WebProNews

Tag: YouTube

  • Google Wants You to Get in Touch with Your YouTube Community

    Despite YouTube being the Mordor of online discourse, you may actually want to engage with that community from time to time. It’s not all bad, just 99.45% bad. If you actually feel daring enough to invite the YouTube community to your website, Googlers Eric Lundberg and Jeffery Posnick presented at Google I/O last Wednesday about an embeddable widget that will support YouTube uploads on your own site.

    Essentially, it’s a new way for you to solicit videos from your users. The duo discuss how they built it and how to use it as a part of the YouTube Direct open source video submission platform. Essentially, the embeddable widget allows visitors to your site will be able to upload videos to YouTube without having to leave your site. As with any uploads on YouTube, the videos uploaded by a user still belongs to that user. However, the host website will be able to view a list of videos uploaded through the widget.

    Topics covered in the talk include:

  • What is the embeddable upload widget?
  • Example integration: Formspring
  • Widget implementation details
  • Using the widget on your site
  • Case Study: YouTube Direct Lite
  • Question? Answers!

    • The widget isn’t available just yet, but Lundberg and Posnick wanted to give developers a preview of what this new tool will be able to do.

  • YouTube Users File Petition To Allow For The Use Of Third-Party Recording Tools

    Should YouTube users be allowed to rip the content they like to their hard drive, much like a person would use a DVR to record a television show of interest? Some users believe they should have such capabilities, and so, they’ve started a petition essentially asking for DVR rights when using YouTube.

    The petition comes on the heels of the announcement that Google is going after the video-to-mp3 conversion site with the obvious title, YouTube-MP3.com, something that’s reflected in the petition’s introduction:

    For decades people were allowed to take a private copy of a public broadcast. You could record the radio program with a cassette recorder or make a copy of your favorite movie by using a video recorder. All these techniques have been opposed heavily in its early years by the big media companies who didn’t want the public to have such technology. They did describe such technology as criminal and as a threat to their business.

    Several years later history is about to repeat: Google has teamed up with the RIAA to make the same claims against all sorts of online recording tools for their 21th century broadcasting service: YouTube (“Broadcast yourself”). Google is taking action against nearly every service that enables its users to create a private copy of a public YouTube broadcast while the RIAA is threatening news media like CNet for promoting such a software.

    I hereby ask Google to break their silence and participate in an open and fair discussion with the intention to find a solution that suits the needs of the users.

    It should be noted that while consumers could tape music from the radio or make duplicates of other tapes with a dual-cassette setup, it wasn’t necessarily smiled upon by the powers that were. In fact, the MPAA went all out against the technology that was videocassette recorders (VCRs). The difference being, media consumption in the 80s was very much a one-way process, with the consumer having little recourse regarding feedback. Sure, an occasional letter might have made capitalism work in your favor, but there certainly weren’t multiple avenues of communication like those offered by Facebook and Twitter.

    With that in mind, should users be able to make copies of YouTube content, be it in the form of third part video recording software or through sites that rip the video’s soundtrack out, converting it to an MP3? While the comparison between DVRs and Internet broadcasts are based in logic, it’s impossible to see the current powers that be siding with the user here, especially when you consider the massive fuss these content providers have made about YouTube in the past. Perhaps a balance could be struck allowing users who upload their own self-created content to give their viewers the option of downloading the file.

    Other than that, it’s hard to see a day that the RIAA says “sure, you can download any of the music you like from YouTube’s VEVO service, unless the song was purchased by the viewer first. As pointed out by GigaOm, the petition has over 180,000 signatures since it was put up three days prior. While the support is admirable, it’s hard to see this working out in their favor.

  • The Google Plusification Of YouTube Continues

    Google announced today that you can now associate your YouTube account with your Google+ account. In other words, if you go by your real name on Google+, you can now make that your identity on YouTube as well.

    Luckily, to avoid upsetting more users by forcing Google+ upon them, Google has made the option available to continue using your old name.

    “One Google-wide identity was something that proved popular with new YouTube users when we began offering it in March, so we are now extending it to existing users,” says software engineer John Fisher. “This is your identity, so you’re in the driver’s seat. First off, your name. If you are currently YouTube user joeysam87, you can now appear as Joey Samson, the full name from your Google+ profile (with an actual space in the middle!), along with any photo you uploaded.”

