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Tag: YouTube

  • Ask BP Oil Spill Questions Via YouTube at 3:30 Eastern

    YouTube has partnered with PBS NewsHour on an interview with Bob Dudley, President and CEO of BP’s Gulf Coast Restoration Organization. This is a chance for people and organizations to ask questions related to the oil spill and get responses from BP.

    "If your organization is interested in being part of the discussion, we welcome questions from you and your members," says Kristie Mun with the Google Grants Team. "You can ask BP questions about accountability, the clean-up plan, recovery efforts in the Gulf region, environmental impact, the status of the relief well drilling, the role of the U.S. government, the future of offshore drilling and of BP as a company, or any other topic on your mind."

    YouTube - BP Interview

    You can submit questions via Google Moderator on the CitizenTube YouTube channel. The top questions will be asked in the interview.

    It starts at 3:30 Eastern, and portions will be showing tonight on PBS (and will be available on YouTube). PBS’ Ray Suarez will moderate.

  • “YouTube Ready” Captions Can Add to Your Search Strategy

    YouTube has begun rolling out a "YouTube Ready" designation for professional caption vendors in the U.S. This comes with both a logo and support from the Described and Captioned Media Program (DCMP).

    Those who have earned the "YouTube Ready" seal of approval have passed quality evaluation administered by the DCMP, have a site and YouTube channel, and have agreed to post rates for services offered for YouTube content, as to be of use to content providers looking for a caption provider.

    YouTube Ready logo "Captioning is becoming increasingly important to YouTube and videos all across the web," says YouTube caption evangelist Naomi Bilodeau. "Captions ensure that many more people can understand what’s happening in your video, from deaf and hard of hearing viewers to people who speak a different language from you and choose to auto-translate the captions into their language. Captions also make your video a lot more discoverable. People searching for content on YouTube might encounter your video if your captions contain the words or subjects they’re looking for." (Emphasis added)

    "You may be able to manage creating captions for your videos on your own, but sometimes you have too many videos or your video has elements that need special care," adds Bilodeau.

    The program is kicking off with 12 caption vendors, but YouTube hopes to have more in place in the future.

  • Chrome Stable Release Gets Built-in Flash Player

    Google has enabled Flash Player integration in the stable release of its Chrome browser.

    "In March, we announced that we would be bringing improved support for Adobe Flash Player to Google Chrome," says Product Manager Jeff Chang. "Along with driving the development of a next generation browser plug-in API, this integration will eliminate the need to install Flash Player separately and reduce the security risk of using outdated versions. In the near future, we will extend Chrome’s “sandbox” to web pages with Flash content to further protect users from malicious content."

    "We have been testing the integration in Google Chrome’s dev and beta channels over the last few months in order to ensure a quality experience for all our users," adds Chang. "Over the last week, we have enabled the integration by default in the stable channel of Chrome."

    Google launches Chrome Fastball

    On a somewhat related note, Google launched Chrome FastBall today. This is a YouTube-based game, which is described as a "race across the Internet". I’ll let you get the details about that here.

  • Google Continues Experimenting with Different Ad Strategies

    According to the Wall Street Journal, YouTube is looking to launch skippable ads in YouTube videos later in the year. Google reportedly talked about this in a press conference at its "Real-time Bidding, Banner Ads, Google’s Newest Big Business and Burgers" event.

    WSJ quotes senior product manager Baljeet Singh as saying, users would be able to skip pre-roll ads, that advertisers wouldn’t be charged for skipped ads, and that Google’s "been playing around with it for the last three quarters and seeing really great results." He reportedly said that this would encourage advertisers to invest in compelling ads.

    YouTube Advertising

    Meanwhile, Google is also testing more cost-per-action strategies. Pete Barlas with Investor’s Business Daily says the company has stepped up testing in this area over the last six months.

    He quotes a Google spokesperson as saying, "As we are currently in the process of collecting and analyzing data from this ongoing beta, we don’t have any metrics or much more to share on this topic at the moment."

    Meanwhile, Google has certainly been making plenty of refinements to its cash cow, AdWords. This week, Google launched new Goals options, and has recently added the " Analyze Competition " feature to the opportunities tab. They also launched a new click-to-call from Apps format, announced the Google Display Network, some changes to reporting, and the availability of sitelinks in all AdWords campaigns.

