WebProNews

Tag: YouTube

  • YouTube Kills Video Responses, Cites Terrible User Engagement

    Starting September 12th, you’ll no longer be able to leave a video response as a comment on a YouTube video.

    Google is sunsetting the video response feature, and according to them, it’s because nobody ever used it. In fact, the YouTube team says that video responses currently sport a click-through rate of just 0.0004%. To put that into real life numbers, only 4 YouTubers out of every million will click on a video response if they see it.

    YouTube says that creators should now focus on titling, hashtags, and descriptions to get their videos seen.

    “In the meantime, you can continue to encourage fans to upload videos with specific titles, hashtags or descriptions (e.g., Video Response To Taylor Swift’s Video “22”), so you can find these by searching for them. If you want to highlight them, you can use playlists and channel sections instead of displaying these videos below yours. Any video responses you or your fans have made will still be available and discoverable,” says YouTube.

    In the future, YouTube says that they will let video creators share video links in comments, which they say will add context to videos and in turn drive engagement.

    The post on the YouTube creators blog is receiving quote a few responses, and some of them are from pissed off creators.

    “You have got to be kidding me? Video responses is what made youtube. You know how many close friends I have made just by video responses alone? What are you doing youtube? The site us original posters knew has officially been killed. How about working on your mobile app and being able to comment back to a viewer. Arrrrgh, soo frustrating,” says one user.

    “A disgusting lack of vision and understanding about the community aspects of your site. Video responses are not intended for general consumption but rather are geared towards conversation that extends beyond the ridiculous character limits imposed by your comment system. The feature (when used at its best) is used by creators to connect with their audiences not for self promotion and spamming. Algorithmic number crunching should not be the factor that ends this feature,” says another.

    What do you think? Were you a fan of YouTube’s video responses?

  • Miley Cyrus Haters and Offended Talking Heads Should Listen to This Jon Lajoie Song

    Miley Cyrus Haters and Offended Talking Heads Should Listen to This Jon Lajoie Song

    Since everyone has decided to freak out over Miley Cyrus twerking at the MTV Video Music Awards, and keep freaking out over Miley Cyrus twerking at the MTV Video Music Awards, and not stop posting on Facebook about Miley Cyrus twerking at the MTV Video Music Awards, we definitely needed a strong dose of reality from someone in a position to provide such a remedy.

    Jon Lajoie, better known as Taco from The League, has been cranking out amazing YouTube raps for some time now – from the incredible “Show Me Your Genitals” to the sublime “F*ck Everything.” He’s definitely the right guy to tackle the backlash. And the backlash to the backlash. And the backlash to the backlash to the backlash.

    I mean, he nails it:

    “Why she acting like a ho / this is so wrong we all object / where did she get the idea to act like a sexual object / I suspect she is on drugs I think she’s losing her mind / did you see her shakin her ass on TV singing “Blurred Lines?” / which is such a wholesome song I can’t believe she ruined it / her slutty moves made Robin Thicke look misogynistic / what a bitch, she makes me sick, doesn’t she have ethics? / how dare she try to use sex to sell pop music /”

    Check it out:

    Image via Jon Lajoie, YouTube

  • NFL Sunday Ticket On YouTube? Yes, Please.

    NFL Sunday Ticket On YouTube? Yes, Please.

    Before we get too far ahead of ourselves here, let’s be clear right up front. As far we know, this is not something that is currently in the cards.

    But…

    DirecTV’s contract with the NFL, which makes it the exclusive provider of NFL Sunday Ticket, which gives football fans access to every NFL game live, is set to expire at the end of next year. And plenty of service providers likely want to offer that to their customers. It is America’s most popular sport after all.

    Google and the NFL have reportedly been talking, and Sunday Ticket is said to be one of the things they talked about. Peter Kafka at All Things D reports:

    Today [Tuesday], according to sources, Google CEO Larry Page, along with YouTube content boss Robert Kyncl, met with a delegation from the NFL led by commissioner Roger Goodell. And the Sunday Ticket package was among the topics of discussion, according to people familiar with the meeting.

