Tag: YouTube

YouTube Gets New Content, TV/Film Leaders, Snags Netflix Acquisitions VP

YouTube announced a couple of new additions to its team. Neither are Feross Aboukhadijeh, the creator of YouTube Instant, who was recently offered a job by the company.

He told us the other day, "I haven’t actually accepted the YouTube offer yet. We’re still figuring out how this is all going to work out, and nothing’s final yet. However, [CEO] Chad [Hurley] and the engineers I spoke with were excited about the possibilities."

The new additions are a bit higher up in the chain of command than Aboukhadijeh would be, I suspect. One is a new Global Head of Content, and the other is a new Global Head of TV and Film Entertainment. YouTube co-head Salar Kamangar introduces them:

Dean Gilbert is joining us as YouTube’s new Global Head of Content and will oversee our global content team as we work to expand our existing relationships and forge new ones. A veteran of the cable industry, Dean’s leadership roles have included serving as Executive Vice President and General Manager of @ Home Network. Over the last four years, Dean has provided leadership at Google across across a wide range of media products, including Google TV, YouTube and Google TV Ads.

Robert Kyncl is joining us as our new Global Head of TV and Film Entertainment. Robert comes to YouTube from Netflix, where he was Vice President of Content Acquisitions, spearheading the company’s content acquisition strategy for streaming TV shows and movies over the Internet. He was also instrumental in transitioning Netflix’s business from DVD-by-mail to streaming. In his new role, Robert will build our content partner presence in Hollywood, overseeing our content partnerships across the studios, broadcasters, cable networks, talent agencies and new media companies. Chris Maxcy will continue his executive leadership role as Global Head of Music and Games, focusing on our global music business.

The Kyncl hiring is particularly interesting, raising questions about what this means for Netflix, who has been pretty impressive in its competition in the movie rental industry thus far. Competition in that space is heating up, and it will be interesting to see how the company’s strategy holds up with this change.

September 17, 2010
YouTube Instant Creator Worked on Secret Facebook Project

YouTube Instant creator Feross Aboukhadijeh tells WebProNews he can’t talk about his work at Facebook, because it’s related to a project that is "still secret".

YouTube Instant has seen 715,000 visitors in six days. We talked a bit the other day about the "viral whirlwind" that the site created. We exchanged some words with Aboukhadijeh, and he doesn’t really know how it happened. But boy, did it happen.

Aboukhadijeh, a student at Stanford University and an intern at Facebook was almost immediately offered a job by YouTube CEO Chad Hurley over Twitter. This led to Aboukhadijeh going to YouTube HQ to talk to Hurley.

Based on comments made on his blog and on Twitter, it looked like he basically had the job. " I look forward to supporting and improving YouTube Instant in the future," he wrote. "I hope to see it become a core part of the YouTube.com experience!"

He also tweeted, "@Chad_Hurley I had fun at YouTube HQ today. Looking forward to seeing what we can do with YouTube Instant!"

Aboukhadijeh told WebProNews, however, "I haven’t actually accepted the YouTube offer yet. We’re still figuring out how this is all going to work out, and nothing’s final yet. However, Chad and the engineers I spoke with were excited about the possibilities."

Even still, as he watches the pageviews roll in, the buzz that YouTube Instant has generated still seems to be a bit of a mystery to him. "Not sure how it blew up so quickly. All I did was update my Facebook status. And it spread from there. Pretty crazy, huh?"

If the story portrayed in the book "The Accidental Billionaires" (the basis for the upcoming film, The Social Network) is accurate, Facebook itself grew in a similar fashion as Mark Zuckerberg sent a few friends his project. YouTube Instant isn’t likely to blow up to the level of Facebook, but it could get pretty big if it does indeed become integrated with YouTube itself.

"I think after things cool down a bit, I should carefully consider how exactly YouTube Instant went viral and write up a blog post to share my thoughts about it all," Aboukhadijeh tells us.

"People really seem to be enjoying the site and it’s a huge hit," he says.

We’ll be looking forward to that post, and to see what direction his career takes as a result of the whole thing. It’s just an interesting story.

He’s been working with one of Google’s competitors, but that is about to end. Google might be interested in that, as well. "I work at Facebook right now. I’m a software engineer intern. My internship ends at the end of the week since classes at Stanford resume. I can’t talk about the project I worked on at Facebook – it’s still secret."

