LinkedIn is killing off its ephemeral Stories features but plans to use what it learned to improve videos across its platform.
LinkedIn introduced Stories last year as a way for professionals to share short videos that would disappear after 24 hours. Liz Li, Senior Director of Product at LinkedIn, says the company was surprised to learn that some people wanted their videos to have more permanence than Stories provides.
You wish videos could live on your profile, not disappear. In developing Stories, we assumed people wouldn’t want informal videos attached to their profile, and that ephemerality would reduce barriers that people feel about posting. Turns out, you want to create lasting videos that tell your professional story in a more personal way and that showcase both your personality and expertise.
Feedback also indicated that many users wanted tools to create more engaging videos.
LinkedIn appears to be listening to the feedback and plans to kill off Stories by the end of September. The company will then take the feedback and lessons its learned, and roll them into a new and improved video experience.
We’ve learned a ton. Now, we’re taking those learnings to evolve the Stories format into a reimagined video experience across LinkedIn that’s even richer and more conversational. We want to embrace mixed media and creative tools of Stories in a consistent way across our platform, while working to integrate it more tightly with your professional identity.
Starting Wednesday, YouTube began running ads on some content creators’ videos without sharing the revenue those ads bring in.
Traditionally, YouTube shares ad revenue with content creators in the YouTube Partner Program (YPP). In order to qualify to be in the YPP, a creator must have more than 1,000 subscribers and have accrued 4,000 viewing hours over the previous 12 months. It was relatively rare or specific circumstances that would cause creators not in the YPP to have ads play on their videos.
It appears YouTube is expanding those circumstances, however, with plans to monetize videos from creators that don’t qualify to be part of the YPP. The change was outlined in an update to the YouTube Terms of Service:
Right to Monetize You grant to YouTube the right to monetize your Content on the Service (and such monetization may include displaying ads on or within Content or charging users a fee for access). This Agreement does not entitle you to any payments. Starting November 18, 2020, any payments you may be entitled to receive from YouTube under any other agreement between you and YouTube (including for example payments under the YouTube Partner Program, Channel memberships or Super Chat) will be treated as royalties. If required by law, Google will withhold taxes from such payments.
The company clarified its new Right to Monetize clause:
We added this new section to let you know that, starting today we’ll begin slowly rolling out ads on a limited number of videos from channels not in YPP. This means as a creator that’s not in YPP, you may see ads on some of your videos. Since you’re not currently in YPP, you won’t receive a share of the revenue from these ads, though you’ll still have the opportunity to apply for YPP as you normally would once you meet the eligibility requirements. You can always check your progress toward eligibility on the monetization tab in YouTube Studio.
It’s safe to say this will probably not be a welcome change. Many content creators will likely take issue with YouTube making money off of their hard work—before they’re able to reap any benefits themselves.
For months, Google has been releasing quick video tutorials as a series called “AdWords in Under Five Minutes”. It’s been a while since they released one, but this week, they released a new one about Gmail ads.
The video can be quite useful to those who aren’t super-experienced with various aspects of Google advertising (of which there are many).
Chances are, there are plenty of you who have never tried out a Gmail Ad campaign, so this one’s for you.
Be sure to check out the comments section on the video as well, as the AdWords team has answered some advertiser questions.
Past “AdWords in Under Five Minutes” topics have included location targeting, remarketing, bid adjustment, merchant promotions, call-only campaigns, structured snippets, website call conversions, sitelinks, conversion tracking, shopping campaigns, ad scheduling, phone number ads, seller rating ads, holiday trend optimization, and merchant center accounts. You can find them all here.
Adele is one of the biggest stars in the world, so it’s a little tough to go undercover and make herself unrecognizable.
But that’s exactly what she did for a recent TV special, and all in the name of a good prank.
Adele recently donned a prosthetic nose and chin and posed as Jenny, a nanny and aspiring Adele impersonator. She then went to an audition of sorts with a bunch of other Adele impersonators. I’m sure you can see where this is going. The shock when the group of impersonators discovers they are actually standing in the presence of their idol is amazing.
Check out this hilarious prank from the BBC special Adele At The BBC, hosted by Graham Norton.
Adele’s new album, 25, sold 2.3 million copies in its first three days. It’s only the second album since 1991 to sell more than 2 million copies in one week.
