WebProNews

Tag: YouTube

  • Seagate Adds Netflix And YouTube Access

    Seagate Adds Netflix And YouTube Access

    Storage solutions firm Seagate said today that it will allow users of its FreeAgent Theater+ HD media player to access content from Netflix, YouTube, vTuner and Mediafly.

    The new content offerings are available to existing FreeAgent Theater+ HD media player owners through a free, firmware update that can be downloaded from Seagate, and will be included in all future product shipments.

    The FreeAgent Theater+ HD media player allows users to view collections of photos, movies and music saved on a FreeAgent Go portable device or any other USB-connected storage device.

    Seagate-Netflix

    "FreeAgent Theater+(TM) HD media player plays an important role in the evolution of how people are now enjoying digital media," said Dave Mosley, executive vice president, Sales, Marketing and Product Line Management at Seagate.

    "We first envisioned this product as a way to move highly valued family photos and videos from the PC environment to the home entertainment center, but it has now become much more. The combination of access to local storage and streaming media playback with access to a wealth of online content makes the FreeAgent Theater+(TM) HD media player a valuable addition to modern home entertainment systems."
     

     

  • Facebook And YouTube Get The Most Business Internet Traffic

    More business Internet traffic goes to Facebook than to any other website, according to a new report by managed security firm Network Box.

    Network Box looked at 13 billion URLs used by businesses in the first quarter of 2010 and found that 6.8 percent of all business Internet traffic goes to Facebook, a one percent increase over the last quarter of 2009.

    The report also found that more business bandwidth is taken up with YouTube videos than anything else: 10 percent of all corporate bandwidth is taken up watching YouTube videos, an increase of two percent since the fourth quarter of 2009.

    Simon-Heron "The figures show that IT managers are right to be concerned about the amount of social network use at work," said Simon Heron, Internet security analyst for Network box.

    "There are two real concerns here: firstly that employees will be downloading applications from social networks and putting security at risk; and secondly the amount of corporate bandwidth that appears to be being used for non-corporate activity."

    The main concern IT managers have about security in coming year is employees using applications on social networks while at work (43%). Thirty-six percent said they are concerned about malware passed via networks such as LinkedIn or Twitter, and employees clicking on links sent by their contacts on social networks.
     

    The top five websites visited by businesses in Q1 2010 were:
    1.    Facebook – 6.8 per cent of all traffic
    2.    Google – 3.4 per cent of all traffic
    3.    Yimg (Yahoo!’s image server) – 2.8 per cent of all traffic
    4.    Yahoo! – 2.4 per cent of all traffic
    5.    Doubleclick – 1.7 per cent of all traffic

    The top five bandwidth busting websites are:
    1.    YouTube – 10 per cent of all bandwidth used
    2.    Facebook – 4.5 per cent of all bandwidth used
    3.    Windows Update – 3.3 per cent of all bandwidth used
    4.    Yimg (Yahoo!’s image server) – 2.7 per cent of all bandwidth used
    5.    Google – 2.5 per cent of all bandwidth used
     

  • Viacom Cheers Release Of More YouTube Documents

    Today, another nine exhibits from the Viacom-YouTube were released, and while Google will no doubt get around to spinning the documents its own way, Viacom has already had a go.  The entertainment company highlighted four rather incriminating quotes this afternoon.

    YouTube Logo

    Here’s what may be the most damning one, attributed to a senior Google employee: "YouTube’s business model is completely sustained by pirated content."

    Before Google acquired YouTube, Google employees also stated, "YouTube’s content is all free, and much of it is highly sought after pirated clips," and "we should beat YouTube by improving features and user experience, not being a ‘rogue enabler’ of content theft."

    Then this final excerpt comes from a presentation sent to Sergey Brin, Larry Page, and Eric Schmidt: "We may be able to coax or force access to viral premium content . . .  Threaten a change in copyright policy . . . use threat to get standard deal sign-up."

    If you feel like looking for more quotes of this nature – or seeking out ones that work in Google’s favor – well, good luck.  The nine documents total 232 pages, which helps illustrate how this has become a very expensive case for both Viacom and YouTube, with armies of lawyers involved.

  • Google And Hulu Top Video Properties In February

    U.S. Internet users watched 28.1 billion videos in February, with Google sites leading the way as the top video property wit 11.9 billion videos, accounting for 42.5 percent of all videos viewed online, according to the latest report from comScore.

    YouTube accounted for more than 99 percent of all videos viewed at the property. Hulu ranked second with 912.5 million videos, representing 3.2 percent of all online videos viewed. Microsoft sites landed in the third spot with 623 million (2.2%), trailed by Yahoo sites with 455 million (1.6%) and Turner Network with 318 million (1.1%).

    comScore-Online-Video

    More than 174 million viewers watched an average of 161 videos per viewer during the month of February. Google sites attracted 132.2 million unique viewers during the month (93.9 videos per viewer), followed by Yahoo sites with 53.5 million viewers (8.5 videos per viewer) and CBS Interactive with 45.3 million viewers (6.4 videos per viewer). The average Hulu viewer watched 23.3 videos during the month, representing another all time high for the property.

