The reasons always vary, from the creators getting higher-profile work to the creators simply not having any more money. Which is why it’s been exciting to see, over the last two months, a number of web series that announced plans for second seasons in 2013, ranging from independent productions to studio-sponsored shows.

Burning Love

Produced by Paramount and Ben Stiller’s Red Hour Digital for Yahoo, Burning Love was already a lot of fun — the dead-on Bachelor parody had an incredible cast, including Rob Marino, Michael Ian Black, Adam Scott, Malin Ackerman, Kristin Bell, and Ken Jeong.

It’s the sort of fun lark you’d expect to peter out after Season 1, especially because everyone involved has plenty of other stuff going on — so, when Marino revealed that a Season 2 and 3 were in the works, it was a delightful surprise.

Season 2, in classic Bachelor tradition, will feature an unsuccessful lady from the first season as a bachelorette being courted by suitors like Michael Cera, Nick Kroll, Paul Scheer, Kumail Nanjiani and Jerry O’Connell.

Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee

Possibly the most chill web series of 2012, Jerry Seinfeld’s interests in cars, coffee and other comedians collided in this Crackle series. According to The New York Times, the 10-episode first season, which featured comedy greats including Larry David, Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks, brought more than 10 million unique visitors to Crackle, and will be followed up by 24 new episodes.

While those first 10 episodes were ad-free, the big change for season two will be trying to solve that whole “making money with it” dilemma. “This next go-round we’re going to have to figure out some sort of revenue stream, so it makes more sense,” Seinfeld told the Times. With Seinfeld’s pedigree and the first season’s success, they should have some luck with it.

Squaresville

Matt Enlow’s teen dramedy, starring Mary-Kate Wiles and Kylie Sparks, initially funded its first season with Kickstarter and later partnered with Big Frame for production support. The series has an active social media presence, including Twitter and Tumblr, but one question they’d been very quiet on was where plans for a second season stood.

Until last month, that is, when Enlow and Wiles took to YouTube to announce that a second season had in fact been shot and would be coming out early 2013.

Viewcounts for Squaresville‘s first season ranged in the solid five figures, but more importantly the show took home three trophies from the IAWTV Awards earlier this month: Best Writing, Best Ensemble Cast, and Best Comedy Series. Season 2, therefore, should attract some attention.

Video Game High School

Season 1 of Brandon Laatsch and Freddie Wong’s video game comedy series not only helped launch the Rocket Jump platform, but racked up 31.5 million views in its first month online.

For the second season, the VGHS team has turned once again to Kickstarter, using their first season campaign as a model and asking for $636,010, the exact cost of the first season (which Wong recently revealed in infographic form).

The second season format, according to Kickstarter, will be six “TV-length” episodes with a total runtime of 160-180 minutes. Most intriguingly, they’re offering “stretch” goals should they exceed their funding, including — at the $1,000,000 level — a limited theatrical distribution.

It’s not so much that 2013 is the year of the second season, but more the year of more web series becoming sustainable. And each success story is a positive sign for the web video space.

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Microsoft, what are you thinking? Seriously.

Crispin Porter, the agency behind Microsoft’s seemingly failed ad campaign (and if not “failed”, then certainly “confusing”), has been kept on board for “phase two” of Microsoft’s $300 million ad campaign. The angle they are taking for phase two is a direct response to Apple’s successful Get A Mac ad campaign that features John Hodgman as “PC Guy”. In fact, the ad even has a lookalike.

Reportedly, the ads will feature real-life Windows users who proclaim their love for Windows-running computers after the Microsoft “PC Guy” states “Hello, I’m a PC, and I’ve been made into a stereotype.”

On top of that, starting this evening, users can go to windows.com and upload videos and photos of themselves proclaiming the fact that they, too, are PC’s. Seems Microsoft has already forgotten that Apple has created the persona that “PC Guy” isn’t who users should want to be.

Honestly, this just feels childish. Apple, being the one with less market share, launched their Get A Mac campaign to convince people to switch. Microsoft, instead of coming up with an original ad that actually touts some reasons people would want to stick with Windows, can only come up with an ad campaign that effectively says “No fair!”

Microsoft is just trying too hard. While Apple’s ads do indeed take jabs at Microsoft, they also clearly and concisely give you reasons you’d want to get a Mac. If there’s anything Microsoft should take out of Apple’s playbook, it’s the value of quick, simple, and clear communication. Quit making your message overly complex and unoriginal and just tell people the answer to the ominous “Why?”.

Why on earth Seinfeld is getting the axe and not Crispin Porter is beyond me.

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Mashable is confused, as am I and anyone else who found these shorts perversely charming — though, as we discussed in this weekend’s Station Conversation, they do deliberately make light of how out of touch Microsoft is. But ending this campaign can only be construed as another sign of that disconnect. After all, buzz is buzz — and canceling a poorly-planned ad campaign won’t make it go away.

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Microsoft has launched its largest consumer marketing campaign focused on the broad potential of Windows across PCs, the web and mobile devices to date. The reviews are in — the blogging corps have given it a thumbs down. I kinda found it funny, but then I love everything Jerry does. And Bill Gates acts almost human. However, if the ad is trying to engage me about Microsoft and Windows, I give it an “F.” What do you think? Take the poll and share your thoughts.

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