    Users can review their past YouTube activity before making the change. This way, you can go back and delete any comments or playlists that might embarrass you as a real person.

    “This will give you more options for how your videos are seen and discovered on YouTube,” says Fisher. “However, we realize that using your full name isn’t for everyone. Maybe people know you by your YouTube username. Perhaps you don’t want your name publicly associated with your channel. To continue using your YouTube username, just click ‘I don’t want to use my full name’ when you see the prompt.”

    Google says users will be able to start using this user name in more products in the coming months. You’ll see the option for YouTube the next time you upload a video or leave a comment.

  • Insolent YouTube Commenters, Your Doom Fast Approaches

    Here’s a list of some awful things in no particular order:

  • Nuclear disasters.
  • Bath salts.
  • Running out of toilet paper.
  • Traffic.
  • Frank Miller’s Holy Terror.
  • Break-ups.
  • Neo-Nazis.
  • Hollywood remakes.
  • Two month-old lasagna.
  • The runs.

    • I could go on because lord knows there are untold amounts of more awfulness in the world, but that’s probably enough for what I’m about to do. All of the above items are terrible, but to even come close to matching the level of abject terribleness that is found on any random page of YouTube comments, you’d have to take every item from that list, squash them all together and then bake the vile combination into a pizza crust that is topped with glass shrapnel, syphilitic ape hair, fingernail clippings, and some soggy cigarette butts, and then serve it to your last surviving grandparent. Who is on fire.

    Seriously, those trolls hiding under the bridge in the Three Billy Goats Gruff won’t even go near YouTube comment pages.

    Okay, so enough hyperbole. You get the point. For some inexplicable reason, YouTube comment sections have become the locus for the end of civilization and it’s been going that way for years with no sign of ever getting better. Racism, sexism, classism, hate-ism – if it’s bad, it’s happening right now on YouTube.

    However, YouTube may be approaching a new era of quasi-civility, according to YouTube Head of Product Dror Shimshowitz. Talking in a Q&A session at Google I/O this week, Wired reports that Shimshowitz said Google will be making some changes to YouTube that will hopefully weed out the mutants that populate the website’s comment sections. “We’re working on some improvements to the comment system, so hopefully we’ll have an update on that in the next few months,” Shimshowitz told an audience member.

    According to Wired, that was about all Shishowitz would share about the plan to eradicate the corruption of YouTube comments.

    While this is certainly going to be a welcome change to the website, and maybe you’ll actually be able to find some useful discourse on some of your favorite videos there, the eviction of awful YouTube comments will likely leave a small, asymmetrical hole in the internet. If anything else, I will miss coming across those hilarious Buzzfeed articles that collect some of the best finds in the muck of YouTube comments.

  • Webmaster Tools Gets “Associates” Feature For Your Managers Across Google Products

    Google announced a new Webmaster Tools feature that lets you add users who can act on behalf of your site in other Google products. These users will be referred to as “associates”.

    This seems to be another step towards Google’s unification of its various products, which has largely been helped by its recently consolidated privacy policy, and has been fueled by the integration of Google+ as the “social spine” of Google’s offerings.

    Google is starting the offering off with YouTube support (specifically, members of YouTube’s partner program), but says other Google product integrations will be on the way.

    YouTube associates

    “Many organizations have multiple presences on the web,” says Google software engineer Konstantin Roslyakov. “For example, Webmaster Tools lives at www.google.com/webmasters, but it also has a Twitter account and a YouTube channel. It’s important that visitors to these other properties have confidence that they are actually associated with the Webmaster Tools site. However to date it has been challenging for webmasters to manage which users can take actions on behalf of their site in different services.”

    “Unlike site owners and users, associates can’t view site data or take any site actions in Webmaster Tools, but they are authorized to perform specific tasks in other products,” says Roslyakov.

    For now, YouTube partner program members can link their YouTube channels to their site. More information on the set-up process here.

    What products do you want to see Google add next?

  • The New YouTube App Is Actually Pretty Awesome

    Google announced some big improvements to the YouTube API during I/O that will help Android devices get the most out of the service with smooth, high-quality playback. Those kind of improvements usually result in a new app being released sooner or later. It’s more sooner than later with Google releasing a new YouTube app today.