    According to Kafka, the NFL execs are also meeting with other Silicon Valley companies while they’re on their trip.

    So, just because the subject came up in the discussion, it’s hardly a sure thing that YouTube will get Sunday Ticket. But how great would that be? What it would mean is that all football fans would get access to their games of choice every week, regardless of what television provider they have (for a fee, of course).

    For years, fans who don’t have DirecTV have simply been out of luck. They’ve been left with no choice but to miss their games, go to friends’ (with DirecTV) houses or sports bars or turn sketchy streaming sites. Yes, there is always the possibility of actually going to the games, but obviously that’s not always feasible.

    If the offering were to come to YouTube, people could watch their games regardless of service provider, but also on any device of their choosing – their television, their tablet, their smartphone, etc.

    The NFL has to know about the cord cutting trend, and YouTube would be able to provide its games with an audience regardless of whether or not they have cable, satellite, or just internet.

    For Google, who has not historically had a lot of luck in the TV business, this would be the perfect thing to jump start that. The company also happens to be trying to get a legitimate TV service off the ground. What better foundation than all of the NFL’s games?

    For DirecTV, losing the offering would be a huge blow. It could also significantly hurt sports bar business on Sundays.

    For fans, however, NFL Sunday Ticket on YouTube (or a similar online service with apps on as many devices as possible) would be a dream come true.

  • AMC’s Low Winter Sun Pilot Hits YouTube

    AMC’s Low Winter Sun Pilot Hits YouTube

    AMC’s Low Winter Sun, known (at least for now) as “that show after Breaking Bad,” has just hit YouTube for your free streaming pleasure. Of course, AMC hopes to get curious viewers hooked on the new series with this dangling carrot.

    Following the season 5B premiere of Breaking Bad, the new series premiered at 2.5 million viewers. Breaking Bad garnered a record 5.9 million viewers.

    From AMC:

    The AMC Original Series Low Winter Sun is a contemporary story of murder, deception, revenge and corruption in a world where the line between cops and criminals is blurred. Low Winter Sun begins with the murder of a cop by a fellow Detroit detective. Seemingly the perfect crime, in reality the murder activates forces that will forever alter the detective’s life, and pull him into the heart of the Detroit underworld. Based on the award-winning 2006 British miniseries of the same name, Low Winter Sun stars Mark Strong (Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, Zero Dark Thirty) and co-stars Lennie James (The Walking Dead, Jericho, Snatch). Chris Mundy (Criminal Minds, Cold Case) serves as writer, executive producer and showrunner.

    AMC is streaming more episodes of Low Winter Sun on their site, including episode 2 – but only to subscribers of Bright House, Time Warner Cable, Xfinity, Verizon FiOS, and Optimum.

    [Image via AMC]

  • YouTube Mobile Apps Now Let You Do More While Watching Videos

    Google has launched an update for its YouTube app on Android and iOS, allowing users to browse and search for other videos while still watching one. You can keep the video playing in the corner while interacting with the interface.

    “With today’s updates, you have even more ways to watch with the latest YouTube apps for Android and iOS. With the swipe of a finger, you can watch a video at the bottom of your screen while you keep exploring,” a YouTube spokesperson tells WebProNews. “You can also search for playlists on mobile and watch great collections of back to back videos. To wrap it all together we gave the updated YouTube apps a cleaner, simpler look that you’ll see in other apps from Google.”

    “Think about it this way–you can watch a video about making the perfect fried chicken while searching for homemade salted caramel sauce recipes,” YouTube says in a blog post. “You can always go back to full screen with a swipe up so you never lose your place, or swipe right or left to dismiss the video. Just try to not drop your phone in the sauce.”

    As far as playlists and back-to-back videos, it will be nice to be able to watch more than one without pause.

    The app also adds a new preview screen for connected devices with options to play the video or to queue it up to watch it next.

