another boat in the middle of the night to screw around? That’s why there are so many questions and suspicions. Natalie Wood may very well never get justice, or we may never know fully what happened to her that night with Robert Wagner and Christopher Walken.

Movies are great, we all love them. And the greatest trend right now is to watch movies online, and for free. Of course most of the options available to watch movies online are pay services, like Netflix Instant Streaming. But there are also companies like hulu.com that offer free online movies and television shows; granted they’re mostly older movies but none the less it’s a pretty cool website and they’re very popular.

Millions of people now watch movies that they’ve downloaded online, whether they’re free or not, and this trend doesn’t look to be slowing down anytime soon. As technology advances and hardware capabilities improve (and download speeds increase) more and more people are likely to switch and also watch movies online. In fact, while companies like RedBox are very competitive against online only companies like Netflix, in the very near future when online streaming speeds and technology catch up, fully and for the masses, it is likely that Netflix will regain any of the market share they’ve lost due to DVD kiosk or retail competition.

It might even be speculated that Netflix is purposely positioning itself to be in sole possession of the top online resource for watching and renting movies instantly through live streaming feeds. While it’s currently cheaper and more convenient for mainstream renters to watch a movie they’ve rented from the discount kiosks or retail outlets than it is to use the old Netflix mail in system (for those not able to fully utilize the quicker streaming downloads), the time when almost everyone will have ultra-high speed broadband and technology capable of utilizing it is just around the corner. When that happens, when the masses can instantly download movies online through Netflix or other company for a competitive price, then online and streaming movie rentals will become the standard. Until then, people will continue searching for free movies to watch online or cheap alternatives like RedBox from which to get their DVD’s.

Lil Wayne rocks YouTube lyrics searches and the music industry. Born as Dwayne Michael Carter, Jr., in 1982, Lil Wayne began his lively career as early as age 9 when he signed with Cash Money Records as their youngest performer. His lyrics can be controversial to some and liked by others, but his music has an undisputed following based on the number of YouTube views for Lil Wayne videos and searches for Lil Wayne lyrics on YouTube.

For example, the Lil Wayne video “Lollipop” has had over 90 million (yes, million) views. In fact it’s has 90, 311,000 as of this writing. (See video below) Putting that into marketing perspective you can see why YouTube was a genius online video sharing concept. Another Lil Wayne song, “Right Above It” with Lyrics, has over 2 ¼ million views in 1 year, presumably largely due to the inclusion of the song lyrics with the video.

The most viewed YouTube video with lyrics (that I could find) was Jason Derulo – In My Head (Official Lyrics Video), which has had 95,222,000 views / searches in the past two years. But Lil Wayne seems to be the money maker at the moment as searches for his videos and songs keeps rising and pleasing the marketing and advertising crowd. Of course consumers aren’t complaining; the YouTube model of providing free videos and other content in a seamless and user friendly way makes more than money, it makes sense. Lyrics ‘n Lil Wayne…a YouTube sensation.

 

Netflix, which came onto the instant movie streaming scene recently, has had a rocky, if not successful, run. Starting out in slowly in 1997, Netflix began its subscription service a few years later and enjoyed much success despite local video rental stores and national chains. However Netflix has been forced to undergo some changes recently to meet customer and economic demands. In April 2011 Netflix had a subscriber base of over 23 million. But despite their size Netflix was losing some of it’s market share to competitors like RedBox and was forced to make some drastic changes to it’s instant and streaming services. Netflix streaming would allegedly become a primary service on it’s own.

The old Netflix, the one that rose to massive size and customer loyalty, had devised a plan to rebrand it’s DVD rental into it’s own subsidiary called Qwikster, and let Netflix retain the name and provide the company’s instant streaming movie platform. As should have been expected customer and public backlash was huge; so huge that the company reportedly lost almost a million customers at the announcement of the drastic changes. Because of the backlash, presumably, Netflix decided to not divide the company and to keep both DVD Rentals and instant streaming movies under the same old brand. Marketing genius purposely aimed at garnering public hype, or a real PR blunder… no one knows for sure.

But Netflix streaming and instant movie rentals are back and for 3^rd Quarter 2011 Netflix announced a 60% increase in earnings, so the company seems no worse for the wear and perhaps, whatever the motive, this will have led them into a new frontier; one that somehow let’s Netflix compete with the likes of RedBox. Most likely as technology advances and more and more homes have their televisions wired to the internet, Netflix will be in a prime position to take advantage of it, while the now popular drop box DVD rentals will lose their appeal, pricing notwithstanding. Netflix instant streaming… a new generation Netflix.

YouTube videos have become as popular and cult-like as Coca Cola or McDonald’s… simply an everyday part of our lives. Whether people are searching for the favorite song or videos with lyrics, YouTube is bookmarked on virtually every computer in the world. Some people have even made YouTube videos their primary source of income as they reap the advertising rewards for their followers.

The range of topics of YouTube videos is almost as diverse as the web itself, because now you can find more than just songs with lyrics or videos, but movies and television shows, advertising promos, corporate press releases, and so much more. And Youtube has made it so simple for everyone to embed their videos into your website or blog that it has further fueled the YouTube phenomenon. I did a simple search for YouTube Lyrics and got 804,000,000 Google results! Someone is seriously wanting their music lyrics.

YouTube has grown from it’s earliest days when it’s three founders, former PayPal employees, came up with the idea of sharing videos on the internet in 2005. So few years later look at the mega company that it has become, all on the backs of die hard fans wanting their music, videos and lyrics, and getting it easily and quickly via YouTube’s simple user interface. YouTube is another example of marketing and design brilliance.