    The new YouTube app for Android released today is pretty much all about one thing – your subscriptions. Everybody on YouTube has subscriptions, it’s what drives us to our favorite content and keeps us on top of the new content being released by our favorite creators. The new Android app is following the Web site redesign from last year to bring those subscriptions to the core of the experience.

    The front page of the YouTube app can now be swiped to the left to reveal a bar that features all of your subscriptions. It’s just like how your subscriptions are listed on the left-hand side of the screen on the desktop version of YouTube. It’s extremely useful especially when YouTube recommendations lets one of your favorite creators’ new video slip by.

    The best addition to the YouTube app is the ability to prefetch the video while you’re on a Wi-Fi connection. While your phone is charging and connected to Wi-Fi, it will grab and prefetch videos from your subscribed channels for storage in a local cache. When you go to watch said videos while on mobile data, it will have the video already pre-loaded for your viewing pleasure.

    The desktop and mobile experience on YouTube are now connected on an intimate level. The videos that you like, favorite and share on an Android phone will be reflected on the desktop version under your account. The description also makes it appear that you’ll be able to queue up the next video from your phone without having to interrupt the current video that’s playing on the desktop.

    The new YouTube app is only available on Android 4.0 devices for now, but it will be rolled out to other versions of Android in the future. You can grab it from Google Play.

  • YouTube Gets Better Mobile Video Playback With Dedicated API

    YouTube is the core pillars of Google’s strategy of pushing forward into a Web based future. It’s still the most popular video site online and it has the potential to drive features like HTML5 and mobile video to even greater heights. Continuing this theme, the YouTube API team has announced new features that are sure to delight developers.

    To help improve the exploding traffic that mobile video is driving, Google will be releasing a YouTube Android Player API. It promises to deliver videos that are “high quality, fast and sleek.” Such a change would be much appreciated as YouTube videos don’t exactly deliver the quality that I’m used to on desktop when I go for mobile viewing on my Android. If somebody can build a YouTube app that’s similar to the excellent PlayStation Vita YouTube app, I’d be all for it.

    The team has made some improvements to YouTube Direct which allows users to directly submit videos to organizations or groups. The group can then compile these videos into a playlist to display on their Web site for all the world to see. That’s where the YouTube Direct Lite player comes in with a CORS-powered JavaScript application that allows groups to embed the videos on the site as an add-on.

    The YouTube Analytics API is also getting some love in the form of custom tools. Developers can now create custom tools for displaying data. It’s a much more elegant option than the previous way of downloading an archive of CSV files and processing them yourself. The new tools are powered by a RESTful Web service that allows for requests of customized reports.

    The YouTube team made it seem like there’s going to be more announcements coming today when Google’s next keynote kicks off at 10 a.m. PST (1 p.m. EST). We’ll be watching to bring you the latest and greatest news from Google and hopefully some more YouTube goodies.

  • Anonymous Launches #OpJapan Against Law That Would Imprison People Over Watching YouTube

    Do you want to know the secret to getting on Anonymous’ bad side? Try passing a law that punishes people for watching YouTube videos. Japan just recently passed a law that would fine and imprison people for watching YouTube videos of copyrighted content. Once they caught wind of the news, Anonymous launched #OpJapan in protest.

    Anonymous launched the campaign with a press release on AnonPR stating their motives and actions that would define the movement:

    Greetings land of the rising sun, we are Anonymous.

    In recent years the content industry, politicians, and governments throughout the world have dramatically increased their efforts to combat internet piracy and copyright infringement. Unfortunately in doing so they have often taken the wrong approach which has lead to draconian laws, infringements of basic rights, and severely stunting the growth of technological innovations.

    Japan, home to some of the greatest technological innovations throughout history has now decided to go down the path as well and cave into the pressures of the content industry to combat piracy and copyright infringement. Earlier this week Japan approved an amendment to its copyright law which will give authorities the right to imprison citizens for up to two years simply for downloading copyrighted material

    We at Anonymous believe strongly that this will result in scores of unnecessary prison sentences to numerous innocent citizens while doing little to solve the underlying problem of legitimate copyright infringement.

    If this situation alone wasn’t horrible enough already, the content industry is now pushing ISPs in Japan to implement surveillance technology that will spy on and every single internet user in Japan. This would be an unprecedented approach and severely reduce the amount of privacy law abiding citizens should have in a free society.