Last week, when Facebook announced that it sees over eight billion video views per day, you likely said well, that’s a hell of a lot of video views. And you’d be right, it is.
Last week, Snapchat updated its terms to give itself “worldwide, perpetual, royalty-free, sublicensable, and transferable license to host, store, use, display, reproduce, modify, adapt, edit, publish, create derivative works from, publicly perform, broadcast, distribute, syndicate, promote, exhibit, and publicly display that content in any form and in any and all media or distribution methods (now known or later developed).”
We pointed out that this language is certainly nothing new in the industry, as apps like Facebook and Instagram basically say the same thing in their terms. It’s also not that different from how the terms read before the update.
Snapchat added the word “store” when it comes to your content, and that sent users up in arms.
“First off, we want to be crystal clear: The Snaps and Chats you send your friends remain as private today as they were before the update. Our Privacy Policy continues to say—as it did before—that those messages “are automatically deleted from our servers once we detect that they have been viewed or have expired.” Of course, a recipient can always screenshot or save your Snaps or Chats. But the important point is that Snapchat is not—and never has been—stockpiling your private Snaps or Chats. And because we continue to delete them from our servers as soon as they’re read, we could not—and do not—share them with advertisers or business partners,” said the company in a blog post.
But users are clearly flocking to Snapchat, as it often provides a more immediate feel and certainly less permanence that Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. And with six billion video views per day, ad spend on Snapchat is likely to explode.
We’ve reported on plenty of instances of Uber drivers attacking, kidnapping, and raping passengers. Here’s some shocking video from the other side – a drunk passenger brutally attacking a driver.
In a video uploaded on October 30th, an Uber driver repeatedly asks a passenger to give him directions, and the passenger can be heard slurring, burping, and generally being unable to give directions. At about two minutes into the video, the driver flips his dashcam around.
At about 2:30, the driver pulls into a parking lot and says “sorry man, I gotta kick you out.”
“You’re too drunk to give me directions,” he says.
The passenger argues with the driver for about a minute, but the driver says he’s already ended the trip and tells the passenger to get out of the car, or he’ll call the police.
At about 3:20, the passenger starts hitting the driver in the face. About 10 seconds into the attack, the driver is able to turn around and spray the passenger with pepper spray.
You can check out the video below:
The driver, Edward Caban, tells the story like this:
It all started when i got a ping while in Newport Beach to pick up a passenger near baja sharkies on the peninsula in Newport, the passenger was incredibly intoxicated and when i pulled up, he came up to the window and asked if I was an uber driver, he appeared to be on the phone with another driver, asking him about what car he was driving. I said yes, and he immediately got in. I confirmed destination, my gps said the black night at the triangle in Costa Mesa, I asked if this was correct, he said yeah, im close to there ill tell you where to go, I asked again if he could just give me his address because I have been down this road before. He refused and insisted on telling me where to trun. We start driving, he begins fading in and out of consciousness while become belligerent and aggressive, and refusing to put his seat belt on, swearing at me, telling me to “fucking turn this piece of shit around” I didn’t feel comfortable when I picked him up and I no longer wanted him in the car at this point. I grabbed the pepper spray from my center console and put it under my right thigh and flipped my camera around and, as i always do when my spidey senses start tingling, made a u-turn, then pulled into a nearby well lit shopping center, and asked him to get out of the car. He insisted on continuing, even though I had already ended the ride. We went back and fourth a bit before I told him if he didnt get out i would call the police. At which point he opened his door and began beating me over the head. I fumbled with the safety on the pepper spray while trying to protect my face with my other arm, I broke free from him grabbing me by the hair on the back of my head, and sprayed his face until he got out of the car, at which point i left the vehicle. Uber drivers don’t get paid enough to deal with this shit.
Being an Uber driver and dealing with drunks surely sucks, and this is about as bad as it can get.
6abc reports that the passenger has been identified, and is facing assault charges.
Facebook has just announced the coolest thing to happen to your profile since the Cover Photo. Soon, you’ll have the ability to set a seven-second looping video as your profile pic. (Don’t worry, you can still just have a static pic if you want)
Facebook is calling them “Profile Videos”.
