Webisodes are hugely popular at the moment, and when Blast talked to Michael Buckley, from the “What the Buck Show,” Chris Hardwick, the host of the new G4 show “Web Soup,” and Christine Tse Kuecherer, from Take180.com, all three sources agreed that the success lies in the timing.

Take180.com creates Web series fed by viewer participation, like “Electric Spoofaloo,” but none are longer than 180 seconds. Christine Tse Kuecherer, Marketing Director at Take180.com, explained the reasoning for the time limit: “I think one thing we’re seeing with web video in general is that people may not have the long attention span that they might have with television. A great example is Hulu. They highlight Saturday Night Live skits and TV shows. That’s why we’re ‘Take180′ and nothing is over 180 seconds.”

The same concept applies to YouTube videos, and really any other content on the Internet. News ratings have plunged over the years, and it’s really no wonder why.

Michael Buckley blames the drop entirely on the Internet.

“I think people are just on their computers all day,” Buckley said. “They like to just read the little blurb, or they like to go online and see like a little one and a half to three minute video summary. They don’t want to watch thirty minutes, they just want ‘BAM BAM BAM.’ That’s what they want. Our attention span is so terrible anyway.”

While audiences don’t want to wait around to listen to all of the news, the web isn’t about to replace television as a whole any time soon. However, more and more television shows are beginning to produce their own webisodes and create extra content to keep their computer-loving viewers interested.

Kuecherer pointed out shows like “Heroes,” which have uploaded webisodes between regular episodes to keep fans coming back for more.

“TV is realizing that the web is a good way to get fans more interested — they’re coming out with extra webisodes and back stories to create more interest,” Kuecherer said.

Buckley believes that TV will simply transform just a little more to cater to our culture’s growing need for speedy entertainment.

“Webisodes will probably be regular TV programming at some point,” he said. “The TV timeslots now are so strange, a lot of shows are like an hour and seven minutes or shows on cable channels are like 22 minutes, so I think that TV is going more the way of the web, and on demand. So I think it will definitely be an option to see five minute segments of all types of programming down the line.”

Television producers and writers have obviously noticed the trend, which can only explain the start up of a new spin-off of E!’s “The Soup” — “Web Soup.” There’s enough interest in viral videos and webisodes online that now TV wants a piece of it too.

Chris Hardwick, tech expert and co-host of G4’s “Attack of the Show,” is now the host of the channel’s “Web Soup,” which is currently the top-ranked comedy podcast right now on iTunes.

Hardwick credits the web video craze to our culture’s descent into geekdom. “We’re coming back to that original definition of geek. A geek used to be a carnival performer who bit the heads of chickens and snakes, and now we’re back to where geeks put videos of themselves online where they’re biting heads off chickens and snakes. Geek culture is pop culture now. I had to suffer from it in grade school.”

And now he hosts his own show. “Take that, guy who stuffed me in a trashcan!”

“Web Soup” takes a critical look at viral videos and other random web hilarity out there with the intermittent appearance of guest celebrities like “Weird Al” Yankovic and the fill-in comedy sketch every now and then. The show won’t completely focus on videos, however.

“Someone had put a mixer online that was a soundboard of David Lee Roth,” Hardwick said. “If you can find it via the Internet, it’s fair game.”

Brad Pitt leads the pack on a list that includes Jessica Alba and Katherine Heigl.

“Fans searching for “Brad Pitt,” “Brad Pitt downloads,” and Brad Pitt wallpaper, screen savers and pictures have an 18% chance of having their PCs infected with online threats, such as spyware, spam, phishing, adware, viruses and other malware,” McAfee said. “Cybercriminals are using A-listers’ names and images, like Beyoncé and Justin Timberlake, to lure Internet users who surf the Web for the latest gossip, screen savers and ringtones to “fake” Web sites that look legitimate.”

The list includes:

1. Brad Pitt – When “Brad Pitt screensavers” was searched, more than half of the resulting Web sites were identified as containing malicious downloads with spyware, adware and potential viruses.

2. Beyoncé – Inputting “Beyoncé ringtones” into a search engine yields risky Web sites that promote misleading offers to gather consumers’ personal information.

3. Justin Timberlake – Interest in his high-profile relationships makes him an easy target for spammers and hackers. When searching for “Justin Timberlake downloads” one Web site advertised free music downloads that were flagged as directly leading to spam, spyware and adware.

4. Heidi Montag – “The Hills” star is a popular search term when it comes to searching for wallpaper. A host of wallpaper Web sites contained hundreds of malware-laden downloads.

5. Mariah Carey – Spammers and hackers are using Mariah Carey screen saver Web sites to link to other sites proven to contain spyware, adware and other threatening downloads.

6. Jessica Alba – Red-ranked risky sites were identified when searching for “Jessica Alba” and “Jessica Alba downloads.” The sites contained hundreds of malicious downloads, links to other bad sites, misleading offers to gather information, and a high number of spam emails when an email address was provided.

7. Lindsay Lohan – This young Hollywood starlet is as dangerous to search online as she is famous. Searching for “Lindsay Lohan downloads” resulted in several dangerous Web sites laden with hidden adware.

8. Cameron Diaz – Cybercriminals use download Web sites related to Cameron Diaz’s image to link to other harmful sites containing spyware.