    To the government of Japan and the Recording Industry Association of Japan, you can now expect us the same way we have come to expect you in violating our basic rights to privacy and to an open internet.

    Anonymous has set up the usual Twitter account that details all of their actions. They’re mixing it up this time by not only pulling DDoS attacks on various Japanese government Web sites, but encouraging street action by posting fliers.

    Anonymous recently launched a campaign against India for that country’s attempt to block The Pirate Bay and other file-sharing Web sites. After massive protests from Anonymous and many Indian citizens, access was reinstated. Japan won’t be so easy. They’re protesting a law this time and Japan is well-known for ignoring its citizens in favor of pandering to the U.S. and special interests, even the non-otaku citizens that will be out against this bill.

    Speaking of otaku, Japan has a sizable Twitter-using population who could fall into the category of otaku (nerd). The majority of the 9,400 followers of @OpJapan could definitely be labeled within this category. While it’s a fantastic sign of support from the tech savvy population of Japan, the national media (NHK) in Japan is probably going to twist it against them as otaku are not exactly respected in mainstream culture.

    I want to remain optimistic, but I highly doubt that the Japanese government is going to rethink this law. It’s going to take the law openly hurting innocents before they go back to the drawing board. We’ll keep you updated when and if #OpJapan pulls off any crazy hijinks. They’re not going to give up easily so it will be interesting to see how the Japanese media reacts to a concentrated cyberattack.

  • T3Media Allows You to Sell Your Original Photos and Videos online with Paya

    T3Media Allows You to Sell Your Original Photos and Videos online with Paya

    Tese days everybody is looking for a way to make some extra cash. Some people have a yard sale or sell things on ebay. Others are looking for a more unique way to get paid.

    T3Media out of Denver is just putting the finishing touches on a new service they call Paya. Paya allows you to sell your original content online. What kind of content?

    Paya will allow you to sell your videos and photos on over 250 sites. The concept is really simple. You log into Paya via Facebook, list the photos and pictures you want to sell, then set the price.

    Buyers can see the content on Paya, and wherever else you originally posted the material: YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo, wherever. The content has a link back to the Paya page, and once the transaction is made, you get to keep 80% of the selling price.

    So, if you’re looking for a way to make some extra cash, or you’re a creative type hoping to sell your masterpiece online, Paya might be right for you. At the very least, it’s worth looking into.

    Forbes spoke with T3Media CEO, Kevin Schaff, and he was excited to share, what he sees as, an extreme demand for the service.

    T3Media CEO, Kevin Schaff comments on their new Paya service:

    “You have Facebook, Flickr, YouTube and all the content that lives there, but there is no way to sell off of them.”

    “About 375 billion photos are being created daily,”

    “72 hours of footage just on YouTube are being uploaded per minute – it’s staggering,”

    So, T3Media’s service is simple solution to a complex problem; how do we take all this original content and make some of it work for us financially? There’s no telling how popular the service could become, but it represents a unique opportunity for all the social media users out there who are looking to make some extra cash on what they’re passion about: posting media content.

  • HBO Dangles Another Carrot, Streams “The Newsroom” Pilot For Free

    HBO Dangles Another Carrot, Streams “The Newsroom” Pilot For Free

    Much to the delight of everyone still reeling from the loss of Game of Thrones, Mad Men, and (to a lesser extent, I guess) The Killing for the season, HBO debuted a brand new drama centered around the innerworkings of a cable new program aptly titled The Newsroom.

    Apart from a cast containing the likes of Jeff Daniels, Emily Mortimer, and a hilariously lubricated Sam Waterston, one of the big draws of the show is that it’s from the mind of Aaron Sorkin. Sorkin, of course, it known for the much-loved political drama The West Wing, as well as recent films The Social Network and Moneyball. You can also catch his unmistakable screenwriting flourishes in the upcoming Steve Jobs biopic.

    If you don’t have HBO and fear the world of torrenting, you’re in luck. HBO has put the entire first episode of The Newsroom online for free.

    This isn’t the first time HBO has put a series opener online, most recently having done so with the Julia Louis-Dreyfus vehicle Veep. But it’s always just been the first episode – just a little taste to get you hooked.

