If you have been waiting patiently for Bill O’Reilly and his frequent guest Dr. Keith Ablow to focus their mind lasers on viral megahit “Gangnam Style,” today is your lucky day.
Working off the news that the PSY song recently surpassed Justin Bieber’s “Baby” to become the most-viewed video in the history of YouTube, O’Reilly tries to figure out how the video could have possibly become so popular. Check out the video below for some Elvis comparisons, Bill’s commentary on “16 guys named PSY on Long Island,” and an interesting view of internet users as people seeking numbness. GO!
The meaning is that it has no meaning. Can’t explain that.
YouTube Presents, the site’s exclusive concert series, has been around for just under a year and half. In that time, they’ve hosted performances from Taylor Swift, Florence + The Machine, Common, The Shins, Justin bieber, and Blondie. Today, YouTube is announcing the next band that will be featured on the series.
Mayday, a five-piece alternative rock band from Taiwan will perform at YouTube HQ on Wednesday, November 28th at 7pm PT. Mayday will be the first ever Chinese-speaking band to perform as part of the YouTube Presents series.
If you like what you hear, you can enter to join the band in a Google+ Hangout following the concert:
“After the concert at 8:30pm PT, Mayday will hold a Hangout with fans on Google+. To get a chance at joining this Hangout, post a question you want to ask the band with the tag #HangoutsWithMayday on Google+. Seven lucky fans will be invited to participate,” says YouTube.
Mayday has sold over one million albums and is one of the most popular bands in Chinese rock.
For more than two long, hopeless years, Justin Bieber’s “Baby” wore the crown of most viewed video on YouTube. We knew that eventually a white knight would ride in and oust the boy tyrant, but we were unsure of just how long we would have to wait. Ladies and gents, the wait is over.
And your favorite South Korean rapper was the man to do it.
Over the weekend, YouTube announced that the PSY megahit “Gangnam Style” surpassed Justin Bieber’s “Baby” in terms of total views on the site. The transition of power occurred at noon on Saturday, with “Gangnam Style” registering 805 million views to “Baby”‘s 803 million. As it stands today, “Gangnam Style” has opened up a bigger lead with over 825 million views. Bieber is still stuck with just over 805 million.
YouTube says that “Gangnam Style” is still being viewed between 7 and 10 million times a day, even though it debuted on the site over four months ago. It’s path to over 800 million views was meteoric, a viral rise that is really unprecedented in the annals of YouTube.
As it stands, “Gangnam Style” and “Baby” sit one and two on the YouTube top videos of all time. Ronding out the top 5 is Jennifer Lopez’s “On The Floor,” Eminem’s “Love The Way You Lie.” and LMFAO’s “Party Rock Anthem.”
Of course, views aren’t all that matter. What about popularity on a different scale – likes? PSY has that on lockdown as well, as he won a Guinness World Record back in September when “Gangnam Style” became the most-liked video in YouTube history. For more on the Gangnam Style phenomenon, including remixes and covers, check here.
You probably didn’t think anyone would take LMFAO’s “I’m Sexy And I Know It” and arrange an acoustic guitar part to it, but someone did. And that someone has an incredible voice.
Known only as Noah, this kid kills the song with just his guitar and some insane pipes, which bring to mind a young Marcus Mumford. Enjoy the song you never knew you loved, and check out Noah’s stuff on YouTube.
Apparently, that was just the beginning of a larger strategy that will help Google compete with Apple’s Airplay feature. GigaOm is now reporting that Google is working an an “open” alternative to Airplay that will help third-party developers take better advantage of this functionality – beaming content from the mobile device to the television screen.
GigaOm’s Janko Roettgers says Google is hoping to bring “a number” of device and software vendors on board. Roettgers quotes Google product manager Timbo Drayson as saying, “We really want to move the whole industry forward.”