  • Microsoft’s Antitrust Lawyer Has Some Words For Google About The Windows Phone YouTube App

    Microsoft and Google are still fighting about the Windows Phone YouTube app. This has been going on for months, with no apparent resolution on the way.

    Back in May, Google sent Microsoft a cease and desist letter for building a native YouTube app, claiming that it violated its terms of service in three areas. It allowed users to download videos, it prevented the display of ads in YouTube video playbacks and it played videos that Google’s partners had restricted from playback on certain platforms (like mobile devices).

    “These features directly harm our content creators and clearly violate our Terms of Service,” Google said.

    Since then, the two companies have actually been working together to deliver a suitable app that would both please Windows Phone users (and Microsoft) and meet Google’s conditions. Microsoft thought they had reached that point. Earlier this week, it released its new YouTube app, after addressing the aforementioned issues. Then, Google blocked it.

    The Verge quotes a Microsoft spokesperson before the app was blocked:

    We’ve released an updated YouTube app for Windows Phone that provides the great experience our consumers expect while addressing the concerns Google expressed in May, including the addition of ads,” says a spokesperson. Microsoft says it appreciates “Google’s support in ensuring that Windows Phones customers have a quality YouTube experience and look forward to continuing the collaboration.”

    Then it quotes a Google spokesperson, and again a Microsoft spokesperson after the app was blocked:

    “Microsoft has not made the browser upgrades necessary to enable a fully-featured YouTube experience, and has instead re-released a YouTube app that violates our Terms of Service,” says a Google spokesperson. “It has been disabled. We value our broad developer community and therefore ask everyone to adhere to the same guidelines.”

    ..

    Microsoft says it’s working on resolving the issue with its updated YouTube app. “Google is blocking our updated YouTube app for Windows Phone,” says a Microsoft spokesperson. “We are working with them to resolve the issue.”

    Now, Microsoft’s Corporate Vice President & Deputy General Counsel, Litigation & Antitrust, has put out a scathing blog post about Google, suggesting that Google is just making excuses for blocking the app because it doesn’t want it on devices that don’t use Google as the default search provider like Android and the iPhone.

    He writes, “Google’s objections to our app are not only inconsistent with Google’s own commitment of openness, but also involve requirements for a Windows Phone app that it doesn’t impose on its own platform or Apple’s (both of which use Google as the default search engine, of course).”

    He later writes:

    Google asked us to transition our app to a new coding language – HTML5. This was an odd request since neither YouTube’s iPhone app nor its Android app are built on HTML5. Nevertheless, we dedicated significant engineering resources to examine the possibility. At the end of the day, experts from both companies recognized that building a YouTube app based on HTML5 would be technically difficult and time consuming, which is why we assume YouTube has not yet made the conversion for its iPhone and Android apps.

    For this reason, we made a decision this week to publish our non-HTML5 app while committing to work with Google long-term on an app based on HTML5. We believe this approach delivers our customers a short term experience on par with the other platforms while putting us in the same position as Android and iOS in enabling an eventual transition to new technology. Google, however, has decided to block our mutual customers from accessing our new app.

    It seems to us that Google’s reasons for blocking our app are manufactured so that we can’t give our users the same experience Android and iPhone users are getting. The roadblocks Google has set up are impossible to overcome, and they know it.

    You can read the whole thing here.

    As far as Microsoft is concerned, it has done everything Google wanted, Google is being unfair, and the ball is in Google’s court.

    We have yet to see Google’s rebuttal to Microsoft’s post.

  • Welcome To YouTube Video Pokes Fun At The Entire Service

    Welcome To YouTube Video Pokes Fun At The Entire Service

    YouTube has become a ubiquitous service that many take for granted, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t still ripe to be made fun of. While the novelty may no longer be attached to the video hosting service, it’s widespread use has led a number of noticeable behavioral patterns has users from all over the globe vie for their shot at Internet fame. And then there’s the always-changing YouTube interface. Surely that deserves to be made fun of, as well? This is the approach used by JelloApocalypse, who, aside from possessing a killer user name, has created an awesome parody of what you can expect when using the mammoth web entity known as YouTube.