  • YouTube Users Have a New Selection of Music to License for Videos

    YouTube has announced its support of a site called FriendlyMusic from RumbleFish. The site lets YouTube users purchase a lifetime license to edit songs into their videos.

    A user can find pre-cleared music for YouTube on the site, then purchase an mp3, and use it in videos.

    In a post on the Official YouTube Blog, the company says:

    Since its launch, YouTube has pioneered ways for users to get professional music into their videos while respecting copyright — and generating revenue and promotion for artists, songwriters, and music companies. Through Content ID and a series of unprecedented deals with music labels and publishers, we’ve turned user-made music videos into a business opportunity as well as a form of expression. With Audioswap, we built a library of songs you can drop right into your existing YouTube uploads. And with countless artists, we’ve hosted DIY music-video contests and film festivals.

    To be clear, many of the FriendlyMusic tracks are still available for free in Audioswap. What’s new is that the FriendlyMusic store offers you up-front reassurance that specific songs are pre-cleared for your video — plus the ability to edit those songs in your own video editing tools, at the point of creation. This marks the first time a music company has offered YouTube users a direct license. We’re excited about it and we hope you are too.

    YouTube Partners with FriendlyMusic

    According to YouTube, once a user buys a cleared song from the site, it is licensed for unlimited views. Unfortunately the selection is quite limited. Hopefully that will change in the future.

  • Get More Out of Your YouTube Presence

    Get More Out of Your YouTube Presence

    About a month ago YouTube released its Partner Communication hub, described as the "go-to spot" for news on the latest features, updates, and events for partners. YouTube has been making tweaks to this site to make it more useful.

    Specifically, YouTube has revamped the Optimization Resources section and added some new documents aimed at getting partners to get more out of their YouTube presence. "Specifically, we have added resources which show you how to improve content discoverability, increase revenue potential and take full advantage of our Insight tool," says YouTube Partnerships Sr. Strategist Bengu Atamer.

    YouTube says it will be regularly updating the Optimization Resources section with more tips and insight. If you’re unfamiliar with the hub itself, YouTube says it’s a place to:

        * Connect with other partners in our Partner Help Forum
        * Connect to our Partner Help Center
        * Review YouTube’s current site issues
        * View the partner support team’s most recent YouTube video
        * Receive site updates and announcements
        * Keep up-to-date with YouTube blogs
        * Get optimization tips

    The Hub has a feed that you can add to your reader to stay up to date.

  • Millions Of Viewers Tune Into YouTube In May

    comScore recently released their monthly numbers in regards to online video usage and rankings for the month of May. Below are some highlights from the release:
    • Google Sites attracted 144.6 million unique viewers during the month (101.2 videos per viewer), followed by Yahoo! Sites with 46.0 million viewers (7.3 videos per viewer), and Vevo with 45.6 million viewers (9.4 videos per viewer).
    • The top video ad networks in terms of their actual reach delivered were: Joost Video Network (by Adconion Media Group) with 35.2 percent penetration of online video viewers, BrightRoll Video Network with 24.4 percent, and Tremor Media Video Network with 21.2 percent.
    • 84.8 percent of the total U.S. Internet audience viewed online video.
    • 144.1 million viewers watched 14.6 billion videos on YouTube.com (101.2 videos per viewer).
    • The average Hulu viewer watched 27.0 videos, totaling 2.7 hours of video per viewer.
    • The duration of the average online video was 4.3 minutes.

    Comments

  • YouTube Has Record Month In May

    YouTube Has Record Month In May

    During the month of May 183 million U.S. Internet users watched online video, according to the latest figures from comScore.

    YouTube saw record levels of viewing activity during the month with an all-time high of 14.6 billion videos viewed and surpassing 100 videos per viewer for the first time.

    U.S. Internet users watched nearly 34 billion videos in May, with Google sites leading the way with 14.6 billion videos, representing 43.1 percent of all videos viewed online. YouTube account for the majority of videos viewed at the property.