9. George Clooney, Rihanna – The technology found one Web site embedded with hundreds of dangerous wallpaper and photo downloads after inputting “George Clooney downloads.” “Rihanna pictures” was also a risky search term, as McAfee identified a site that spammed its test email address.

11. Angelina Jolie – When “Angelina Jolie downloads” was searched, the software highlighted a risky site with 978 hidden malware-infected wallpaper and photo downloads, as well as links to other potentially dangerous URLs.

12. Fergie – A Fergie screen saver site was flagged as offering 111 risky downloads that could seriously compromise a PC’s privacy with unwanted spyware and adware.

13. David Beckham, Katie Holmes – The “David Beckham” search term generated a great deal of wallpaper and screen saver downloads veiled with malware. Consumers should also exercise caution when searching for “Katie Holmes” online – one download site advertised free screen savers that, if downloaded, would infect your computer with malicious programs like spyware.

15. Katherine Heigl – Hollywood’s big headliner in recent years is now susceptible to Internet lurkers too. “Katherine Heigl” was searched and a site was identified containing hundreds of malware-infected pictures.

 ”Cybercriminals employ numerous methods, yet one of the simplest but most effective ways is to trick consumers into infecting themselves by capitalizing on Americans’ interest in celebrity gossip,” said Jeff Green, senior vice president of McAfee’s Product Development and Avert Labs. “Tapping into current events, pop culture or commonly browsed sites is an easy way to achieve this. And because of Americans’ obsession with following celebrities’ lifestyles, they are an obvious target. We have to take precautions in casually navigating the Web since many subtle sites may be rife with malware for consumers’ computers.”

The list was compiled using McAfee SiteAdvisor, which can be downloaded for free at www.mcafee.com/siteadvisor.

After lazing around our not-so-Quality Inn hotel room (with no elevator, thank you very much John), we finally got over the jet-lag and headed to Tinsel Town. Not gonna lie, it wasn’t exactly what I expected, but that’s mostly because we started off in the slums and then managed to continue far enough down Hollywood Boulevard to reach Touristwood, the Hollywood everyone wants us to see.

I was pretty excited. We had finally reached the people that we recognized of the Hollywood stars on the sidewalk (other than Lassie and the Rugrats, who we had seen earlier), and there we were, right at the heart of downtown Hollywood. We passed the Egyptian Theater, and made it to the Guinness World Records and Hollywood Wax Museum buildings, which were awesome. It was my first time in a wax museum, so I was pretty impressed. The best wax figure was, obviously, Sammy J. Did you really question that? He had the shades and everything.

Also, apparently there is a world record for how many cigars you can smoke at once. It was fourteen, and the man could sing and whistle at the same time. Get on that, people.

Graumann’s Chinese Theater was probably my favorite though. There were all these people dressed up in character, like Superman and Jimmy Neutron and even Optimus Prime, that people were taking pictures with. Walking around and looking at all the hand prints that celebs from Will Smith to the Marx Brothers had made felt like being around royalty. It was a surreal experience (we still have 11 more days to meet an actual celebrity; the search continues!).

We had dinner at Mel’s Diner, which was the closest thing we could find to my requested Jack Rabbit Slim’s experience (I don’t care if it’s fictional or not!) and headed back to our car when, WHAM BAM ALAKAZAM!, turns out come cops were pursuing… someone, and hit and killed two pedestrians along the way. About two blocks of Hollywood Boulevard were closed off, so we had to walk through some pretty slummy areas in order to get back on track somewhere around the Geisha House. You’re lucky, your dearly devoted reporters almost didn’t even make it to E3!

By the way, wasn’t kidding about the hotel room. After not even spending 24 hours here, I woke up this morning to find the toilet’s broken. It’s going to be awesome.

Recently, Oprah Winfrey laid out the red carpet for Democratic Presidential Candidate, Barack Obama. The event was expected to raise $3 million for Obama’s campaign. With guest appearances by Will Smith, Stevie Wonder and Halle Berry, along with Oprah’s announcement that this presidential candidate was her “favorite guy,” one would think Obama’s audience increased.

But a survey conducted b y E-Poll Market Research may prove otherwise. The celebrity and brand research firm polled 2,237 voting age Americans. Of those, only 16 percent say a celebrity would influence their vote in the 2008 Presidential Election. In fact, 10 percent of participants said that a celebrity influence would have a negative impact on their vote.

E-Poll asked which celebrities – if any – would be the most influential in deciding which candidate to vote for. The top celebrities did include Oprah Winfrey along with George Clooney, Angelina Jolie and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Survey results show that democrats could be more swayed by celebrity endorsements than republicans. Although Obama is among the top three democratic presidential candidates, Hilary Clinton is still on top, and her campaign has not included any celebrity endorsements to date.

If candidates are looking for a boost, they should not turn to Rosie O’Donnell, Tom Cruise or Madonna. E-Poll’s survey suggests they would have the least influence and the most negative effects.

Candidates looking to gain votes from those who are still undecided for the 2008 election should not look to celebrities for help. Independents are the least likely to be swayed and only 13 percent say it would be a positive influence.

Overall, the survey results show that celebrity endorsements basically have no effect on young voters’ decisions.
Perhaps Oprah should have saved the red carpet gala until her next birthday.