    Of course, HBO’s goal is to promote new subscriptions by displaying their quality content for the masses. It’s a good strategy – a way to say, “look at the great show that’s just starting – you can get in at the ground floor.” Also, signing up for HBO gives you access to all of their programming on HBO Go…

    …but only if you are signed up with a cable provider that gives access.

    There’s been an online movement exerting pressure on HBO to offer a standalone streaming service like HBO Go – but one separate from cable ties. That effort recently culminated in a Twitter campaign called “Take My Money, HBO” that saw thousands take to the site to tell HBO just how much they would pay for such a service (around 12 bucks a month, on average).

    HBO responded, basically saying that it’s not in their best interests to offer such a service (for now).

    For those who will never fork over the cash for cable + HBO, think of this offering as an easy way to watch the first episode in the new series. For people with HBO, maybe your DVR screwed up. If so, HBO’s here for the save:

    Ep. 1: We Just Decided To – Full Episode

    You can also check it out on YouTube or grab it free on iTunes.

  • Why Does YouTube’s View Counter Get Stuck on 301?

    Have you ever noticed how popular videos sometimes have their view counter stuck on 301, especially for popular videos that quickly get a lot of comments? Well, there’s a reason for that, and the Numberphile, also known as Brady Haran, investigated the phenomenon and posted a video about what he found. To get to the bottom of the number mystery, Haran interviewed the product manager for YouTube analytics, Ted Hamilton.

    The first thing Hamilton revealed is no, YouTube video views are not counted by hand, and that a video view is considered “currency.” Furthermore, and this should come as no surprise, it was revealed that how YouTube determines a count is something of a trade secret, but it’s more than just pressing “play” and exiting the window. That much is obvious. Another thing the delay in count updating is part of YouTube’s method of determining view spam, or, counterfeit views. Because YouTube is a global entity with users all over the world, it uses a method of content delivery similar to Netflix, employing servers all around the world which caches the content, instead of having to “broadcast” it from solely from the United States.

    When the content is requested from a specific server, it records the viewing in a log, which is collected and then aggregated, increasing the view count accordingly. The reason for the view being frozen has to do with YouTube’s view verification process, which again, is in place to prevent counterfeit views, keeping with the idea that views are considered a video’s currency. It’s an interesting process, and Hamilton and Haran provide great, easy-to-follow explanations for how counts are determined.

    But that doesn’t answer the question of why 301. Why does the counter freeze at this number? Because that was YouTube’s arbitrary plateau when they created their If > Then > Else statement was created. Essentially, if the video’s view count is less than or equal to 300, the count increases. If it exceeds 300, the code statement then moves to a much more complex part of the “view count pipeline.”

  • Top 5 YouTube Partners Supplying 1.5 Billion Streams Monthly

    Top 5 YouTube Partners Supplying 1.5 Billion Streams Monthly

    On Friday, we reported that YouTube was at the top of the list for monthly unique viewers throughout the month of May and total videos streamed.

    YouTube had over 136 million unique viewers and they streamed well over 16 billion videos.

    Now we’re back with some more information from Nielsen ratings group informing us that YouTube’s top five partners are supplying viewers with almost 1.5 billion monthly video streams, as measured throughout the month of May.

    Vevo, Warner Music Group (WMG), Fullscreen, Maker, and Machinima make up the top five partners, and all of them work with YouTube build their audience and monetize content.

    Vevo tops the list of partners with 41,000 unique monthly viewers, and almost 695,000 videos streamed throughout the month of May. Warner Music Group comes in second, but trails behind significantly with only about 22,895 visitors and 172,985 videos streamed.

    Machinima takes third in the ranking and had 17,625 visitors in May and streamed almost 430,000 videos. So, not as many visitors, but a lot more videos streamed. Fullscreen, comes in fourth with 12,484 visitors and just under 80,000 videos. Maker placed fifth, with just under 10,000, but 93,588 videos streamed.

    Insights on the top five YouTube Partners:

    * More than half of each channel’s unique viewers were under the age of 35.

    * About 1 in 6 Americans who watched online video during May 2012 streamed video on the WMG YouTube channel (almost 23 million unique viewers).

    * Vevo led the top five partners in total streams (695 million), while Machinima averaged the most streams per viewer, 24 in May 2012.