September 16, 2010
Will YouTube Instant Become a Core Part of YouTube.com?

Update: We were finally able to get in touch with Feross, who tells WebProNews, "I haven’t actually accepted the YouTube offer yet. We’re still figuring out how this is all going to work out, and nothing’s final yet. However, Chad and the engineers I spoke with were excited about the possibilities."

Original Article: Feross Aboukhadijeh has quickly become something of an Internet celebrity thanks to his creation of YouTube Instant, which took him only several hours to create. Some don’t think it’s that big a deal, but clearly Google and YouTube do.

Aboukhadijeh, a Facebook intern, was offered a job by YouTube CEO Chad Hurley the other day, and yesterday went to YouTube headquarters, where he apparently accepted the job. On his blog, Aboukhadijeh writes, " I look forward to supporting and improving YouTube Instant in the future. I hope to see it become a core part of the YouTube.com experience!"

I haven’t seen where he’s come out and said he is now a YouTube employee exactly, and I have been unable to get a response from him, but his words seem to indicate as much (along with the photo of him and Hurley also posted on the blog).

@Chad_Hurley I had fun at YouTube HQ today. Looking forward to seeing what we can do with YouTube Instant! 🙂Tue Sep 14 07:23:18 via webFeross Aboukhadijeh
FreeTheFeross

Aboukhadijeh says that YouTube Instant received 430,000 visitors in four days.

I think the interesting part of the story is less about YouTube Instant itself, and more about the viral whirlwind it’s created, as discussed in another article. That and the fact that it netted him a job offer from YouTube’s CEO right away (publicly, through Twitter no less). The whole thing is simply a reflection of the fast-paced and viral nature of the web today – a testament to how far the web has come in the last several years.

@Chad_Hurley I had fun at YouTube HQ today. Looking forward to seeing what we can do with YouTube Instant! 🙂Tue Sep 14 07:23:18 via webFeross Aboukhadijeh
FreeTheFeross

Now, it will be interesting to see just what YouTube does with YouTube Instant.

Meanwhile, other developers are following Aboukhadijeh’s lead by creating other Instant spin-offs like Google Maps Instant and iTunes Instant.

September 14, 2010
The Viral Whirlwind of YouTube Instant

YouTube Instant, a site created by Facebook Intern Feross Aboukhadijeh caught the attention of YouTube CEO Chad Hurley, as we reported the other day. Hurley even offered Aboukhadijeh a job over Twitter.

What’s really amazing, however, is how much attention Aboukhadijeh has generated about YouTube Instant. This is today’s viral Internet in action, in a display you just couldn’t have seen in the pre-Twitter era. Last night, Feross tweeted that YouTube Instant had received 270,000 visitors in 3 days.

It’s been the subject of somewhere in the ballpark of 375 tweets just in the past three hours leading up to this writing, and it’s received this kind of Twitter love consistently since it launched.

None of this is to say that Twitter is the only reason YouTube Instant has become a viral hit, though there’s no doubt Twitter has played a crucial role. YouTube Instant made Google Trends over the weekend, and its received a fair amount of media coverage. Aboukhadijeh has a list of publications who have covered YouTube Instant, which includes WebProNews, TechCrunch, Mashable, ReadWriteWeb, Fast Company, Engadget, and even big mainstream publications like the New York Times and Washington Post.

It’s interesting to see the nature of the viral web in action and how social media and blogs/news publications feed each other. Enough tweets, and it must be storyworthy. Enough stories written about it, and it must be tweetworthy.

It’s funny to think that the whole thing started from a bet between roommates and 3 hours of work. "It started out as a bet with my roommate, Jake Becker. I bet him I could build real-time YouTube search in less than an hour," says Aboukhadijeh on his blog. "Sadly, I lost the bet – It took me 3 hours to finish it, and another couple hours to polish the user interface into what you see now at YTInstant.com. But, I’m happy with the result."

Clearly a lot of other people are happy with it too.

"Needless to say, YouTube Instant has gone viral," says Aboukhadijeh. "Without pausing to worry about what caused this magical event to transpire, I set about upgrading my under-powered server to a much beefier configuration capable of handling the Slashdot effect. For most of Friday morning, my server was visibly struggling to serve the flood of web traffic."

As for YouTube Instant itself, he says he’s working to make it more full featured. It’s unclear whether or not he’ll actually be working for Google (we’re waiting for a response about that), but he’s no doubt doing plenty to drive YouTube views.