“The world has changed since we first introduced profiles in 2004. On News Feed and profiles, we’re seeing people create and view more videos than ever before. Today we’re starting to test the next step in an obvious evolution of profiles: profile videos. Soon, you’ll be able to film a short, looping video clip that will play for anyone who visits your profile. Profile videos will let show a part of yourself you couldn’t before, and add a new dimension to your profile,” says the company.
The Profile videos will only show up on your profile, as a frame of them will be what users seen on the news feed.
If you’re anxious to try it out, hopefully you live in the UK or California. That’s where Facebook is testing the new feature. It says it’ll roll it out to “more people soon.” but given Facebook’s tendency to slow-roll everything, it could be a little while.
Along with these new profile features, we’ve made some design changes to mobile profile that improve the profile layout and better present information about you and your friends in a more visually engaging way. We’re moving your profile picture and video to literally put you front-and-center on your profile. Profile pictures are now centered, and we’ve made them bigger to give you more real estate to show off what you can do with our new creative tools.
We’ve also made some small changes that will help you learn more about the people you’ve just met and ensure you see the most interesting visual highlights from the friends you already know. People love seeing photos and mutual friends when viewing the profiles of friends or someone they’ve just met, so those are easier to see now on profile. Photos and friends are right at the top, making getting to know someone and seeing the world through your friends’ eyes as easy as scrolling.
You will soon have better privacy controls atop your mobile Timeline. Also, Facebook is reorganizing the information just under your profile pic (or video?). “You can also fill out the new, one-line ‘Bio’ field: select certain public About fields like work and education details to appear there; and even visually highlight what’s important to you by choosing up to five Featured Photos to be showcased at the top of your profile. While this space is visible to anyone who visits your profile, you have full control of what information appears here,” says Facebook.
It’s a significant update to Profiles, and people should have a lot of fun with the new Profile videos. It will probably cause and even bigger headache for Facebook’s content moderators, however. Seven seconds is plenty of time to be pretty risqué.
Businesses can expect to see a lot of Saleforce news this week as the company kicks off its big Dreamforce event on Tuesday. According to Forbes, it could just be THE conference of the year for entrepreneurs and startups.
In fact, the news has already been coming out with a big announcement last week about the new Salesforce App Cloud.
While it’s not exactly a major news story, Business Insider points us to a video from Chris Kubbernus that shows a pretty awesome Pac-Man video wall that Salesforce has in one of it’s building. It’s just too cool not to share.
The wall reportedly appears in the lobby of 50 Fremont, which is part of the company’s headquarters in San Francisco. It’s apparently the ninth tallest building in the city.
All I know is that I want one of these walls in my house.
On a sidenote, if you simply Google the word “pacman” Google serves you an answer box with a playable Pac-Man Google Doodle, which it ran on its homepage a few years ago.
You always hear about Facebook catching up to, and even surpassing YouTube as a destination for video. And it’s no joke – Facebook is a video powerhouse.
But you may or may not have heard about some of the criticisms of Facebook concerning its meteoric rise in video content – mainly, that the majority of the video content that gets posted and shared all over Facebook is stolen. Pirated, copied, or repurposed from other sites (like YouTube). And content creators across the web are pissed about it.
Facebook currently uses tech called Audible Magic, which “uses audio fingerprinting technology to help identify and prevent unauthorized videos from making their way onto the platform.” Of course, Facebook also has a content reporting system that lets people flag content that violates IP.
But it hasn’t been nearly good enough, according to many. Now, Facebook says it’s doing something about it.
“We’ve heard from some of our content partners that third parties too frequently misuse their content on Facebook. For instance, publishers have told us that their videos are sometimes uploaded directly to Facebook without their permission. This practice has been called “freebooting,” and it’s not fair to those who work hard to create amazing videos. We want creators to get credit for the videos that they own. To address this, we have been exploring ways to enhance our rights management tools to better empower creators to control how their videos are shared on Facebook,” says the company.
According to Facebook, it’s working to improve the Audible Magic system as well as building new video matching technology.
“We’re working with Audible Magic to enhance the way that system works with Facebook, including improving the intake of content intended to be blocked from our platform. And we’re making improvements to our existing procedures so that infringing content can be reported and removed more efficiently, and to keep repeat infringers off our service,” says Facebook.
“We have been building new video matching technology that will be available to a subset of creators. This technology is tailored to our platform, and will allow these creators to identify matches of their videos on Facebook across Pages, profiles, groups, and geographies. Our matching tool will evaluate millions of video uploads quickly and accurately, and when matches are surfaced, publishers will be able to report them to us for removal.”