    The video clocks in a just over eight minutes, which means not much escaped JelloApocalypse’s biting scorn, a big portion of which focuses on how to become famous on YouTube. Let’s just say drawing buxom animated characters is discussed, hence the lead image. If you work at a place that doesn’t like bad language, you may want to wait until you’re somewhere else that has a more liberal content policy:


    From where I’m sitting, that’s one of the most accurate parodies I’ve seen in some time. That doesn’t mean everything related to YouTube is worthy of being mocked, but some of this stuff does indeed write itself. Take the YouTube comment sections, for instance. When Google has to develop measures to combat the drastic lack of quality comments many YouTube videos feature, perhaps that behavior is worth being mocked.

    While JelloApocalypse may come across as bitter about the entire process, his video certainly brings up some much needed criticisms.

  • Shark on a TRAIN! New York Subway Shark had Nude IPhone Pics

    A body dead on a New York subway. A mystery abounds. Move over “Law and Order,” because this “dead meat” goes great with mushrooms.

    A dead shark found on a New York City subway left many city riders asking questions. One rider said she was simply shocked.

    “It smelled extremely fishy,” Isvett Verde said. “I mean, I thought I’d seen it all, but even that was a bit much. I have no idea how it got there or how long it had been there.”

    The mysterious nature of the event virtually sparked an Internet sensation. Police say no one is really in trouble as everyone can only speculate how the shark came to be on the train.

    “The Metropolitan Transportation Authority discovered a dead shark shortly after midnight on Wednesday on an N train at Queensboro Plaza,” according to police. “If the responsible person were found, he or she would not be charged for littering because police would need to witness the act.”

    It wasn’t just so bizarre the fact a dead animal was left rotting aboard a train. It was the timing of the bizarre occurrence. This month is “Shark Week,” on the Discovery Channel. So, in celebratory fashion, riders took pictures of the shark with a few props added here and there. One media company took things a step further.

    Discovery Channel’s “Shark Week,” is a series of annual television shows dedicated specifically, of course, to sharks. Airing for the first time more than 20 years ago, the series has reportedly since become a staple in cultural consciencenous.

    “When the photos started going viral, many assumed right away that it was part of a promotion for Discovery Channel’s Shark Week, which was ongoing at the time.”

    Turns out, one family believes they know how the baby shark came to be on the train. Bergen Beach resident, Alicia Vicino says she and her kids first encountered the shark while at the beach after a lifeguard pulled it from the water. After taking a fews photos, Vicino says some teenagers came up wanting to touch it, as well.

    “The were very sorry that it died, and they were very upset to see it on the subway,” Vicino said. “It was so weird.”

    It didn’t take long for things to get back to New York “normal.” Subway personnel took care of business rather quickly.

    “A supervisor unceremoniously tossed the dead fish in a garbage bag and dumped it in the trash. The car was then put back into service,” a MTA spokesperson Adam Lisberg said. “MTA has no further information as to who left the shark on the train and do not intend to investigate further.”

  • Google Makes Video Advertising Easier

    Google announced today that it has simplified the process for starting video advertising with AdWords with a new campaign creation flow. The new design, Google says, eliminates clutter, and focuses on the key components of the advertiser’s first video ad campaign.

    These would be the video itself, the thumbnail copy, the budget and the target audience.

    It’s essentially now a four-step process, which includes selecting the video (assuming you’ve already uploaded it to YouTube), adding some text to appear alongside the video, determining your budget and selecting your target.

    That’s pretty much all there is to it. Here’s what it looks like:

    In other AdWords news, Google has also launched a new type of ad on the mobile Google Maps apps (including iPad).

  • MixBit: YouTube Founders Launch New Take on Video Mixing and Sharing

    We’ve known since March that YouTube co-founders Chad Hurley and Steve Chen were cooking up a new video-sharing service, and today it finally launches.

    It’s called MixBit, and its creators describe it as a “new app that helps people create dynamic videos together.”