    * Machinima also captured the highest composition of male viewers (62.6%), while others hovered closer to a 50/50 female/male split.

    * Fullscreen and Vevo skewed toward a slightly older demographic, as 15.3 and 15.7 percent of their viewers are 50 years or older, respectively.

    * Maker drew 9.7 million unique viewers who averaged nearly ten streams per viewer.

    So there you have it, YouTube still reigns supreme as an online streaming video provider. They continue to find new ways to deliver unbelievable amounts of content and somehow pay the bills at the same time.

  • These Are The Sh*ttiest How-To Videos On YouTube, And They’re Amazing

    There are legitimate how-to videos all over YouTube, and many of them have helped me and people I know personally with some of the odd challenges that pop up in everyday life. Ever tried to properly tie a bowtie with zero experience? Well it sucks. But in this scenario, YouTube is your friend. I mean, one of my buddies even consulted YouTube for information on how to properly swaddle his new baby – and it worked. Amazing.

    There are tons of people out there who post helpful, earnest guides to some of life’s most common conundrums. And then there’s this guy.

    These may be the dumbest things you’ve ever watched, or if you’re like me, you may laugh so hard that you begin to cry big, giant man (or woman) tears onto your keyboard.

    Many of them are fairly popular. YouTube user HowToBasic has been uploading their anti-how-to videos for about six months, and some of them already have over 900,000 views. All in all, there are a little over one hundred of these little masterpieces:

    Here’s how to correctly add milk to your tea…

    And here’s how you wash a blueberry…

    How about you learn how to make a delicious chocolate shake…

    You’ve clearly been making pasta to incorrect way…

    What if you burn your omelet? Here’s how to make the save:

    Finally, here’s the best way to make an egg salad sandwich:

    What was that quote about genius and insanity? Oh, nevermind.

  • Flipboard Gets Much More Googley

    While previously available in beta, Flipboard for Android is now available in the Google Play Store, as well as in the Amazon App Store and Barnes & Noble Nook Store.

    “Now you can connect your Google+ account to Flipboard and see all the activity in your Circles in a beautiful magazine format,” Flipboard explains in a blog post. “You can ‘+1’ (Google’s version of ‘like’) any post from within Flipboard, or tap the status update to share, comment and reply.”

    “The YouTube experience is similarly transformed, as video browsing becomes more like reading a magazine,” the company adds. “Flip through your subscriptions, uploads and favorites, or enjoy popular feeds like Most Viewed, Trending Videos and Top Favorites.”

    Here’s what the app looks like:

    Flipboard On Android

    Flipboard on Android

    Flipboard on Android

    Flipboard on Android

    Flipboard

    Flipboard on Android

    The Google+ integration of Flipboard was announced earlier this week, and it should have a significant impact on Google+ use, but the Android release should have an even bigger impact, bringing the popular (on iOS) app to a much wider audience, which should also bode well for Google’s social network.

    It may not bode so well for Google’s Flipboard competitor Google Currents, but I’m sure Google would much rather have a presence on Flipboard, and give iOS users less reason to be scared of a transition to Android. With Flipboard on Android (and Instagram, for that matter), some users wouldn’t have to give up their favorite apps to make the switch.

    In the US, Flipboard will also be coming pre-installed on the Samsung Galaxy S III, and Flipboard itself is now available in Germany, Italy, Korea, Netherlands and Spain.

  • “Call Me Maybe” Tops 100 Million Views Mark On Youtube

    A couple of weeks ago I did a post about the song by Carly Rae Jespen called “Call Me Maybe.” The pure mount of parody videos that it has spawned is amazing in itself. But when I posted the video on June 8th it had 98 million views. Now It is part of the exclusive 100 million view videos and is currently sitting at 120 million. Justin Beiber can’t even touch this video this summer. His huge smash hit “Boyfriend” only has 98 million hits.

    The song is so freaking catchy its no wonder it has that many views on Youtube. It also offer something that a lot of music videos don’t these days… a story. She still has a very long way to go because the top 5 of all time have at least 500 million views on Youtube. Justin Beiber’s Baby video is the number one video of all time and the first video to reach half a billion views.

    She might have a chance of cracking Youtube’s top 30 all time list. The number 30 spot is currently being held by Pitbull’s “I Know You Want Me (Calle Ocho)” which has 208 million views. Just a stones throw away for the catchiest song since the Macarena.

