ReadWriteWeb

The battle between HTML5 and Adobe Flash for dominance over video on the Web is likely to end poorly for one of the two, and lately it's been looking worse and worse for Flash. Steve Jobs wrote an open letter to the Web stating why Flash would remain banned from iPhones and iPads, and just yesterday, Apple got an "unexpected ally" in its anti-Flash crusade - the adult entertainment industry.

But today, just to keep from making things too cut and dry, Google-owned video site YouTube has come out with a list of its own reasons why Flash is here to stay - for now - and HTML5 simply isn't qualified to handle the job at hand.

May 2010 was a great month for YouTube. Not only did users of Google's online video service stream more videos per month in the U.S. than ever before (14.6 billion), but according to online analytics firm comScore, every single YouTube user now watches more than 100 videos per month. In total, Google's video properties now command slightly more than 43% of the online video market. No other online video service currently owns more than 3.5% of the streaming video market. In total, about 183 million Internet users in the U.S. watched online video last month.

The joy over wide-spectrum sharing has grown more muted even as it has become easier. The brouhaha over privacy issues, ranging from Facebook to Google to the U.S. Congress, has put the frighteners on some users.

For those who wish to share videos, but not with the whole of mankind, VidMe hopes with today's launch to offer an alternative to YouTube both online and with its iPhone app.

Google just announced that a U.S. district court has granted the company's motion for summary judgment in Viacom's $1 billion lawsuit against YouTube. The court argued that YouTube is protected by the so-called "safe harbor" provision. Viacom first sued Google in 2007 and the court case continued to simmer ever since. Viacom accused YouTube of deliberately withholding filtering technologies and knowingly infringing on the company's copyright.

Now that World Cup soccer has become the most popular Web event ever, we wanted to help you understand what it is about this sport that's so effective at capturing the world's attention.

From the number one video of soccer celebrities Ronaldinho and Ronaldo showing their best tricks, to the 50 best goals of all time, to street soccer on rooftops, these are our picks for the best videos with the greatest number of views. As a bonus we've included two honorable mentions. These two aren't the most popular videos, but they do much to explain the world-unifying force that the World Cup is. If we've left out any of your favorite soccer videos, please post your links in the comments below.

If you have found yourself like I recently have - stuck with video on an iPhone and a netbook, but no real way to edit it - then fret no more, because YouTube has added an editor.

While the YouTube Video Editor is certainly nothing to compete with the likes of Final Cut Pro or Premiere, it has the basic functionality needed to finally make it possible for those living the ultra-mobile, ultra-lightweight lifestyle to put their videos online without having to leave all the unwieldy odds and ends.

At 8pm ET tonight, President Obama plans to address the nation about the BP oil spill from the Oval Office. In addition, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs will also answer questions from YouTube users right after the president's address. If you would like to submit your own questions, head over to the White House's YouTube page. Just like during earlier events, the White House is using Google Moderator to collect these questions. YouTube users can then vote which questions they would like Gibbs to answer tonight.

A new mashup lets you track the BP oil spill news using Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and more, all from one interface. Called "Oilaholic," the site serves as a one-stop shop for everything oil spill-related, including the latest tweets, the live video cam feed from uStream, the latest Facebook news and Flickr photos, the hottest headlines from Google News and elsewhere on the Web, a real-time "leak meter" feed (which is incredibly disturbing), and a live chatroom for venting your frustrations after you look at the leak meter, plus links to useful resources including government agencies, volunteer efforts, phone numbers to call and more.

Pakistan has now partially lifted its ban on YouTube, according to Naguibullah Malik, secretary of information technology and telecom. The site was one of many - including Facebook, Flickr and Wikipedia - that were banned last week in response to the "Everybody Draw Muhammad Day" movement, an event that was meant to celebrate free speech on the Internet by encouraging people to draw depictions of Muhammad, something considered sacrilegious to many of those in the Islamic faith.

In response, the Pakistani court ordered the Pakistani Telecommunications Authority to shutdown Facebook; YouTube, Flickr and Wikipedia later followed.

A world where we download objects off the Web the same way we currently download our data? If this futuristic notion is one day going to come true, it's thanks to 3D printing developers like FormZ, ProtoPulsion, Z Corp, Print2 3D, and Thing Labs. Our selection of the top videos mostly come from these companies.

The number one video in this collection, however, is more ideal than real. The Star Trek Replicator according to Wikipedia "...can create any inanimate matter, as long as the desired molecular structure is on file, but it cannot create antimatter, dilithium, latinum, or a living organism of any kind. In theory it seems to work similar to a universal assembler." In the real world, today's developers have countless innovations they must achieve before 3D printers can come anywhere near Star Trek's replicator. But once it does become possible, what's the first object you'd most want to download off the Web?