    On the surface, it may look like a simple Vine or Instagram video competitor. MixBit allows users to create their own 16-second videos (take that, 15-second Instagram) and share them to various social networks.

    But the defining feature for MixBit is the ability to make longer videos using mashed-up clips from up to 256 other videos. Hence the “mixing” of the “bits.”

    “MixBit lets you record, edit and publish videos as short as one second or as long as an hour – right from your mobile phone. You can also create videos without needing to shoot original content. Touch your screen anywhere and hold to record. Videos are taken in multiple clips, or “bits,” as long as 16 seconds each. A video can include as many as 256 clips. Clips are stored as independent elements but play as one seamless video. Drag and drop to rearrange, cut or delete clips, as well as save or publish, right from your phone,” says the app description.

    MixBit differs from Instagram and Vine in that it lets users take from any publicly shared video on the service and mix it to their liking. In theory, you never even have to shoot your own video to get a quality experience out of MixBit.

    “The whole purpose of MixBit is to reuse the content within the system,” Hurley told the NYT Bits blog. “I really want to focus on great stories that people can tell.”

    As of right now, the only available version is for iOS. But you can expect a web app and an Android version to launch soon.

  • YouTube Rapper Raps About Impending SWAT Team Arrest

    Last year, a Utah man live-Facebooked his own standoff with police and until now that was the craziest use of social media by a guy about to get himself arrested.

    Enter 19-year-old Josh Jackson aka Adequate Advocate, an aspiring rapper who decided to use his talents to rap about the SWAT team that was about to come busting through his door.

    “The police think I’m a fiend…it’s why right now literally they’re outside my house – because my roommates done did it.”

    “Bring the motherf*ckin’ swat team, special weapons and tactics operation…I don’t really give a f*ck because I’m nineteen. And I’m not a criminal, I’m political, and right now…OH SH*T – you heard the blast,” said Jackson moments before his arrest.

    That blast was the sound of a flashbang going off as the SWAT team entered Jackson’s rental property.

    Jackson posted the video on YouTube late Tuesday:

    The SWAT team was after our YouTube MC because his roommates accused him off threatening them with a knife.

    According to police, Jackson has “a history of resisting the police in the past.” He’ll be in court next Tuesday.

    [Coloradoan via The Daily Dot]

  • Batman Crowned Most Popular Superhero On YouTube

    There’s something about Batman that just make people love him. Maybe it’s because he’s just a regular (and incredibly rich) guy that can go toe-to-toe with the best of the DC universe, or maybe it’s because he has risen to prominence in recent years thanks to a string of excellent movies. Whatever the reason, people just love watching Batman videos on YouTube.

    As part of Geek Week, YouTube compiled a list of the most popular superheroes on the Web site. They looked at the number of views and the hours of video available on each character to determine the top 10. Unsurprisingly, Batman comes in first place with 3 billion views and 71,000 hours of video. Thor comes in second with 2.1 billion views and 66,000 hours of video. Rounding out the top three is Superman with 1.7 billion views and 14,000 hours of video.

    The rest of the top 10 starting with fourth place and going in descending order are Iron Man, The Avengers, Wolverine, Spider Man, Captain America, Justice League and Deadpool. Part of me wants to say that The Avengers and the Justice League are a little unfair as they’re not just a single superhero, but we’ll just have to roll with it.

    As for search, Batman takes the top spot in overall searches on YouTube, but they point out that Thor, Iron Man and The Avengers have all risen to the top spot in search at various times since 2008.

    So, what’s the most popular Batman video on YouTube? The official trailer for The Dark Knight Rises from last year has now received more than 32 million views:

    Following up in second place is the Epic Rap Battles of History featuring Batman vs Sherlock Holmes with over 29 million views:

    Overall, YouTube says that the top 10 superheroes account for more than 10 billion views and 234,000 videos. That’s not half bad for a bunch of characters that were once considered too nerdy for mainstream culture.