  • YouTube Introduces Video Boards On Pinterest

    Pinterest has been rolling out some cool new stuff lately, and one of them includes video pins. YouTube says they are eager to join in on the action, so they’ve created pinboards dedicated to specific interests–such as “The Beauty Corner” and “Nom Nom Nom”, which cover beauty tips and delicious recipes and tutorials, respectively–that hold videos rather than photographs.

    Since Pinterest’s launch in 2010, they’ve battled copyright issues from photographers and from image giant Getty Images, and are currently embroiled in some drama over how they’re skirting around the laws regarding image rights; however, they recently rolled out an “attribution” link for any shareable image or video, meaning everything shared on their site has the source image linked to it. Pinterest announced last month that they would be unveiling the resource for Flickr, YouTube, Vimeo, and Behance.

    After partnering with Pinterest, YouTube has released several pinboards with content created by a “Pinterest dream team” and are encouraging fans to share them on Pinterest. Take a look at some examples.

    “The Beauty Counter”

    “Nom Nom Nom”

    “Make It Yourself”

  • Is Japan Making YouTube Illegal For Japanese Citizens?

    So the Japanese government did something a little sneaky while its public was distracted by the arrest of a cult member who wanted to gas Tokyo’s subway system; something that could impact all Japanese citizens, even if they aren’t in Japan when they potentially violate certain copyright law revisions.

    As pointed out by Japanese attorney Toshimitsu Dan, the revisions introduced by the Japanese government focus directly on the ripping, sharing, and downloading of copyrighted content. As Dan explains, Japanese citizens will be effected in the following ways:

    1. Ripping and copying of copy-protected and encoded materials like DVDs and games is no longer considered “for personal use” and is punishable.

    2. The sale of software and hardware that circumvents copy protection and access protections is forbidden.

    3. The intentional download of illegally uploaded materials is now punishable.

    But how does this effect YouTube, you ask? Pay attention to the third revision Dan discussed and consider how you watch YouTube videos. When you click play, the content is downloaded to your computer, and even though it’s on a temporary basis, it will fit the definition of copyright violation, as defined by the Japanese government. Not only that, but as Dan points out, the wording of these revisions makes them so that they apply to all Japanese citizens, even those who aren’t actually living in Japan, or as The Escapist puts it:

    …when the law comes into force in October, it will be illegal for Japanese citizens to watch protected material via YouTube – even if they happen to be doing it in Los Angeles.

    Not only that, but punishment for violating these soon-to-be enacted revisions includes a hefty fine ($25,000) and potential prison time of up to two years. The Escapist also points out a lack of social awareness from some Japanese citizens concerning such laws, and the only ones who on top of these proceedings belong to a frowned-upon subculture called otaku.

    In other words, don’t expect a mass uprising of protest against these copyright law revisions, and, come October, if you’re a Japanese citizen, you’ll need to be very careful with how you use YouTube.

    [Lead image courtesy]

  • Where The Hell Is Matt? Well, He’s Back And Still Dancing

    Matt Harding, a self-described “35-year-old deadbeat from Connecticut,” made quite the impact on the viral culture with his series of YouTube videos entitled “Where the Hell is Matt?”

    In 2003, he traveled around the world, danced with the locals, and compiled that footage into a popular YouTube video. A few years later, he did it again (with the help of a sponsorship from Stride gum), and the second video entitled “Where the Hell is Matt 2008” catapulted him into internet superstardom. That video has received nearly 43 million views.

    In short, it’s hard to have lived in the recent viral culture and not be familiar with Matt Harding.

    His previous videos are so endearing partly because of his particularly goofy dance moves. He explains how that became part of the videos on his site:

    A few months into his trip, a travel buddy gave Matt an idea. They were standing around taking pictures in Hanoi, and his friend said “Hey, why don’t you stand over there and do that dance. I’ll record it.” He was referring to a particular dance Matt does. It’s actually the only dance Matt does. He does it badly. Anyway, this turned out to be a very good idea.

    But now, he’s back with an entirely different approach. Gone are awkward moves, having been replaced by a variety of new dances, all conforming with those of the locals.

