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When we announced the launch of Hulu Plus earlier this week, one of the comments we received touched on an issue that many overlook when considering online video. While others argued dollars and cents, one lone commenter pondered whether Hulu would be providing captions on its videos. YouTube, the largest provider of online video content, already provides automatic captioning services, but these are far from perfect. On Wednesday, however, YouTube announced that it has partnered with the Described and Captioned Media Program (DCMP) to certify "YouTube Ready" captioning services.

Numbers released from comScore today show that U.S. Internet users watched nearly 34 billion videos online in the month of May, up from just over 30 billion in April. Hulu served up nearly 1.2 billion videos last month, nearly 3.5% of the overall market, while Google remained supreme, accounting for 43% of the market - a whopping 14.6 billion videos - with its powerhouse property, YouTube. Still, Hulu, a place where many watch full episodes of network television, is slowly inching from the pack, and Fox Interactive Media, sitting near the bottom of comScore's rankings, wants a piece of the action. They're target? Mobile.

Google is definitely on a buying spree this year. The company's latest acquisition is Episodic, an online video platform that Google will probably integrate into YouTube is some form. Neither Episodic nor Google shared any financial details about this acquisition. Episodic plans to keep its current service up and running for the time being.

Video platform provider Brightcove just announced the launch of a new tool for website publishers called the "Brightcove Experience Framework for HTML5." The framework allows the company's 1,300 customers create HTML5-compatible websites for delivering video content to Apple mobile devices, including the upcoming slate computer known as the iPad, as well as the iPhone and iPod Touch.

There has been a lot of debate about the move to HTML5 for Web video support, an area previously dominated by Adobe Flash and its accompanying Web browser plugin. Some publishers claim making the switch is a burden while others, most notably Apple CEO Steve Jobs, say the move is "trivial." The truth, says Brightcove CEO Jeremy Allaire, is that "it depends." For some publishers using homegrown video solutions, building a new HTML5 website is indeed hard work, but for customers using platform solutions (like his, of course), the transition is much easier.

CBS.com is apparently adding itself to the lineup of big-name media properties scrambling to get their websites ready for the upcoming Apple iPad, due out on April 3. Recently, both the Wall St. Journal and NPR.org confirmed that they were revamping their sites using HTML5 markup language, the upcoming Web standard that supports video playback without a Web browser plugin. The reason for the overhauls? Apple does not support Adobe's Flash technology on their mobile devices, a lineup that also includes iPhones and iPod Touches. That means that CBS.com's Flash-based streaming video wouldn't play on Apple's new slate computers - devices expected to land in the hands of anywhere from 1 to 6 million customers this year, depending on which analyst predictions you go by.

Blockbuster is bringing its OnDemand service to both Windows Mobile and Google Android phones, starting March 24th with the launch of the T-Mobile HTC HD2 smartphone. On that device, Blockbuster customers will be able to download and watch new releases directly on their mobile phones while also gaining access to queue management and movie locator tools similar to those found in Blockbuster's iPhone application.

The company has also confirmed that they're working on an Android app, which is likely to launch on the "select Motorola phones" Blockbuster previously hinted at when they partnered with the handset manufacturer last summer. Motorola is the maker of several popular Android-powered handsets including the Droid, Backflip, Devour, Cliq and Cliq XT, but Blockbuster won't yet confirm which of these will be able to utilize the new mobile service.

In a recent interview, Hulu CEO Jason Kilar told technology reporter Om Malik that his company was "very bullish" on mobile, even going so far as to say "we will embrace every device." That's a funny statement, considering that the company has been touting that same sentiment for years but has yet to launch anything for mobile, be it an app or simply a mobile-ready streaming site.

Now, with the launch of the iPad just around the corner, the rumors of an iPhone/iPad Hulu app are rising up again. But there's a bigger mobile web than just the one accessible via Apple products, and that may be what Hulu has its eye on now. "We don't think about one device only," Kilar said.

However, going mobile is going to be a challenge for Hulu. And it's not as simple as re-encoding a few videos, no matter what you may have heard.

It seems the 17-year-old truant who created Chatroulette has applied for a visa.

The youngster, be he lucky or brilliant, has indicated he might want to transition to the American scene at some time in the near future.

Recently, Netflix sent out a survey to select subscribers in order to determine interest in an iPhone application for streaming movies via mobile phones. According to the survey's wording, the proposed app would be Wi-Fi only and would offer the same content that the Netflix "Watch Instantly" service provides. Currently, subscribers are able to stream movies and TV shows to their PCs and Macs as well as to game consoles like the Xbox 360 and certain set-top boxes like the Roku. However, plans for an iPhone application were far out on the company's roadmap last anyone heard.

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation is said to be "leading the charge" in trying to get content on tablet devices, according to the Sydney Morning Herald, including, of course, Apple's iPad, which is set to hit the market sometime next month. The ABC currently uses Flash, a software infamously not supported by the iPad, to stream video on its website.

Just last Tuesday, Adobe and Wired Magazine announced a partnership, debuting a rather slick print-to-digital adaptation of the magazine. According to the report by the Herald, a senior executive at Adobe received an email from the ABC seeking a similar deal.