Facebook says it’ll soon begin a beta test with “small group of partners.” Facebook is looking for something that more closely resembles YouTube’s content ID system. Although that is far from perfect, it works better than Facebook’s.
Earlier this year, Google announced two major pieces of news with regards to how it ranks search results on mobile devices. The one that got the majority of industry coverage was related to the mobile-friendliness of sites. The other was that Google started using app indexing as a ranking signal, and has even expanded that signal since the initial announcement.
This week, Google hosted an hour-long “office-hours hangout” (via Search Engine Roundtable) on the topic answering numerous questions about the topic, so if this is something you want to take advantage of (and if you have an app, why wouldn’t you?), you’ll probably want to give it a watch.
App indexing and related efforts from Google should mean increased discovery for new and existing apps and the content within them. Etsy sellers appear to already be benefiting.
Some in the UK feel that YouTube videos, like movies and other forms of art/media, need age ratings.
According to The Guardian, YouTube and Vevo have collaborated with two organizations – the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) and the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) – to make sure new music videos made in the UK come with age ratings.
“Keeping children safe as they experience and enjoy all the benefits the internet has to offer is a key priority for this government’s one-nation approach to help families across Britain,” said minister for internet safety and security Joanna Shields. “We will continue to work with industry to develop ways to help parents to better protect children online from inappropriate music videos with explicit adult or violent content.”
All new videos from major record labels will be submitted to the BBFC to be rated. Soon, the ratings pilot will be tried with independent labels as well.
The YouTube video ratings system has been tested in the UK since last fall, and 132 new videos have been rated in all. 56 have been given a 12+ rating, 53 a 15+ rating, and just one has been hit with an 18+ rating.
Twitter-owned Vine’s videos autoplay in users’ timelines, unless you turn off autoplay in your settings – so it’s pretty hard to avoid them unless you’ve made a real effort to. Twitter just got in a bit of trouble over some of these Vine videos that featured flashing lights and colors.
Why?
Because they could have triggered seizures.
Epilepsy awareness group Epilepsy Action took issue with a couple of Vines advertising Twitter’s #DiscoverMusic posted by TwitterUK. According tot he group, the ads were “massively dangerous to people with photosensitive epilepsy.”
.@TwitterUK Your #DiscoverMusic Vines are massively dangerous to people with photosensitive epilepsy. Please take them offline now.
It didn’t take Twitter long to realize its mistake and pull the ads.
“Eighty seven people are diagnosed with epilepsy every day and that first seizure can often come out of nowhere,” said Epilepsy Action’s deputy chief executive Simon Wigglesworth. “For a huge corporation like Twitter to take that risk was irresponsible.”
Irresponsible, of course. But did you know that Twitter was also running afoul of the UK’s main advertising authority?
The Advertising Standards Authority told the BBC that “marketing communications”, even those uploaded on a company’s own website, should not include “visual effects or techniques that are likely to adversely affect members of the public with photosensitive epilepsy”.
It said both online and broadcast adverts in the UK had to adhere to rules made by the Committees of Advertising Practice.
“We take very seriously ads in online media that might cause harm to people with photosensitive epilepsy,” an ASA spokeswoman told the BBC.
YouTube is a wonderful thing – arguably one of the top three most important websites in history. YouTube comments, on the other hand, are a cesspool.
Sometimes it’s easy to look at the trolling, the virtiol, and the downright stupidity being spewed beneath any given video and think hey, everyone knows it’s YouTube. Nobody actually takes any of it seriously.
But you know, trolling or not, things hurt people. Especially if you’re 11.
A kid named Logan is making the viral rounds with a short video he made with the help of his dad. In the video, Logan reads a bunch of YouTube comments he’s received on his videos. No, they aren’t even close to some of the worst shit that gets thrown around YouTube, but listening to him read them is pretty heartbreaking.
Check it out:
I winced as I scrolled down to see the top comment on this video …
On average, about 230 people go to the hosptial with fireworks-related injuries during the month surrounding the 4th of July. Half of those injuries are burns. Obviously, hands and fingers make up the majority of injured body parts (36%), followed by eyes (19%) and general head and face (19%).