To give you a better idea of the concept, in case you’re unfamiliar with Airplay, here’s how Apple describes it on its site:
AirPlay lets you wirelessly stream what’s on your iOS device to your HDTV and speakers via Apple TV. Or mirror exactly what’s on your display to the big screen. Vacation photos, blockbusters, the latest games — AirPlay and Apple TV put it all on your TV.
….
Take control on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch while the action unfolds on your widescreen TV.3 Patrol the air while commanding the cockpit from your couch. Browse the latest in interior design ideas and save your favorites on your iPhone or iPad. With AirPlay, your TV displays talents it never knew it had.
Now envision similar concepts with Android-based devices and the larger Android ecosystem of apps and content.
Google announced today that it will soon launch the option to link your YouTube channel with a Google+ page. You will be able to use your channel name as your Google identity.
Google has been beta testing the option with some channels, but it will become available to all creators in the coming weeks.
For months, Google has been giving YouTube users the ability to use their Google+ profiles on their YouTube channels, using their real names rather than old YouTube account names.
“While using a full name from a Google+ profile might work well for a creator who wants to build their brand as an individual, this simply doesn’t work if you don’t want a full name on your channel,” says Google’s David Boyle. “If you run a channel with a name like BlueXephos or VlogBrothers, you should create a Google+ page (as opposed to a profile) with that name.”
Google says it will continue to develop new engagement features (like Hangouts on Air) that take advantage of the best of both YouTube and Google+.
YouTube just announced that it has launched a new app for the Nintendo Wii, available in the Wii Shop Channel in the U.S. (with more countries on the way in the coming months).
Users will be able to sign in and find the channels they’re subscribed to, flip through various categories, and of course search. Here are some screenshots:
The app is built using WebM, making it the largest deployment of WebM video in the world today.
YouTube now has an app on all major gaming platforms in the U.S., as it already had apps for Playstation 3 and Xbox. It is also one of the video content partners for the Wii U.
Google says YouTube is available on 400 million devices.
Animals rights group Mercy For Animals has uploaded a new investigation video to YouTube claiming to show recent turkey abuse at Butterball factory farms.
Last year, YouTube banned a video from the group, which featured hidden camera footage of workers for the E6 Cattle company mistreating calves. It was definitely hard to watch, but the group told us YouTube had deemed the video a “gross out” video, intended to be shocking, sensational or disrespectful, when in fact it was presented as an investigative report.
The group wrote a letter to YouTube about it, and and was able to get the video reinstated. A YouTube spokesperson told us at the time, “With the massive volume of videos on our site, sometimes we make the wrong call. When it’s brought to our attention that a video has been removed mistakenly, we act quickly to reinstate it.”
The video, which comes with a warning from Mercy For Animals itself, is still on YouTube to this day, and actually led to criminal charges.
Now, Mercy For Animals says it has uncovered another animal abuse story, having to do with turkeys, and once again has taken to YouTube to spread the word in time for the Thanksgiving holiday:
“In its second investigation into Butterball in less than a year, Mercy For Animals has again uncovered abuse and neglect of turkeys at the world’s largest producer of turkey meat, as the nation plans Thanksgiving dinner,” a spokesperson for the group tells WebProNews.
“The undercover investigator once again documented workers kicking and stomping on birds, the slow suffering of birds denied veterinary attention, among other abuses,” he adds. “It is obvious from the footage that Butterball has not cleaned up its act despite paying lip service to the public (and media) about its ‘zero tolerance policy’ toward animal mistreatment.
We’ve reached out to Butterball for comment, and will update if we receive a response.
Update: We have received the following statement from a Butterball spokesperson:
Butterball is aware of the video released today by Mercy for Animals, and we take any allegations of animal mistreatment very seriously. As has been our long-standing policy, we have a zero tolerance policy for animal abuse. Any employee found to have violated our animal care and well-being guidelines, as well as any employee who witnessed abuse and failed to report it, will be terminated. Butterball’s guidelines are based on guidelines developed by the National Turkey Federation that have been approved by animal well-being experts including Dr. Joy Mench at University of California at Davis, Dr. Janice Swanson from Michigan State University and Dr. Gail Golab at the American Veterinary Medical Association, among others.