    Online-Video-May

    Hulu took the second spot with 1.2 billion videos, or 3.5 percent of all online videos viewed. Microsoft sites ranked third with 642 million (1.9%), followed by Vevo with 430 million (1.3%) and Viacom Digital with 347 million (1%).

    Google sites attracted 144.6 million unique viewers during the month (101.2 videos per viewer), followed by Yahoo sites with 46 million viewers (7.3 videos per viewer), and Vevo closely trailing with 45.6 million viewers (9.4 videos per viewer). Vevo moved up one spot in the May ranking to the third position.

    Top-Video-Properties

    In May, Tremor Media ranked as the top video ad network with a potential reach of 102.8 million viewers, or 56.2 percent of the total video viewing audience. ScanScout Network ranked second with a potential reach of 99.3 million viewers (54.3 percent penetration) followed by YuMe Video Network with 87.5 million viewers (47.8 percent).

    Other highlights from the comScore report include:

    *84.8 percent of the total U.S. Internet audience viewed online video.

    *The average Hulu viewer watched 27.0 videos, totaling 2.7 hours of video per viewer.

    *The duration of the average online video was 4.3 minutes.

     

     

     

  • YouTube Streams Twilight: Eclipse Premiere

    Update: MySpace is streaming it as well.

    Original Article: YouTube announced that it will be streaming the red carpet footage of the Twilight: Eclipse premiere this evening. It’s that big a deal.

    "The scene from Hollywood may look nothing like Forks, but all of your favorite vampires and werewolves will be there giving live interviews and greeting fans," says YouTube’s Thomas Henry. "Many of these Twilight faithful have been waiting for up to three days in order to catch a glimpse of their favorite pale-faced friends."

    The coverage starts at 5:30 p.m. PT tonight. Watch it here.

    If you can’t tune in live (and you still actually want to see it), you will still be able to watch the footage on the Twilight YouTube channel.

    Learn about some online marketing strategies they’ve been using for this film here.

  • YouTube Victorious in Battle with Viacom

    Google is reporting that it has won its long legal battle with Viacom. Google Vice President & General Counsel Kent Walker had the following to say on the YouTube blog:

    Kent Walker Talks Viacom victory Today, the court granted our motion for summary judgment in Viacom’s lawsuit with YouTube. This means that the court has decided that YouTube is protected by the safe harbor of the Digital Millenium 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.

    This is an important victory not just for us, but also for the billions of people around the world who use the web to communicate and share experiences with each other. We’re excited about this decision and look forward to renewing our focus on supporting the incredible variety of ideas and expression that millions of people post and watch on YouTube every day around the world.

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

    Google was kind enough to provide a link to the U.S. District Court document outlining Google’s victory in legalese.

  • YouTube to Reward Partners Who Put Ratings on Content

    YouTube announced to is U.S. partners today that it has recently rolled out its content rating system to all U.S. partner-uploaded content, and giving away a prize to the first ten  partners that add ratings to all of their content by the end of July.

    "Now, when you upload a video that does not have a specified content rating (i.e. MPAA or TV rating), we ask that the partner rate content in these five categories: Language, Nudity, Sexual Situations, Violence and Drug Use. Our content rating system allows you to assign ratings to your YouTube videos either during the upload process or afterwards," says YouTube’s Mahin Ibrahim. "The ratings are reversible, meaning that you can change or remove them at any time if you feel they no longer accurately describe your content."

    YouTube says it is doing this because giving advertisers more options means potentially more monetized content for partners. "The vision here is that we’ll be able to offer advertisers better ways to match their ads to content based on your self-assigned ratings; accurate ratings that allow for a better content-advertising match can lead to partners like yourself making more money in the end," says Ibrahim.

    The prize is a YouTube t-shirt and cap. To win it partners are asked to add accurate content ratings to new videos and go back to all of their old videos to add appropriate content ratings to them as well.

  • YouTube Kicks Off Dance Contest with Help from Step Up 3-D Director

    YouTube Kicks Off Dance Contest with Help from Step Up 3-D Director

    YouTube has teamed up with Dr. Pepper Cherry and Jon M. Chu, Director of Step Up 2: The Streets and the upcoming Step Up 3-D, on a YouTube dance contest called, "YouTube Dance Contest: Dance Studio".