  • Here’s Nine Inch Nails’ Entire Lollapalooza Performance

    In case you didn’t know, Lollapalooza was streamed live on YouTube this past weekend. If you missed it, here’s Nine Inch Nails’ full concert:

    The setlist is as follows:

    Copy of A
    Sanctified
    Came Back Haunted
    1,000,000
    March of the Pigs
    Piggy
    The Frail
    The Wretched
    Terrible Lie
    Closer
    Gave Up
    Help Me I Am in Hell
    Me, I’m Not
    Find My Way
    What If We Could?
    The Way Out Is Through
    Wish
    Survivalism
    Only
    The Hand That Feeds
    Head Like a Hole
    Hurt

    Via Trent Reznor:

  • YouTube Adds New Play Icon to Browser Tabs to Help Alleviate a Very Annoying Problem

    YouTube has just made a small tweak that makes me very, very happy – and it’ll make you happy too if you’re the type of person who consistently browses the web with dozens of tabs open at the same time.

    Now, when a video is playing, YouTube will indicate that with a new play icon that appears in your browser tab. Check it out:

    You know when something starts blaring in your headphones and you don’t know where it’s coming from, so you have to click through all of your tabs to find the culprit. Well, as long as the culprit is a YouTube video, this new feature should eliminate the guesswork.

    And let’s be honest, the problem is usually YouTube. The site autoplays all videos when you click the link – and that leads to a bunch of confused audio when you’re a tab-happy browser.

    The new play icon also shows up during ads – so that’s a huge bonus.

    Sometimes it’s the small things, you know?

    [h/t The Verge]

  • Lollapalooza Live Streaming on YouTube This Weekend

    Lollapalooza Live Streaming on YouTube This Weekend

    Today, music lovers are descending upon Chicago’s Grant Park for a three-day music festival known as Lollapalooza. This year’s lineup features a ton of great artists, both old and new, including Kendrick Lamar, Nine Inch Nails, The Cure, Mumford & Sons, Vampire Weekend, Phoenix, The National, and The Killers.

    Of course, there’s a good chance you can’t be there. Circumstances and such. But don’t fret – YouTube is once again planning to help you out by live streaming a bunch of shows for you.

    “You don’t need to be in Chicago to know that this weekend’s live stream of Lollapalooza on YouTube is kind of a big deal. Starting Friday at 2:30 p.m. CST, you can catch the streaming sets from 20+ artists live from Grant Park in your living room,” says YouTube’s Craig McFadden.

    Just head on over to the Lollapalooza channel this afternoon to get started.

    This is just another step in YouTube’s move to stream more live events. Back in June, they streamed much of Wimbledon. For the past three years, they’ve streamed the Coachella music festival. Last year, YouTube streamed other festivals like Bonnaroo, but also stepped into politics with the 2012 Presidential debates and international sports with an Olympics stream that garnered 231 million total views.

    Back in April, YouTube finally debuted live streaming capabilities for their iOS app. They also expanded live streaming to allow any channels with 1000+ subscribers to host streaming video.

  • Thug Notes Tackles Catcher in the Rye and the World of Fake-Ass Adults

    Continuing his quest to become the best classic literature discussion channel on YouTube, Sparky Sweets (PhD) has taken on J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye in the latest installment of Thug Notes.

    “So when Holden preaching about the glass cases up in the museum, what he really saying is that he don’t wanna join the ranks of them fake ass adults.”

    Truth, Sparky. Truth.

  • Look At All This Stuff That Happens On The Web In Just 60 Seconds

    We just showed you how many people and things are coming online in real time (at least by Cisco’s measure). Now let’s take a look at what people are actually doing.

    Well, it’s not exactly a real-time look, but according to data compiled by Qmee, this is what goes on in sixty second on the web:

    Qmee Online in 60 Seconds Infographic
    Online in 60 Seconds [Infographic] is an infographic that was produced by Qmee

    And that doesn’t even take into account all the other sites, apps and services on the web. I can stumble through a whole lot of stuff with StumbleUpon in sixty seconds, for example. For that matter, there’s a hell of a lot of Facebook activity going on that doesn’t translate into actual posts and likes (think newsfeed browsing and chatting).