When we learn of any instances of animal mistreatment, we take immediate corrective action to suspend workers involved, conduct a swift investigation and terminate their employment with the company. Upon learning of these new concerns, we immediately initiated an internal investigation and suspended the associates in question. Pending the completion of that investigation, Butterball will then make a determination on additional actions including immediate termination for those involved.
Animal care and well-being is central to the operations of our company, and we remain committed to the ethical and responsible care of our turkey flocks.
Google announced a new update for Google TV, which adds Voice Search, a revamped TV & Movies app called PrimeTime, and integrates YouTube mobile pairing.
“Instantly access the power of Google TV, simply by using your voice,” Google says in a blog post. “Just speak to watch TV shows and movies, start playing a YouTube video, open applications, go to websites, do a Google search, and much more. Say ‘CNN’ to go right to the channel, or say ‘Homeland’ to see all the live and streaming options to watch the show. You can even say ‘how to tie a bow tie’ to watch an instructional YouTube video. Try ‘search movies with Jeff Bridges’ and see results in our new, more visual search results page.”
“Last year your Google TV added the TV & Movies app to help you browse 100,000+ movies and TV episodes available to watch,” Google adds. “Now called PrimeTime, the app makes it even easier to find your favorite content. Easily access PrimeTime anywhere in Google TV and browse for something new while you watch. You can quickly flip through the best stuff on live TV, access your favorite channels, see TV shows you recently watched, and find other suggestions based on what you enjoy watching.”
The updates are coming first to LG devices this week, and will be rolling out to other devices in the coming months.
Google TV currently has six partners with products in ten countries. LG’s Google TV was rated the best Google TV device by Consumer Reports. Google TV currently offers over 100,000 movies and TV episodes.
YouTube announced today that it is making it easier for users to enjoy YouTube on TV by automatically pairing their devices.
“With the updated YouTube app for Android and Google TV rolling out today, you can play any video from your phone or tablet YouTube app on your TV with just one button,” a YouTube spokesperson tells WebProNews. “The feature will be coming to more devices and screens in the future, as we work to make YouTube the platform for the next generation of channels.”
“We’re making it even easier to play videos from your phone or tablet on your TV, with a YouTube app update for Android and Google TV that automatically pairs your devices on the same WiFi,” explains product manager Timbo Drayson. “Just find a video on your YouTube app for Android — like the latest video from GoPro or H+ The Digital Series — click the TV icon that appears, and the video will play instantly on your Google TV.”
“Like a remote control, you can pause, scroll or skip to the next video with your mobile device as it plays on your TV,” Drayson adds. “Since your devices are connected in the cloud, you can also do things like find the next video to watch from your tablet or browse around the web on your phone, all while the video plays on TV. You can even connect multiple devices to the TV to have your friends add to the playlist.”
Mobile currently makes up over 25% of YouTube total views, and that percentage is growing. The peak viewership of YouTube occurs during the evening primetime hours. That should bode well for YouTube’s emphasis on original content. Word is that they’re increasing their investment in this area. More on that here.
Google’s plans for YouTube appear to be working out. Last year, Google invested $100 million into a set of new original channels to lure advertisers and make YouTube the monetization machine it always seemed like it should be. Advertisers are buying into it now, and Google is reportedly getting ready to renew its investments in these channels.
That does not mean, however, that all of the channels from the original line up will be getting more money from Google. In fact only a fraction – something like 30% – 40%, according to AdAge will get part of a new round of funding from Google, but that’s just Google using what it has learned over the past year, and moving forward accordingly.