    In this contest, YouTube users are asked to submit videos of themselves dancing for a chance to win a trip to LA and spend a day with Chu at a "jam session", as well as an opportunity to dance in an Ultra Records music video.

    YouTube HowTo & Style Manager Sadia Harper explains, "Here’s the deal: pick the style of dance that suits you — hip-hop, jazz-funk or b-boys & b-girls. Prove you know how to dance by replicating the choreography in the video; then show off your personality in the freestyle section."

    If you don’t like dancing, at least you can laugh at all of the submissions that are bound to pour in.

  • Watch: YouTube Users Capture Lakers Fan Riot Footage

    YouTube’s CitizenTube, the citizen reporting site that will power YouTube’s news feed, has posted some videos of riot footage from after the Lakers won the NBA championship. 

    Footage includes fire and explosions. Insanity:

    Imagine if the Lakers had lost. Plenty more coverage can be found here.

  • YouTube Local News “News” Just Part of YouTube Direct?

    SF Weekly ran a story yesterday evening about YouTube having a "top secret news experiment" involving citizen journalism and "going local in San Francisco". Peter Kafka at All Things Digital played down the news, saying he was told by "a person familiar with the sites’ plans, "YouTube is working with a San Francisco TV station to launch a  new iteration of its YouTube Direct platform." YouTube Direct has been around since November.

    Key features of YouTube Direct include:

    – Built on the YouTube API, this 100% open-source solution provides you with an easily-integrated audience engagement platform for your website

    – The customizable interface allows you to tailor the look and feel of the tool precisely to your audience

    – Visitors can answer your call for content by uploading their videos to YouTube via your site without leaving the page

    – Users can also upload photos, in addition to video

    – A moderation panel enables your editors to review and approve/reject all submitted videos and photos, deciding which ones meet your organization’s editorial criteria

    – All videos approved by your editors include a link back to your site when viewed on YouTube

    An official announcement about San Francisco is expected next week. Read here for earlier coverage of YouTube Direct 2.0, announced in April, with partners like ABC News, Gannett, the Huffington Post, NPR, and the Washington Post.

  • YouTube Talks New Video Editing Tool

    After early reports of a new YouTube video editor, the company officially announced it and talked about how it works.

    The tool allows the average person to edit videos in the cloud. No software installation is necessary.

    Users can combine multiple videos they’ve uploaded to YouTube, to create longer pieces. They can trim the beginning/end, add soundtracks from YouTUbe’s AudeioSwap library (which includes tens of thousands of songs), and create new videos without worrying about file formats (to be published to YouTube without having to upload).

    "The editor is ideal for merging single, short clips into a longer video," YouTube says

    in a blog post. "For example, you can transform clips from your vacation into a video travel diary set to music, or create a highlights reel from footage of your last basketball game."

    "It’s also great for trimming a long video down to the moments you really care about. Say you’ve uploaded a wedding ceremony — beautiful event, but do you really need to see all the guests shuffle in? The video editor lets you easily remove unwanted footage so you can capture just the moment when they say ‘I do.’"

    Some examples of how people have used the editor can be found here. YouTube says it will be adding more features to it in the future.

  • As YouTube Offers More “Credible” Content, Perception Still Lacks

    YouTube has a lot of influence on people’s daily lives. It is often touted as the world’s 2nd largest search engine, and is by far the top online video destination.

    Ipsos released some new research, seeking to understand how consumers engage with media brands, with a specific focus on popular online video and TV brands. YouTube was found to be the most engaging online video brand, as Google is happy to point out.

    However, YouTube is (unsurprisingly) scored much higher in the entertainment department than the credibility department:

    YouTube Credibility Measured

    Interestingly enough another study was released this week, looking at credibility of content in different online environments. This research from the Online Publishers Association found that consumers are more likely to trust content on media sites than on portal channels and social media. There appear to be some parallels here.

    YouTube has been doing plenty to raise its credibility as a destination for professional and important content. Three very recent examples come immediately to mind. This week, YouTube announced that it is a testing news feed feature, which aims to bring breaking news via YouTube into one stream. White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs answered user-submitted questions on YouTube following a speech from President Obama, and YouTube partnered with the Guggenheim on an interesting contest. There are plenty more examples.