    If Cisco’s right about 50 billion things being connected to the internet by 2020, we can expect a lot of these numbers to go up greatly in the coming years (though this includes things like cows and tires, so I’m not sure all they’ll all translate into active Pinterest users).

  • The Breaking Bad/Mythbusters Episode Is on YouTube, But You Better Watch It Quick

    We’ve basically known this was coming for some time, but it became officially official a little under a week ago when the first trailer aired and we got a premiere date.

    SCIENCE, BITCH! Of course, we’re talking about the Mythbusters episode featuring Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan, Aaron Paul (Jesse Pinkman) and a bunch of show-related myth testing. It’s already aired in Australia, but viewers in the U.S. were supposed to have to wait until August 12th (one day after the Breaking Bad season premiere) to see it.

    Key word being “supposed.” It’s up on YouTube right now – yes, the full episode. You better watch it quick, however. Who knows how long this one is going to stay up.

    UPDATE: I told you to watch it fast – the video has been removed. Please, enjoy the trailer as a consolation:

    [via reddit]

  • YouTube Celebrates All Things Geek with a Week of Exclusive Content

    According to YouTube, over half of its top 20 non-music channels are dedicated to geek culture. And with that in mind, the video site decided that it was high time they hosted an international geek week.

    “There’s never been a better time to be a geek. From ‘Game of Thrones’ and ‘The Big Bang Theory,’ to ‘Harry Potter’ and ‘The Avengers,’ geek culture is everywhere, attracting and connecting ever-expanding audiences. Today’s obsession with all-things-geek has sparked a global community on YouTube, enabling fans around the world to express their love of superheroes, comics, gaming, science and sci-fi,” says the YouTube Geek Week team.

    YouTube’s Geek Week is a week-long (duh) celebration of all things geek, kicking off August 4th and running through the 10th. It’s being produced in partnership with the Nerdist channel and Channel Flip in the U.K. The celebration will feature more than 100 channels, who will be producing exclusive content for Geek Week.

    Each day will have a different theme, and will feature different “hosting” channels. For instance, there’s “Global Geekery Monday” and “Gaming Thursday.”

    Oh, and if you’re wondering why YouTube is celebrating “geek” week and not “nerd” week (the long-debated topic), well, you know what they say – the only people who argue about the difference between geeks and nerds are people who are both geeks and nerds.

  • YouTube Now Lets You Add a Subscribe Button Anywhere on the Web

    In order to promote channel subscriptions (and to make it easier for channel owners to gain more subscribers), YouTube has just launched a subscribe button that’s embeddable on any site on the web.

    “The YouTube Subscribe Button lets you add a one-click Subscribe button to any page. The button lets people subscribe to your YouTube channel without having to leave your site to either log in to YouTube or confirm their subscriptions,” says YouTube on their developers page.

    YouTube nows offers 6 different button formats – three for free channels and three for their new paid channels (which may be off to a slow start). When people click on the subscribe button on your site, it’ll automatically subscribe them to the specific channel. This is a bit different for paid channels, where clicking on the subscribe button will take the user to the channel on YouTube, where they can choose whether or not they want to pay to subscribe there.

    Here are the 6 button options:

    The new subscribe button is easily embeddable on any site, and YouTube only has a few rules concerning what channel owners can’t do with the button. First, they can’t offer rewards in exchange for subscribing to a YouTube channel. Second, the buttons must be “fully and clearly visible.” And lastly:

    You may not use a Subscribe Button to track any data about a user related to the user’s actions or browsing activity, including without limitation whether or not a user clicks on a YouTube Subscribe button. This prohibition includes but is not limited to using pixels, cookies, or other methods of recognizing when a user clicks on a YouTube button.

    For more info on how to add a YouTube subscribe button to your site, check here.