AdAge has talked with Google, some of the content producers involved in the project, and advertisers, and has learned that Google is getting ready to provide its second round of content (which, from the sound of it, will be roughly equivalent to the first round, on a per channel basis) to the lucky partners.
Those who made the cut should reportedly be finding out from Google within the next few weeks. It will be interesting to see how many of the channels that don’t get new funding continue on with their regularly scheduled programming.
In addition to the channels, YouTube has become an important destination for live streaming events, which if the company continues to build upon, could help it tremendously in its battle with television for acquiring eyeballs that stick around for longer amounts of time.
Activision today officially announced the live-streaming feature of Call of Duty: Black Ops II. The feature will allow players to live-stream their gameplay directly to YouTube from the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 consoles. It will also allow the streaming of the player webcams and audio commentary during gameplay (oh, boy…).
The live-streaming will be heavily integrated into the newly free Call of Duty Elite service, allowing players to see the player cards and stats for those streaming. The live-streams will also be broadcast via Call of Duty Elite, in addition to individual YouTube user channels.
“From the beginning of development with Call of Duty: Black Ops II, the team has been pushing boundaries on every front to offer Call of Duty fans things that they haven’t been able to do before,” said Mark Lamia, studio head of Treyarch. “With our competitive play and eSports initiatives, we wanted to deliver live streaming capabilities built right into Call of Duty: Black Ops II, because Call of Duty is not only fun and exciting to play, but we believe it will be just as exciting to watch. By making the capability of live streaming as accessible as possible to our fans, straight from a player’s console without the need for any additional hardware or sophisticated setups, we are empowering our fans to share their multiplayer experiences.”
Activision stated that the live-stream capabilities will be subject to “limitation and restrictions,” but didn’t go into detail. Players will, obviously, need a YouTube account to live-stream, and it will need to be verified.
This is a feature that was sorely needed for many videogames, and it seems that Activision and Treyarch have delivered. This and many other features have made the Call of Duty franchise the most popular multiplayer first person shooting experience in gaming. It’s so popular that Microsoft is practically paying gamers to stick with Halo 4 multiplayer. Call of Duty: Black Ops II launches on November 13 and is expected to be one of the best-selling games of all-time.
During the 2012 campaign season, Youtube has been involved in providing people access to the videos that they need to be better-informed voters. They streamed both political conventions in their entirety, as well as all four Presidential and Vice Presidential debates. Along with the live streams, their Elections Hub has has also provided election reporting from ABC News, Al Jazeera, Univision, the New York Times, and many more.
Now, they want to turn it over to you.
Today, YouTube has (once again) asked the electorate to participate in documenting the 2012 election. Here’s what they had to say in a blog post:
“We want to see and hear from you tomorrow. Whether you’re vlogging about which candidate you support, capturing footage of the long line at your polling place, or encouraging your friends to get out of the house and go vote, we’re inviting you to send us your Election Day videos.”
Basically, YouTube wants your citizen journalism on election day. After you make your video documenting some aspect of the vote, you can tweet it at @YouTubePolitics and/or upload it with the #YouTubePolitics hashtag. YouTube says that some of the videos will be featured on the Elections Hub.
Of course, before you pull out your smartphone or drag a camera into a polling place, check on the laws in your area surrounding voting locations and filming.
The election is tomorrow. Make sure you vote. And if you can, why not document your experience as well?
YouTube has launched three new publishing features for content creators, including public videos that don’t notify subscribers, custom thumbnails while the video uploads, and a new tags editor.
“Have you ever wanted to upload a ‘behind the scenes’ video to your channel and don’t want this video to take up valuable real estate in subscribers’ feeds? Or uploaded a long video but also wanted to publish short clips? Maybe you want to publish a quick video without interrupting your publishing schedule?” the company asks in a blog post. “We’ve heard many creators want to upload public videos that don’t notify their subscribers in their homepage feed, via email (for opted in subscribers), and in youtube.com/my_subscriptions. Your default will remain that your subscribers are notified about your public uploads, but now you can choose to uncheck this option to “Notify subscribers” in the Advanced Settings section during the upload process. ”
“If you use our batch upload features in CMS, we also have an equivalent XML tag available,” the company adds. “Public videos that you choose not to notify subscribers about will still be discoverable through search, suggested videos, and on your channel.”