    Still, it appears many users still consider YouTube just a place to find sill cat videos, and other entertaining, but not necessarily important content. A number of our Facebook fans who took the time to comment, said they wouldn’t use YouTube’s news feed as a news source.

    Regardless of credibility status, more people are watching and sharing online video, and YouTube is the biggest contributor to this. The credible content is on there. It’s just a matter of finding it, and users acknowledging it.

  • White House Press Secretary To Take Questions On YouTube

    Everyone who intends to watch President Obama speak about the Gulf oil spill on TV tonight may also want to be near a computer monitor 15 minutes later.  White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs has said he’ll answer user-submitted questions on YouTube in front of what has the potential to be a more global audience.

    Individuals with YouTube or Google accounts can submit questions on the White House’s YouTube channel using Google Moderator.  The same tech then makes it possible for people to vote questions up and down, which is important since Gibbs presumably won’t have time to address every issue.

    Gibbs did promise in a short video that you can watch for yourself below, though, "I’m going to take questions directly from you right after the president is done speaking to the nation and addressing the Gulf oil spill at 8 PM Eastern Time."

    This is a decent way for the administration to show it’s trying to take everyone’s views and suggestions into account as we move towards day 60 of the crisis.  The step also represents a strong endorsement of YouTube, even if Press Secretary Gibbs isn’t quite President Obama and the circumstances could be better.

    So far, Google Moderator has tallied 29,576 votes on 1,349 questions, perhaps signaling that lots of regular people approve of YouTube, Google Moderator, and this overall approach, as well.

  • YouTube Begins Testing News Feed Feature

    YouTube Begins Testing News Feed Feature

    YouTube announced today that it is testing a new feature called the YouTube News Feed, which it is working on with the University of California at Berkley’s Graduate School of Journalism. The feature would track news as it breaks on YouTube.

    "Whether it’s an altercation between a Congressman and a student in Washington, D.C., violent attacks against ethnic minorities in Kyrgyzstan, or oil washing up on a beach in the Gulf Coast, videos uploaded to YouTube by both amateur reporters and professional journalists move through the media ecosystem with a sophistication and speed greater than ever before," says YouTube Head of News & Politics Steve Grove. "But with 24 hours of video uploaded to YouTube every minute, how can people more easily find the latest breaking news videos on our site? And how can media organizations better leverage this content to expand the scope of their reporting and keep us all better informed?"

    YouTube says the news feed will provide a stream of breaking news videos on YouTube, with a focus on strong visuals, non-traditional sources, and the latest uploads.

    The feed will reside on CitizenTube, YouTube’s news/politics video blog. Updates will also be posted to the CitizenTube Twitter account.

    Citizen Tube

    YouTube is not necessarily a news source first and foremost. If it were, the top videos of all time would probably reflect that. However, YouTube is becoming an increasingly important piece of the news pie, for multiple reasons. For one, more people have video cameras in their pockets at all times (their phones) and are able to break news as it happens. Secondly, YouTube is the second largest search engine, behind Google, and people search for visuals to go with news items.

    The news feed makes perfect sense as a YouTube feature, and it would not be surprising to see the feature make the leap from CitizenTube to YouTube itself sometime in the future after proper testing.

    While YouTube says it’s focused more on non-traditional sources, one can envision such a feature being a go-to place for news from a variety of sources, much like Google News to articles.

    We’ve reached out to YouTube for more details. We’ll update when we find out more.

    Update:  Aaron Zamost from YouTube’s news division tells me, "Honestly, there’s not much more we can say beyond what we’ve written in the post, since, as you noted, this is a test. But we’re very excited to see where this takes us over the summer."

    We’ll be interested to see what happens with it as well.

    Would you use a YouTube news feed as a news source? Let us know.

  • YouTube, Guggenheim Partner To Seek Creative Vids

    YouTube, HP, and the foundation behind some of the most famous museums in the world have teamed up to discover creative online videos.  Winners of the YouTube Play: A Biennial of Creative Video competition will then get to see their videos presented at the Guggenheim Museum in New York, along with the Guggenheim museums in Berlin, Bilbao, and Venice.