Firecrackers are the most likely to injure you, followed closely by Sparklers (which can burn at 2,000 degrees, by the way).
Nine people died last year in eight separate fireworks injuries. Fireworks are fun. Fireworks are America. Fireworks also go boom.
In order to show everyone that fireworks go boom, the US Consumer Product Safety Commission has put out a six-minute video wherein it really blows the hell out of some mannequins.
Honestly. This is some metal stuff right here:
You’re going to shoot off fireworks. Everyone is. It’s just a thing. But if you do, here are the CPSC’s tips for safety:
-Never allow young children to play with or ignite fireworks.
-Avoid buying fireworks that are packaged in brown paper because this is often a sign that the fireworks were made for professional displays and that they could pose a danger to consumers.
-Always have an adult supervise fireworks activities. Parents don’t realize that young children suffer injuries from sparklers. Sparklers burn at temperatures of about 2,000 degrees – hot enough to melt some metals.
-Never place any part of your body directly over a fireworks device when lighting the fuse. Back up to a safe distance immediately after lighting fireworks.
-Never try to re-light or pick up fireworks that have not ignited fully.
-Never point or throw fireworks at another person.
-Keep a bucket of water or a garden hose handy in case of fire or other mishap.
-Light fireworks one at a time, then move back quickly.
-Never carry fireworks in a pocket or shoot them off in metal or glass containers.
-After fireworks complete their burning, douse the spent device with plenty of water from a bucket or hose before discarding it to prevent a trash fire.
-Make sure fireworks are legal in your area before buying or using them.
What amounts to a video “view” on Facebook? For regular videos, Facebook will give it an official view if it’s watched for three seconds. For video ads, a “view” is really an impressions for advertisers.
Facebook’s video ads structure charges advertisers for each impression their ad receives. And since Facebook autoplays videos in the news feed, all someone has to do is scroll past an ad and the advertisers is charged.
As a marketer, it’s easy to see why this isn’t exactly an ideal situation. There’s really no way to know if that “impression” really amounts to any viewing time – or simply a blip as someone hastily scrolls past.
That all changes today, as Facebook has made a bold play to grab the attention of potential video advertisers.
The Wall Street Journal reports that advertisers will now be able to choose another payment structure – one that allows them to pay only when their ads are viewed for at least 10 seconds.
Ten seconds is a lifetime when it comes to social media posts.
But Facebook, in confirming the report, says that the new 10-second option isn’t the best option, in its opinion.
“We strongly believe in giving marketers flexibility over how they buy video ads, and we listened to feedback which is why we’re offering the new cost-per-view option. We don’t believe it’s the best option in terms of capturing the best value and brand objectives marketers care about, but we want to give them control and choice over how they buy,” said a Facebook spokesperson.
Of course, the 10-second ad option could end up costing advertisers more during the auction phase. And that’s probably what Facebook’s getting at here.
But when you think about it, advertisers could end up reaping five to nine second views on their video ads and not being charged. And if someone watches your video ad for 10 or more seconds, at least you know you might’ve made a real impression.
It’s a big play against YouTube, but YouTube still offers more options. YouTube’s TrueView option, for instance, let’s marketers only pay if a viewer sticks around for 30 seconds. Plus, advertising on YouTube means you can place your ad inside videos that people are there to watch anyway. On Facebook, it’s much easier to avoid video ads – for now. Facebook is investing in much more content that would better house video advertising.
Twitter has also recently defined their video ad structure. The company just introduced autoplay, and will only charge advertisers when a promoted video is completely in view (not cut off at the top of bottom by a user’s scrolling) and when it is played for at least three seconds.
Google announced a list of ten new features that are coming soon to help YouTube Creators. Some will become available over the coming weeks, and others may take a bit longer, but they’re all expected to be available this year. That’s about as specific as Google is getting on the releasing at this point.
For now, let’s get to the features.
1. Comments
YouTube is promising big improvements to the commenting system. In fact, they’re going so far as to say that the new system leads to a 30% drop in the rate of dislikes. The improvements will come by way of a better ranking system, which is supposed to reduce the visibility of “junk comments”.
I guess we’ll see how that goes. The last time Google made major changes to the YouTube commenting system it didn’t go over too well. This sounds like a step in the right direction though.
2. Subscriber Notifications
This one should be as good for users as it is for creators. Google is going to give creators a new way for fans to opt in to get mobile and email notifications every time the channel publishes a new video.