September 13, 2010
YouTube Tests New Live Streaming Platform

On Sunday, YouTube began a two-day trial of its new live streaming platform, which continues today. The company has partnered with Howcast, Next New Networks, Rocketboom and Young Hollywood on the project.

The platform integrates live streaming with YouTUb channels. It also includes a "live comments" module. "All broadcasters need is a webcam or external USB/FireWire camera," the company says.

"Bear with us as we test this new platform as there may be some bumps along the way," says YouTube.

YouTube says that based on the results of this trial, it will evaluate rolling out the platform more broadly to YouTube partners.

September 13, 2010
“YouTube Instant” Creator May Soon Be Working for Google

Update: Peter Kafka at All Things Digital reports that Feross is already working as an intern at Facebook. That’s interesting, considering the growing competition between these two companies.

Original Article: Google Instant created a lot of buzz this past week, both negative and positive. It also created some inspiration. Feross Aboutkhadijeh, a computer science student at Stanford, created his own little "YouTube Instant", and attracted a lot of attention because of it.

He just so happened to catch Google’s attention, and YouTube CEO Chad Hurley has offered him a job via Twitter (hat tip to Ben Parr at Mashable).

Hurley tweeted, "Hey @FreeTheFeross! Loving YouTube Instant…want a job? ;)"

Feross responded, "Hey @Chad_Hurley. Glad you liked YouTube Instant! Is that a for-real job offer ;)"

Despite all the winking, it looks like it may have been a real offer. Hurley then responded, "@FreeTheFeross Are you read to leave school? 🙂 I’ll send you a DM.

It will be interesting to see what materializes from this. Google could no doubt implement Google Instant functionality in YouTube search results without much problem, but YouTube Instant (at least the current incarnation actually plays videos instantly based on what you type.

Michael Hart, another developer, has created "Google Maps Instant" and is not shy about letting Google know he wants a job too (hat tip to Alexia Tsotsis on that one).

September 12, 2010
Schmidt Says YouTube “Nearing Profitability”

If Eric Schmidt’s to be believed, YouTube might become profitable any time now; the CEO had only positive things to say about the site at a conference today. However, his admission that it’s still operating in the red may come as a major disappointment to many supporters.

The problem is that we’ve heard optimistic talk before. An abbreviated history: in July 2009, Google’s CFO indicated profitability wasn’t far off for YouTube. This March, a director of video partnerships agreed. Then Schmidt himself echoed the sentiment in May, and Nikesh Arora used the words "imminent profitability" in July.

So lots of folks could have reasonably expected that YouTube would be carrying its own weight at this point.

Anyway, Schmidt’s latest message, according to Mimosa Spencer, was that the site is "nearing profitability and its revenue is doing quite well. It looks like it’s going to be very successful."

And of course, in fairness to Google, YouTube’s become a household name worldwide, and the search giant’s not exactly running out of money (its market cap is in the neighborhood of $152 billion right now).

As always, we’ll see what happens.

September 9, 2010
Argentina Becomes 25th Country to Get YouTube

Google has launched YouTube in Argentina, making it the 25th country to have its own version of the site.

"This means that Argentines will be able to more easily discover local talent like GuadalajaraMan, UESiglo21, farolatino, casiangeles or yoteloexplico, as well as view the most popular and most viewed videos in their country," says YouTube.

"We’re also teaming up with local broadcasters to ensure that YouTube viewers, wherever you may be, can watch some of the best news, sports and public television videos being made in Argentina today," the company says. "Such partners include Encuentro, America TV, Boca Juniors and TV Pública."

Of course Argentine content providers can apply to become YouTube partners here.

You can check out the Argentina version of YouTube by going to the bottom of YouTube and clicking the "location" tab, and selecting the country.

September 9, 2010
YouTube Launches Travel Channel With Norwegian Cruise Line

Norwegian Cruise Line said today it is working with YouTube to launch “YouTube Vacationer,” a travel specific channel.

YouTube Vacationer features travel advice and ideas from Lonely Planet, National Geographic and the Travel Channel.

"From a marketing perspective, this opportunity is compelling because it provides a truly organic user experience and represents another great way for brands to work with YouTube,” said Maria Miller, Norwegian Cruise Line’s senior vice president of marketing.