    As you might imagine given that tie-in, the contest is shaping up to be quite special.  A post on the Official YouTube Blog stated this morning, "We’re looking for animation, motion graphics, narrative, non-narrative, or documentary work, music videos and entirely new art forms – creations that really challenge the world’s perceptions of what’s possible with video."

    The post then continued, "We want to elevate the debate.  This presentation, we hope, will garner some of the finest creative work from every corner of the globe . . ."

    As for who will decide which works of art are best, the Guggenheim will be responsible for picking 200 videos, and an international jury of yet-to-be-named artists, filmmakers, musicians, and designers will complete the selection process, picking as many as 20 videos for the showcase.

    Two more important details if you’re interested in either participating or following along: the deadline for submission is July 31st, and the final presentations will occur on October 21st.

     

  • YouTube Autoshare Feature Introduced For Orkut

    Even if the average American doesn’t think about Orkut on a regular basis (or ever), Google demonstrated today that it hasn’t forgotten about the social network.  The option to automatically share YouTube activities with people on Orkut was introduced this morning.

    A lot of folks in India and Brazil are likely to welcome this move, considering that Orkut is most popular in those two countries.  And since India and Brazil are the second- and fifth-most populous countries in the world, respectively, that fact’s nothing to shrug at.

    It is interesting to consider what this means for Orkut in other regions, though.  After all, Google introduced a sharing feature involving Facebook, Twitter, and Google Reader a year ago tomorrow, and it’s hard to believe that some sort of engineering challenge delayed the Orkut rollout.

    It’s possible, then, that Google’s getting ready to carry out a push to make Orkut more accepted.  Or maybe an engineer just finally remembered he forgot something the first time around.

    Anyway, with regards to the new sharing feature, a post on the Orkut Blog stated, "Auto-share is an easy way to tell your friends in real-time about the videos you’re liking, saving as favorites or commenting on; the channels you’re subscribing to; or even new videos you’re uploading to your own channel."

  • Demand Media Adds New “Talent & Expert Network” to Content Mix

    Demand Media announced the beta launch of a new "Talent & Expert Network". This network resides within its current content creation platform (Demand Studios), and will include what the company calls "authentic and entertaining personalities." Content from this network will be integrated into articles and videos, and will be expanded to new episodic programming and branded entertainment content across hundreds of categories.

    For example, former Travel Channel Host Rolf Potts has been working with Demand Media on a video series "Two-Minute Travel Tips" for USA Today’s new Travel Tips website (a partnership Demand Media announced a couple months ago). They’re also working on two other projects together, which will appear on various Demand Media properties.

    "In the last 25 years an entirely new generation of creative talent was discovered and made famous through the medium of cable television. Yet, as audiences and advertisers have embraced online, established talent are searching to find the right opportunities in this new medium," says Demand Media CEO Richard Rosenblatt. "We built our publishing platform to produce quality content at scale, and we are now doing the same for talent discovery. We can deliver large audiences who desire to be informed and entertained, using a platform that allows talent to build their brand."

    "We’ve grown our media properties tremendously over the past few years in large part by leveraging credible experts and engaging talent to inform and entertain audiences," adds Larry Fitzgibbon, executive vice president of Demand Media’s Properties. "By formalizing our Talent and Expert Network, we intend to discover and create new opportunities for our talent and engage our audience with smart, entertaining and informative content."

    Talent and Expert Network from Demand Media - part of demand studios content creation arm

    Demand Media’s properties are currently ranked #16 on comScore’s list of top U.S. web properties, as the company points out. That’s one of the reasons Demand Media’s recent Facebook integration announcement was so significant. Demand Media’s presence is also felt greatly on YouTube (often touted as the world’s 2nd largest search engine). YouTube will of course be key for this new network.

    "At YouTube we recently announced the site has exceeded over two billions views a day. With such a large, global audience, we value partners like Demand Media who can produce high quality, original content at incredible scale," says Kevin Yen, Director of Strategic Partnerships at YouTube. "We are excited to work with Demand Media as they continue to innovate and expand their platform to accelerate the growth of new media’s emerging creative class of talent."

    Demand Media’s content production strategy has attracted no shortage of controversy, but the company has continued to emphasize a rigorous editorial policy, and this new network could go a long way in winning over some skeptics.