“Your fans don’t want to miss out on videos from their favorite creators–and neither do we,” says Matt Glotzbach, VP, Product Management at YouTube.
3. Easier access to the subscriptions feed
They’re also making it easier to get to the Subscriptions feed in the mobile app. The company says this will make it easier for your subscribers to stay on top of your latest videos.
4. A Better Creator Studio App
Google is promising major improvements to the Creator Studio app, which will give creators more insight about what’s happening on their channel. It will also provide notifications.
5. Better Management
The app will get new video management features such as the ability to update thumbnails from your phone as well as the ability to enable or disable monetization on your videos.
6. New Card Types
Google will be launching new Card types that will help you promote your other content, sell merchandise, raise funds, etc. For one, there will be a Channel card to link your videos to other channels.
7. 3D 360° videos
Google showed off its 360° videos a while back, and this year, it’s planning on “adding 3D to the mix”.
8. Livestream Improvements
“We just made it easier for you to set up and manage your live streams. And where better to show them off than in our upcoming YouTube Gaming app?” says Glotzbach.
9. New Community
There will be a new YouTube Creator Community forum designed to help creators find collaborators, share advice, and give Google feedback.
10. Creator Academy Update
Finally, they’re going to launch improvements to the Creator Academy, which has over 50 lessons for learning on how to get more out of YouTube. They’re making it easier to search and personalize your experience.
Listen to YouTube staff talk more about the new features here:
While you may have to wait a bit for some of this stuff, the company says it’s listening, so if you have something to say, let it be known on Google+ or Twitter.
Facebook just announced the addition of a new Videos tab to Page Insights, enabling Page admins to see views and 30-second views at the Page level, top videos within a certain date range, and metrics for videos shared from other Pages.
In other words, you’ll be able to get a better idea of just how well your videos are doing.
In the past, video metrics were only available on a per-video basis in the Posts tab in Page Insights.
“Toggling between view breakdowns — Organic vs. Paid, Auto-Played vs. Clicked-to-Play, and Unique vs. Repeat — gives a unique insight into the viewing behavior for the Page’s audience,” explains product manager Anaid Gomez-Ortigoza. “Highlighting a time period surfaces the views from those dates. This allows Page owners to have a more granular understanding of views day-over-day.”
Checking a specific benchmark allows Page owners to compare their average performance over time and how their effort is shifting viewing behavior,” she adds. “The Top Videos section identifies a Page’s best performing videos based on reach, views, or average completion over a desired date range. With this information, video creators can understand the top content that is reaching and engaging their audience.”
If you click on any video from there, you’ll see individual video metrics for engagement, audience retention, etc.
Facebook says the new features will be available in Page Insights, data export, and the Insights API over the coming weeks.
We’ve seen the era of the “citizen journalist” expand as the tools at their disposal grow. If you have a camera and you’re in the right place at the right time, you can make history on YouTube. Now, YouTube is looking to bolster its position with “new initiatives to support the discovery and verification of eyewitness news video.”
YouTube is partnering with social news agency Storyful to launch the YouTub Newswire, a “curated feed of the most newsworthy eyewitness videos of the day, which have been verified by Storyful’s team of editors and are embeddable from the original sources.”
The fact that anyone can upload a video to YouTube is both wonderful and potentially problematic. Over 300 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute, and separating the “noise” from the “news” is vital – according to Storyful.
“We’ve always taken our commitments to YouTube, our newsroom clients and the uploaders we work with very seriously. Our mission has always been to mine the platform, sort the news from noise and find the stories worth telling. This, the YouTube Newswire, is the next step forward in that mission,” says Storyful Managing Editor Aine Kerr in a post.
“While the platform has become noisier and more diverse, Storyful has gotten much more sophisticated in its technology, discovery, verification, acquisition and distribution of video. We’ve done extensive social sleuthing, worked with the likes of The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times on UGC documentaries that had YouTube at their heart, debunked popular YouTube videos and amplified those videos at the heart of some of the biggest news stories of recent years.”
Storyful says its expertise in weeding through the muck will help YouTube Newswire succeed.
YouTube says it wants Newswire to be a tool for journalists.