    Check out Where the Hell is Matt: the 2012 edition below:

  • 10 Google I/O Videos You Should Watch Ahead Of The Event

    Google I/O goes down next week, and developers will get their hands on a plethora of juicy new Google-related sessions, news and APIs (possibly even some Jelly Bean action). We’re still hoping for some interesting news around Project Glass.

    Either way, there is sure to be plenty for developers to sink their teeth into, so you might as well get started with some education ahead of time.

    Google has been uploading a bunch of “Google I/O 101” videos to its developer YouTube channel. Here are some you should watch before attending the event:

  • Kenny Chesney’s Gonna Deliver a YouTube Serenade Tonight

    The country music megastar with the allergy to shirt sleeves, Kenny Chesney, is bringing his boot-scootin’ beach bum road show to a lucky 20,000 fans in Wildwood Beach, New Jersey, tonight but if you weren’t able to score a free ticket – yep, tickets were free to this one – fret not. Thanks to YouTube and VEVO, you can tune in online this evening to watch the whole 75-minute show live at home without the perpetual risk of someone spilling beer on you (unless you decide to pour beer on yourself whilst sitting at home on your sofa).

    As part of the American Expressed Unstaged series, Chesney’s performance will be melting hearts and faces with songs from his newly released album, “Welcome to the Fish Bowl.” Defying what is a largely accepted practice in rock ‘n roll of never starting on time, the show starts promptly at 8:30PM EST / 5:30PM PST over at http://www.youtube.com/KennyChesneyVEVO. In the meantime, blow your lid off with the promo below:

    It’s of note that Chesney’s live-streamed performance will be directed by Jonathan Demme, who won an Academy Award for Best Director on his work with Silence of the Lambs. Yes, THAT Silence of the Lambs. Given that was one of the most psychologically unnerving films ever, you might unwittingly be tuning in to a Hannibal Lector joint.

    Watch out.

  • Google’s Going After YouTube-To-MP3 Site

    It’s actually surprising this thing has lasted as long as it has, but now that Google’s turned its attention towards the YouTube-MP3.com conversion site, it’s doubtful the service will be in existence much longer, at least under its current guise. The site does exactly what it says it does. That is, it rips the audiotrack from a YouTube video and converts it to the MP3 format, which can then be downloaded by the user who prompted the conversion.

    As pointed out by TorrentFreak, Google has apparently dropped a lawsuit threat on the site’s owners, which, from their perspective, is completely understandable. Considering all the intellectual property/copyright issues Google has faced with YouTube, the idea of them going after a site that makes a form copyright infringement, one that makes use of YouTube’s content, only makes sense. It’s actually more surprising that it took this long for Google to act.

    A quick WhoIs search reveals the service in question–YouTube-MP3.org–has been registered since September 2009, meaning it took Google almost three full years to respond. In the meantime, the service has converted untold amounts of YouTube content into downloadable MP3s. Even better, the site uses the YouTube API to rip the soundtrack out of the video “submitted” by the user. As far as the “untold amounts” go, the TorrentFreak article also reveals the service gets around 1.3 million viewers a day, which is an incredible amount of potential infringement, courtesy of YouTube’s content.

    To their credit, and my surprise, the site owners aren’t just turning tail and running away. Instead, they are trying to negotiate with Google, intimating that their service serves a lot users. The site owner, who goes by “Philip,” had this to say to TF’s author:

    “We would estimate that there are roughly 200 million people across the world that make use of services like ours and Google doesn’t just ignore all those people, they are about to criminalize them. With the way they are interpreting and creating their ToS every one of those 200 million users is threatened to be sued by Google.”

    Seeing how Google is going directly after the site owner, I’m not sure his “200 million users” reasoning is accurate. Google doesn’t seem to care about those that use the service. They just want the site itself to stop ripping audiotracks out of YouTube files, which, considering Google’s position, is reasonable enough.

    To that point, the article also reveals the YouTube-MP3.org (pretty slick move going with the .org TLD) has been blocked by Google from accessing YouTube and its content; although, their efforts don’t appear to working that well. Before posting this article, I tested the service to see if it still works. The answer, as the upcoming screenshot indicates, is a resounding yes:

    YouTube MP3

    So much for blocking the service from YouTube’s content. Maybe this, like other Google updates, is undergoing a gradual rollout.