YouTube initially launched the ability to set custom thumbnails directly in the upload interface earlier this year. Now, you can simply do it earlier in the process.
As far as the new tag editor goes,you can simply type in the tags and commas, and hit enter, and they will display in blue boxes.
I think most of us can commiserate; listening to endless polling stats and predictions, recaps of debates, recaps of campaign stops, and recaps of recaps can be difficult to handle in the weeks leading up to election day. So when 4-year old Abigael had a meltdown in the car and her mom found out the reason, she says she changed the radio station out of sympathy.
“Why are you crying?” her mom asks.
“Just because I’m tired of Barack Obama and Mitt Romney,” Abigael says pitifully.
“That’s why you’re crying? It’ll be over soon, the election will be over soon, okay?”
Hurricane Sandy, the “superstorm” of 2012 hit the East coast of the U.S. yesterday, causing flooding and power outages in highly populated areas such as New York City. The storm is still sitting over the Northeast U.S., dropping rain and snow on places as far apart as West Virginia and Northern Michigan.
Whether you can’t get enough pictures of flooded New York subway tunnels or you simply love seeing weather reporters standing in Battery Park being buffeted by high wind and rain, continuing coverage of Hurricane Sandy can be seen here on YouTube, where The Weather Channel is streaming 24-hour coverage of the storm.
Hurricane Sandy has disrupted the lives of millions throughout the U.S. Northeast. A record storm surge contributed to flooding in New York and New Jersey. Photos of a darkened Midtown Manhattan showed up online last night as millions of residents went without power, and a photo of water inundating the One World Trade Center construction site demonstrated the extent of the flooding.
Though premature reports of flooding on the trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange proved false, U.S. trading remains suspended for a second day.
The hurricane has also contributed to blizzard-like conditions throughout the Appalachian mountains. Snow is predicted to fall for at least another day in states such as West Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania. According to The Weather Channel, at least one county in Maryland has already reported 26 inches of snow. Like many eastern states, a state of emergency has been declared throughout West Virginia, where many residents are without power.
ComScore, a leading online media metrics company, today released its online video rankings for September 2012. Unsurprisingly, Google leads the internet in both unique viewers and video ads.
According to the new rankings, Google websites, led by YouTube had over 150 million unique viewers in September. YouTube viewers watched over 13 billion videos for an average of 419 minutes per viewer. Following far behind Google are Yahoo, AOL, and VEVO, with a bit over 50 million unique viewers.
While Google may be far ahead of other platforms when it comes to unique viewers, the company isn’t leagues ahead when it comes to ad impressions. In September Google delivered nearly 1.8 billion ads, followed closely by the BrightRoll Video Network with 1.3 billion and Hulu with 1.1 billion. Of note here is Hulu’s massive number of ads per viewer, which sits at 51 – far more than any other platform on the list. Any viewer who’s watched Hulu lately will realize the reason for this number, as the ad breaks for TV shows on the network have lengthened to the point where they are beginning to rival network TV.
Along with the video rankings, ComScore has also provided rankings for the top 10 YouTube partner channels. VEVO (48 million unique viewers) and Warner Music (24 million unique viewers) predictably top the list, showing that YouTube is a main source online for viewing music videos. What is interesting is that Machinima, the video games channel, places fourth on the list with 22 million unique viewers and almost 70 minutes per viewer. At a time when video game programming is disappearing from traditional TV, it seems Google’s Machinima investment is paying off.