The YouTube Vacationer channel allows users to create their own “Vacation You” video focused on their ideal cruising vacations. Users can share their Vacation You video with friends and family via Facebook, Twitter or email.

"The YouTube Vacationer channel brings the best of our partners’ travel videos into a single destination to help users explore, plan and dream about their next vacations, and it gives users a way to see themselves in a customized vacation video with Norwegian’s ‘Vacation You’ application,” said Mark Day, Sales Development at YouTube.

September 8, 2010
AOL Renews Search Ad Deal With Google

AOL said today it has signed a five-year search advertising deal with Google renewing its partnership with the search company that dates back to 2002.

Under the terms of the deal Google will provide search services to AOL’s content network and properties, in exchange for a revenue-sharing arrangement between the two companies which will be expanded to include mobile search and YouTube.

“Today is another important step in the turnaround of AOL,” said Tim Armstrong, AOL’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.

“AOL users will be getting a better search and search ads experience from the best search company in the world – Google. After nearly a decade-long partnership in search, we’re looking forward to expanding our global relationship to mobile search and YouTube. All aspects of our partnership will be improved by this deal.”

Key highlights of the partnership include:

*As AOL renews its focus on mobile apps and content, the companies will work together to expand the alliance to cover mobile search.

*AOL and YouTube have agreed to a content partnership that will bring AOL’s video content to YouTube.

*The alliance is international in scope and will provide improved experiences to AOL’s worldwide audience.

September 2, 2010
YouTube Seals Its Biggest “Premium Sports” Deal Yet

Baseball fans in Japan and four other countries have reason to celebrate today. A record-breaking deal involving YouTube and Major League Baseball has been struck, and as a result, said fans will gain access to lots and lots of footage.

In an email to WebProNews, a YouTube representative provided some more details in the form of bullet points. One highlight is that "[f]ull-length, catch-up MLB games [will be] available in Japan 36 hours after they air." Historic game footage will be offered, too, along with profiles of Japanese players.

That’s almost bound to go over well, since baseball is quite popular in Japan.

Furthermore, according to the representative, "Baseball fans in Australia, Brazil, New Zealand, and Russia [will get] access to the full range of MLB’s highlight clips and archives on YouTube," and both organizations hope this will increase local interest in the sport.

Anyway, regardless of what occurs next or how baseball’s perceived in any particular area, this arrangement is supposed to represent "the largest partnership for premium sports content in YouTube history," making it quite significant.

Other large, sports-related deals YouTube’s managed to complete involved cricket and wrestling of the not-quite-real variety.

August 30, 2010
YouTube Gives Advertisers New Video Exclusion Options

YouTube has announced new video and channel exclusions for advertisers, so they can pick specific videos and channel URLs that they don’t want their ads to appear with.

"Here’s an example: let’s say you run a vegan bakery," explains Baljeet Singh. "You want to strike a balance between good exposure for your baked goods online, while staying true to your company values in offering items free of animal or dairy-products. Now you can indicate which videos are not the best fit for your audience. Since your customers are probably not watching ‘Homewrecker Hot Dog’, you can provide this video exclusion under the "Networks" tab."

"Similarly, you might run a keyword-targeted campaign on bakery-related keywords, and exclude whole channels that you don’t feel suit your audience," adds Singh. "So if FoodNetworkTV has videos centered mostly around cooking meat dishes, you have the controls to prevent ads from showing on that channel."

YouTube also suggests using the feature to keep ads from appearing on videos they deem inappropriate for the audience or ones that aren’t performing in terms of click-through rate or conversions.

This is only the latest of some advertising features YouTube has been rolling out recently. Last week, the company announced a new feature that lets advertisers age-restrict videos.

August 30, 2010
YouTube to Get Newer Movies for $5 A Piece?

YouTube is reportedly in negotiations with Hollywood studios to expand its movie offering. The product of these negotiations may be much more significant than any of YouTube’s previous movie offerings.

Earlier this year, YouTube launched a movie service, but the deals it is hoping to get done now will be for movies that are just coming to DVD, which could put it in direct competition with Netflix, Blockbuster, Redbox, iTunes, Amazon, etc. Matthew Garrahan and Richard Waters report for the Financial Times:

Google has been pitching to the studios on the international appeal of a streaming, on-demand movie service pegged to the world’s most popular search engine and YouTube, according to several people with knowledge of the situation.

