'Tis the season to celebrate the spirit of giving and how better to do that than to give you a great stock pick – financial information provider TheStreet.com (NASDAQ: TSCM). This is my first pick in a series of picks that will highlight companies that are redefining their respective niches and, more importantly, whose stocks are breaking out to new highs.

Everybody's familiar with TheStreet.com; if you're into the stock market, you've definitely read, heard or watched co-founder Jim Cramer by now – he's even here on BloggingStocks. TheStreet.com has many other commentators, too, but c'mon, this is basically a one man show – and therein lies the risk. Then there's the potential for a bear market, which (as CNBC, owned by General Electric (NYSE: GE) has learned over the years) crushes profits. Wait a minute; I'm positive on this company, right? Yes. Here's the good news: this company has a lot going for it.

Revenue and profit growth have been steady in the mid-20% range, and the stock is fairly valued for that range. But TheStreet.com is also shifting its focus to take advantage of the interactive nature of the internet. In the coming months, it'll be launching a redesigned TheStreet.com (apparently, it's not even search engine optimized!), along with a new site, MainStreet.com. It also has been on an acquisition spree, buying Stockpickr.com (an interactive stock idea community with 125,000+ users) and Corsis (web marketing). Further acquisitions are guaranteed considering just last month the company more than doubled its near $40 million war chest by selling a minority stake to a private equity firm.

While television still rakes in billions, executives are getting nervous. What should be done about upstarts like Google (NASDAQ: GOOG)'s YouTube?

Well, in the case of CBS, the company is trying some experimentation. Its latest venture is called "EyeLab," according to a piece in the Wall Street Journal (subscription required)

CBS thinks that small videos and montages are the best approach for the Web. So, with EyeLab, CBS will create new content as well as splice in existing clips to develop cool videos. What's more, the video clips can also be effective vehicles to promote television shows, such as CSI and NUMB3RS.

To get some perspective on things, I talked to Chase Norlin, who operates Pixsy, which is an online video platform. According to him:

"This represents a step in the right direction but ultimately two more powerful forces will likely push CBS to tighten their strategy: 1) Getting short video content online doesn't equal audience. Consumers want access to everything in one place, which points to the success of YouTube; 2) The emerging trend of semipro and pro content created specifically for the web is going to be bigger than people realize. Efforts like Deca.TV, Vuguru, and others have the potential to grow rapidly if they can create breakout hits at low cost."

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He also operates DealProfiles.com.

It's official: the ultra popular video site, YouTube, is getting more than 100 million video views per day. In fact, competitors like Yahoo, Microsoft, Google and AOL have only single-digit market share in the video market.

But, this is not to say YouTube is guaranteed to be the winner in the video category. After all, MySpace has almost 20% of the market.

Ok, so what is this market? It's a new one. And it is growing at hyper-speed. Why?

First, much of the content is user-generated; that is, anyone with a video camera and access to the Internet can easily become a film producer. Next, online videos are short-form (roughly two minutes or so). This makes it easy to consume (and, to consume lots of videos).

Something else: Companies like YouTube have used Web 2.0 techniques to drive traffic, such as allowing people to share their videos – and thus spread them virally.

Most importantly, much of the content is free. That's certainly a way to gain traction, huh?