When we see things like this, we are reminded of how much life has been improved with the advent of YouTube. You’ve seen plenty of other movies and shows recut as 80s sitcoms, no doubt (Breaking Bad is still a favorite). Now, here’s The Exorcist, just in time for Halloween, courtesy of FIlm School Rejects.
With the Presidential debates in our rear-view mirror and the election less than two weeks away, YouTube has taken some time to reflect on the viewership numbers from their live streams. 2012 was the first year that YouTube streamed the debates, and according to them, they had a pretty successful debut.
According to YouTube, the four debates had 24 million views worldwide. Those views came from people of 215 countries.
Naturally, the United States had the highest viewership. Here’s the rest of the top 10, in terms of viewers (in order):
Canada; Australia; New Zealand; United Kingdom; Mexico; Brazil; Singapore; Japan; and France.
YouTube says that the live streams weren’t the only times the debates saw international interest:
“The worldwide interest didn’t stop with the live streams. The New York Times’ uploads of the first three debates have seen close to 13 million views, making them the most-viewed videos on their channel ever. Outside the United States, these videos have been viewed most heavily in the U.K, Canada, India, Germany, Australia and France — with almost half the views coming from outside the U.S.”
You can check out all of this campaign season’s debates below (all three Presidential and the one Vice Presidential).
Tonight, the final Presidential debate takes place between Democratic incumbent Barack Obama and his Republican challenger Mitt Romney. And although those are the two candidates for America’s highest office that you hear about the most, there are actually other people running to be President.
You won’t see them at tonight’s debate (third parties haven’t been invited since Ross Perot in 1992), but you can watch them debate each other, live, on YouTube.
Participants in the minor candidate debate include Gary Johnson (Libertarian Party), Jill Stein (Green Party), Virgil Goode (Constitution Party), and Rocky Anderson (Justice Party). You can watch the debate on the Ora TV YouTube channel starting at 9 pm ET on Tuesday, October 23rd. Al Jazeera will also carry the live stream. No major television networks will carry the “Free and Equal” debate.
Former CNN host and broadcasting legend Larry King will moderate the contest. Interested viewers can still submit possible debate questions to Larry King via Facebook, Twitter, and reddit. You can find those submission portals here.
The third-party debate is being sponsored by Free and Equal Elections, a non-profit organization whose goal is to “ensure an fair an open electoral process for all.”
“It is our belief that a true democracy fosters a climate where all voices are heard regardless of political party or persuasion,” they say. “An electoral process where every individual has a chance of winning is vital in a democracy and we here at Free and Equal will continue to ensure every voice is heard by making the electoral process fair and open for every participant.”
No matter your political beliefs, I think most of us can agree that the more ideas, viewpoints, and solutions that we allow to break into the public discourse, the better. This is just another example of the internet succeeding where television failed.
It’s campaign season, and YouTube has been an integral part of that by streaming the conventions and debates live on their Elections Hub. Now, they’re turning to another type of campaign.
YouTube has just launched another tool to help the nonprofit organizations enrolled in their YouTube Nonprofit program. Now, YouTube wants to give channel owners a “digital thermometer” for their videos.
It’s simply called “Campaigns,” and it allows YouTube Nonprofit members to set specific goals and broadcast them to viewers.
“This new feature allows nonprofits to create campaigns with goals like increasing views or subscribers, track their progress, and let people to contribute to their goals,” says the company in a blog post. “A campaign consists of one or more videos…Once a campaign is created, videos in that campaign will show an overlay on them, encouraging viewers to contribute to the campaign.”
Not only will the video itself show an overlay with the progress bar, but the campaign will display front and center on the nonprofit’s channel. The Campaigns box with show the goal progress bar, how many days left in the campaign, as well as the number of new shares of the particular video(s).
According to YouTube, they now have over 18,000 nonprofits enrolled in the program. They recently gave the option to include a more prominent donate button inside videos and also held the Next Cause program, a summit that enables charitable organizations to participate in a summit that gave them information on how to better achieve their goals.