Google will use its search technology and YouTube to direct viewers to the new service, which is likely to launch first in the US, with other countries added over time, the people added.

According to the report, the titles would cost $5, and would be streamed, rather than downloaded.

Last week, YouTube announced that it added 400 new movies in the UK. These are free, but the quality of the selection has been questioned.

August 30, 2010
YouTube Offers Up 400 Movies In The UK

Depending on their tolerance for awful writing and acting, YouTube users in the UK should now be able to watch around 400 movies for free on the site. YouTube’s expanded its movies section due to deals with companies like Blinkbox, Lionsgate, MGM, and Sony.

Fair warning: the word "awful" was not some sort of typo. Home and Night of the Living Dead appear to be about the only quality films, while things like Bachelor Party in the Bungalow of the Damned, Clan of the Cave Bear, and Five Moments of Infidelity, along with a number of Bollywood titles, make up the rest of the selection.

Still, people who enjoy ridiculing movies should at least find themselves with lots of material thanks to this development, and teenage boys may be happy about the presence of nudity in some of the flicks.

Also, it’s possible that the crap the movie studios have made available today may lead to better offerings in the future.

Donagh O’Malley, YouTube’s head of video partnerships, tried to explain to Mark Sweney, "This is one of many efforts to ensure that people can find all the different kinds of video they want to see, from bedroom vlogs and citizen journalism reports to full-length films and TV shows. We hope film lovers enjoy the range of titles in this free library . . ."

Let’s cross our fingers another effort bears fruit in the near future, allowing the library to grow some more.

August 27, 2010
YouTube Learns Four More Languages

It seems quite safe to say that YouTube doesn’t like language barriers. This week, the site introduced support for the Croation, Filipino, Serbian, and Slovak languages, and also detailed some impressive progress it’s made over the past few years.

Let’s first take a look at the four new languages. According to some admittedly shaky Wikipedia data, 6 million people speak Croatian, 12 million people speak Serbian, and 7 million people speak Slovak. Then the entry related to the Filipino language indicates that 25 million people speak it as a first language and another 60 million speak it as a second.

Impressive, eh? Even ignoring that last number, YouTube just became more accessible to something like 50 million individuals.

Also, a post on the YouTube Blog noted, "This brings the grand total of languages we support to 28, a nearly 50% increase since the beginning of 2010. (And remember: by selecting automated captions on a video, you can experience that video in over 50 languages.)"

As for the future, the post later continued, "By the end of this year, our goal is to offer the YouTube experience in 40 languages, doubling the number we started with at the top of 2010."

Given that there are only four months remaining in the year, that works out to a new language about every ten days. Language barriers should fall left and right.

August 26, 2010
Man Spreads Homelessness Awareness on YouTube

Saturday was Invisible People.tv day at YouTube. InvisiblePeople.tv is a site/project that utilizes social media tools like YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace to spread awareness about the growing homelessness problem.

The channel was featured on YouTube’s home page over the weekend, and YouTube discussed it in a company blog post, speaking with Founder Mark Horvath.

"We’re always inspired by the people who use YouTube as a way to document how the other half lives, and Mark Horvath is a great example," writes YouTube Nonprofits & Activism Manager Ramya Raghavan. "As the founder of Invisible People. tv, a project that encourages homeless people across the United States to tell their stories on YouTube, he has sparked a discussion on the site about poverty and hunger. Mark’s videos are a raw and real depiction of what it’s like to live in a tent city, under an overpass, or within a cardboard box."

Hovrath has collected hundreds of interviews with homeless people around the world, and the InvisiblePeople.tv YouTube channel has many of them available to view.

The purpose, the channel says, is to make the invisible visible. "I hope these people and their stories connect with you and don’t let go," Horvath says. "I hope their conversations with me will start a conversation in your circle of friends."

The channel is the #44 most subscribed to nonprofit on YouTube.

August 23, 2010
YouTube Marks The Fifth Anniversary Of Hurricane Katrina

YouTube is inviting Gulf Coast residents to submit videos sharing their reflections on Hurricane Katrina to mark the fifth anniversary of the disaster.

“The YouTube Blog offers more details. In 9 days we will commemorate the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina with a collection of videos on the YouTube homepage created by New Orleans area residents.”