“With the Newswire, we hope to provide journalists with an invaluable resource to discover news video around major events, and to highlight eyewitness video that offers new perspectives on important news stories. The Newswire will feature global and regional feeds that surface the most relevant videos in different parts of the world.”
The YouTube Newswire will also have a presence on Twitter and can be delivered via daily email newsletter. Right now on the Newswire, you can see videos about the Charleston Church shooting, flooding in Texas, and the new $10 bill.
“We hope that these new projects will empower more journalists to use powerful eyewitness video easily and responsibly,” says Olivia Ma, Head of Strategy and Operations at the Google News Lab.
Twitter is taking the plunge already taken by fellow social networks Facebook and Instagram. Starting today, autoplay videos are coming to Twitter.
This has been a long time coming for Twitter, which has been debating the merits of autoplay for a while now. Of course, offering autoplay video is a great selling point for potential advertisers – but many users find autoplay intrusive. Twitter has been testing the feature for months. Today, it begins to go live.
Videos, Vines, and GIFs will now autoplay on iOS and desktop. Autoplay is coming to Android soon. Videos will autoplay without sound, and users can enter fullscreen mode (with sound) by clicking on the media.
Videos will also be larger and more prominent in your Twitter timeline:
“Starting today, videos will appear in a larger, more media-centric format in timelines. During the autoplay tests we ran, we saw people engaging with videos in this new format at a much higher rate, and our brand and publishing partners saw improved view rates. All of this resulted in lower cost-per-views for marketers and increased video recall by consumers,” says the company.
Twitter is also implementing a new standard for what constitutes a video play. Twitter will only charge advertisers when a promoted video is completely in view (not cut off at the top of bottom by a user’s scrolling) and when it is played for at least three seconds. From Twitter:
As with all of our ad products, we’ve made sure that Promoted Videos on Twitter will continue to deliver high impact, high engagement and meaningful views for our advertising partners. To that end, we’re approaching how we measure, report and charge for video views with complete transparency.
We’re delivering on a new standard for how brands will be charged for a video view. Starting today we’ll only consider a view on Twitter chargeable when a video is 100% in-view on the user’s device, and has been watched for at least 3 seconds. We’re putting this standard of 100% viewability in place because we think it’s simply the right thing to do. If a video is not 100% in-view, we don’t think an advertiser should be charged.
According to Twitter, you’re going to love autoplay if you’re an advertiser – but you’re also going to love autoplay if you’re just a regular user.
Twitter says that in tests, users were 2.5 time more likely to prefer autoplay than click-to-play videos. But if you don’t love it, Twitter is letting you opt out in your settings.
We’ll see. I’m sure the next few days will see plenty of feedback from the Twitter population.
Google made a ton of announcements at its annual Google I/O conference on Thursday. It did stream the keynote live, but in case you didn’t get a chance to tune in, but still wish to see it in its entirety, it’s now available on YouTube for your viewing pleasure.
A couple months ago, reports emerged saying YouTube was going after Twitch, in that it wanted to make YouTube Live a premier destination for video game streaming. When asked for comment, YouTube famously sent out a GIF of a girl shrugging, as if to say who? us? I dunnooooo? Also as if to say we now respond to press inquiries with GIFs, so there’s that.
Anyway, it looks like YouTube is making a move to court live streamers – including those with a focus on gaming.
YouTube has announced that its live streaming platform now supports 60 FPS 1080p and 720p. YouTube first debuted the 60fps option on regular videos last October. Not only that, but it sports an HTML5 player. Twitch still uses Flash.
That HTML5 player will let viewers “skip backward in a stream while it’s live and watch at 1.5x or 2x speed to catch back up.”
We’ve also gotten word that this change won’t affect YouTube’s streaming latency significantly, and that YouTube is “working to bring latency down and [is] making good progress.” Currently we estimate there is about 30-60 seconds of lag time on YouTube’s platform, which makes the streamer’s interactions with chat a little awkward.
For now, the new live streaming features are only on desktop but that could change in the coming weeks.
Amazon completed its acquisition of Twitch in September of 2014. The price of that deal was $970 million. Before that, Google was in serious talks to acquire the game streaming platform itself, reportedly preparing a $1 billion offer. Reports indicated that Google backed out due to antitrust concerns. But just because YouTube lost out on online gaming’s current most-popular streaming platform doesn’t mean it’s going to lose focus on a booming up-and-comer.