  • Kirk Cameron Gets Trailer Back On Facebook After Spam Fight

    Kirk Cameron, former star of “Growing Pains”, has made quite a change in his lifestyle since he played Mike Seaver. He hasn’t acted in several years, and when he made his return to the screen after several television movies, it was in the Christian-themed “Left Behind” films. Now he’s set his sights on evangelism, and has just completed a new documentary called “Unstoppable” which has been hugely touted on Facebook and YouTube.

    According to the movie’s Facebook page:

    “In UNSTOPPABLE, a brand-new documentary, Kirk takes you on a personal and inspiring journey to better understand the biggest doubt-raiser in faith: Why? Kirk goes back to the beginning—literally—as he investigates the origins of good and evil and how they impact our lives … and our eternities. Reminding us that there is great hope, UNSTOPPABLE creatively asks—and answers—the age-old question: Where is God in the midst of tragedy and suffering?”

    According to Facebook and YouTube, “Unstoppable” was becoming just that; fans were reposting links to the preview at an alarming rate, and the sites began to consider them–according to Cameron–“deceptive and spammy”. Cameron began to rally his fans on social network sites and asked them to share his post about being blocked in an effort to be heard.

    “Calling all friends of Faith, Family, and Freedom! Facebook has officially “blocked” me and you (and everyone else) from posting any link to my new movie at UnstoppableTheMovieDOTcom, labeling the content as “abusive”, “unsafe”, and “spammy”! I can’t even write the real link here, or Facebook would block this post too!! Try to post it yourself and see! We have been officially shut down by Facebook and unable to get any response from them. This is my most personal film about faith, hope, and love, and about why God allows bad things to happen to good people. What is “abusive” or “unsafe” about that?! Please help us encourage Facebook to unblock our website soon by sharing this post with your friends so more people can see this transparent, faith-building project,” he wrote on July 18th. By July 19th, things were looking up.

    “Victory!! Friends, you did it! People tried to stop “Unstoppable” on Facebook, and because millions of us joined together as one voice, Facebook has apologized and and welcomed us back! You all just demonstrated to the press (they are all calling me to talk about your amazing response!) that the communities of faith, hope, and love are, well… unstoppable. Now can you all talk to YouTube?? They have blocked and labeled the Unstoppable trailer as “spam”, “scam”, and “deceptive”! We did it once, we can do it again. Please share this post with all your friends and encourage YouTube to unblock my UnstoppableTheMovie trailer.”

    It must have worked, because soon after that Cameron announced that YouTube had unblocked the links to the movie’s preview.

    “You did it again!! Because of your firm, loving, and clear voice, not only did Facebook welcome us back, YouTube also removed its block on our Unstoppable movie trailer. We are back online with full access. Thank you!! Fox News, Huffington Post, Entertainment Tonight, ABC, Drudge, and others have heard about your accomplishment and my phone is ringing off the hook to talk with me about how powerful the faith community is to accomplish good things when we put our hearts and minds together. They are listening!!

    Now let’s make sure NOTHING stops UNSTOPPABLE from coming to a theater in your town on Sept. 24th. Buy your tickets today. If we sell out all the seats in your neighborhood theater, NOTHING can stop it from playing there. Theaters full of people who love God, even in the midst of tragedy is a powerful witness to EVERYONE that life is stronger than death, good is stronger than evil, and faith is stronger than doubt.”

    Cameron–and his views–received some backlash a couple of years ago for comments he made about physicist Stephen Hawking after Hawking was quoted in an interview as saying that heaven is something made-up to appease those who fear what awaits them after they die.

    “I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail,” said Hawking. “There is no heaven or afterlife for broken down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark.”

    Cameron responded to the interview, saying, “To say anything negative about Stephen Hawking is like bullying a blind man. He has an unfair disadvantage, and that gives him a free pass on some of his absurd ideas. Professor Hawking is heralded as ‘the genius of Britain,’ yet he believes in the scientific impossibility that nothing created everything and that life sprang from non-life. Why should anyone believe Mr. Hawking’s writings if he cannot provide evidence for his unscientific belief that out of nothing, everything came?”