“In partnership with ABC 26 (WGNO), a local television station in New Orleans, we invite Gulf Coast region residents to reflect on the five years since Katrina and submit videos using YouTube Direct on ABC 26’s website. A selection of videos will also be featured on abc26.com, ABC 26’s YouTube channel, and broadcast on ABC 26.”

August 20, 2010
YouTube Charts Show Performance of Popular Videos

YouTube has launched YouTube Charts, a destination for users to see how popular videos are performing.

"What’s the latest in the all-time most viewed video smackdown between Bieber and Gaga? Is David After Dentist pwning Charlie Bit My Finger? Who grabbed more subscribers this month, ShayCarl or Annoying Orange?" writes YouTube Product Manager Matt Darby.

"These are the big questions on the lips of the YouTube community," he says. "To help answer them, we’re launching ‘YouTube Charts’ to give you a clear view of how your favorite videos and creators stack up against each other."

Users can sort the charts by time frame – today, this week, or all time. Look for more options in the future though.

YouTube intends to add more charts, and is seeking user feedback on what kinds of charts people would like to see. Examples Darby specifically mentions are "best newcomer" and "most shared video".

August 19, 2010
YouTube Creates Age Restriction Feature For Advertisers

To some degree, age restrictions are often thrown out the window. Lots of parents let their kids see R-rated movies, for example, and young teenagers are sometimes treated to parking lot driving lessons. But corporations that are in the public eye can’t cut corners, and YouTube addressed this issue today by introducing a new age-related feature for advertisers.

Alice Wu, Head of Ads Policy, explained on the YouTube Blog, "[W]e’re pleased to offer a new feature that allows select advertisers to voluntarily age-restrict watch pages for their videos. This is a long-requested feature by many advertisers interested in promoting their products, but who want to be sure that they comply with their own industry guidelines regulations."

Wu then noted (in case the option sounds familiar), "Advertisers have always been able to age-restrict their channels generally, but to date only users could flag specific videos that they thought should be age-restricted under our Community Guidelines. Now, advertisers can do so proactively, and can choose different ages depending on their needs."

This is a smart move on YouTube’s part since it’ll allow many more companies to feel comfortable working with the site. And the industries that will be affected have long been known to have big advertising budgets (think about the alcohol business, for example).

The move’s also smart because it could help impress parents who want to keep their children sheltered. Or at least limit the opportunity for the parents to complain.

Look for the feature to be taken advantage of more and more over the next few months as advertisers get in touch with their account representatives and prepare new material.

August 18, 2010
Viacom Not Done with YouTube Yet

In late June, Google announced that it had won its long legal battle with Viacom. The court decided that YouTube is protected by the safe harbor of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) against claims of copyright infringement.

"We’re extremely gratified by this decision and the now established judicial consensus that online services like YouTube are immune from liability when they work cooperatively with copyright holders to help them protect their rights online," said Google Vice President & General Counsel Kent Walker.

He went on to call it an important victory not just for Google, but for billions of people around the world who use the web to communicate and share experiences with each other. That victory isn’t quite sealed just yet though.

Viacom has filed for appeal. The company said from the beginning that it would do so, but now the filing is in and the battle wages on. Peter Kafka at MediaMemo has the document:

Viacom Notice of Appeal –

The battle between YouTube and Viacom has been going on for over three years. More on its history can be found here.

Other companies like Disney, NBC, and Warner Brothers have sided with Viacom in the past.

August 12, 2010
“Life In A Day” YouTube Project Receives 80K Videos

Anyone who was concerned that YouTube’s "Life in a Day" project would run short of footage can put that worry to rest. YouTube announced today that it received an almost incomprehensible number of submissions: 80,000 videos from 197 countries.

That’ll provide director Kevin Macdonald, whose job it is to piece together a documentary showing what the world was like on July 24th, plenty of material even if some people included copyrighted content or lots of foul language (the final product probably isn’t meant to be R-rated).

It’ll hardly matter if a few folks forgot to take off the lens cap or did something silly like point their camera at a goldfish bowl, either.

So it seems the Ridley Scott-backed "cinematic experiment" that was announced about a month ago is going quite well so far. As for the next steps, Macdonald and a number of assistants will presumably begin the mind-boggling task of sorting through the 80,000 videos.

YouTube promised in the same tweet it used to announce the submission stats that it will launch a video gallery in early September, too.

Then, although there should be some intermediary developments, the final "Life in a Day" documentary is still due to premiere at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival.

August 5, 2010