    Unique-Viewers

    In February, Tremor Media ranked as the leading video ad network with a potential reach of 81.7 million viewers, or 46.9 percent of the total video viewing audience. YuMe Video Network ranked second with a potential reach of 75.5 million viewers (43.3% penetration) followed closely by Advertising.com Video Network with 74.8 million viewers (42.9%).

    Other key findings from comScore include:

    *83.1% of the total U.S. Internet audience viewed online video.

    *132.4 million viewers watched 11.9 billion videos on YouTube (89.5 videos per viewer).

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

     

     

  • YouTube Readies “Thank You” For Traffic Contributors

    Sites that send enough traffic to YouTube will soon start getting something in return.  A new "as seen on" feature will effectively thank significant sources of YouTube viewers, giving them credit – and a link – at the bottom of videos’ pages.

    For now, the feature’s experimental.  Also, YouTube’s only using it connection with popular videos, and a sample screenshot (see right) implies that only one site will receive acknowledgment per video, which could make it hard or impossible for regular bloggers to get recognized.

    YouTube’s promised that the feature will become permanent "soon," however, and we have an email out to the company concerning those other matters.

    UPDATE: YouTube spokesperson Chris Dale responded to our questions by stating, "We’re currently rewarding one site that ‘made’ the video popular early on by contributing a significant volume of traffic."  Also, "A blog/site needs to contribute heavily to the views of a video to be rewarded.  We’ll continue to work on that threshold, but there isn’t a class of popular videos to which we will restrict this feature."

    This is a fairly neat element regardless of those issues, too.  A post on the official YouTube Blog explained, "What this means is that you can get recognition for sourcing videos that your readers love and helping those clips become popular on YouTube.  It’s another way all that hard work you put into building your readership can pay off and generate even more traffic for your blog or site.  You might even get your site in front of a whole new audience via people who encounter it for the first time on YouTube."

    Now, for your viewing enjoyment, we offer not only the video from the screenshot, but a second and possibly better clip featuring Beaker(s).

  • YouTube Invites Questions About Partner Program

    The YouTube Partner Program has the potential to be about the best thing in a person’s life, allowing an individual to earn thousands of dollars in return for creating short video clips.  Yet lots of folks are still confused about how to become a partner – and why many applications are denied – so YouTube’s giving everyone the chance to get some answers.

    Google Moderator will come into play as interested parties are supposed to use it to submit questions and/or vote on the ones other people put forward.  (Note: the window to submit and vote on questions will only remain open through 5 PM PT on April 13th.)

    Then, as Mia Quagliarello, a community manager, explained in a post on the YouTube Biz Blog explained, YouTube will take the top-rated questions and "put one or more employees who can best address them on camera, to respond to you in a video which we’ll then post to the YouTube channel."

    This arrangement seems more than fair, and should improve YouTube’s standing with its sometimes mutinous users.  Certain individuals, along with YouTube, may even make some money as a result if the Partner Program grows.

    Anyway, Quagliarello indicated that YouTube will explore other matters in this fashion, so keep an eye out for additional Q&A opportunities in the months ahead.

  • Justin Bieber Buys Funny or Die

    If you’re in the dark to exactly who Justin Bieber is, well you’re about to get very familiar with him as he’s purchased FunnyorDie.com and transformed it into Bieber or Die.

    In the words of Mr. Bieber himself, “I’ve taken over Funny or Die. It’s mine – I bought it. Anything that’s not Bieber, Dies.” Check out the video below for an introduction from the new site owner (it sort of reminds me of Neil Patrick Harris’ role in Harold and Kumar go to White Castle – I guess it’s just the outlandish dialouge)

    To bring the Bieberness into full effect, the site now has a totally Biebed out background featuring his trademark hair as well as several classic viral videos with Justin assuming the starring role…

    Bieber After the Dentist (Original Video: David After the Dentist)

    Dramatic Bieber (Original Video: Dramatic Chipmunk)

    So, what do you think of Bieber or Die? Tell us.

    (Before we get comments, we’re aware this is an April Fools Joke)

  • YouTube Makes Changes to Where Users Spend Most Time

    Update: YouTube is reportedly making the new design live on all YouTube video pages today.

    Original Article: YouTube has unveiled a new version of its video pages. They are not rolled out as the default at this point, but users can opt-in to view them in the new format (they can easily opt out as well).

    "In the coming weeks, we’ll be eager to hear what the community thinks and, as with many things in this newly designed user experience, we’ll incorporate their feedback in future iterations," a representative for YouTube tells WebProNews.

    "YouTube is about creating and watching the world’s biggest video collection; therefore, the design should make the video the star," says YouTube. "To that end, the new look is more subdued, stripped down and simple than before. The design should help ease users into advanced features, while providing power users with all the functionality they want."

    Here is a look at the design before and after (respectively):

    YouTube - Before

    YouTube - After

    The new page includes a "next up" video list. Other videos in the queue on the right side of the page will be based on information about how you found the video. If you get to the video through search, the rest of the search results will end up on the video page. If you arrive on a video from a playlist or recommendation, that will also be reflected in the queue.

    More specific info about the video is featured under the video, with the description and stats in one place. A new expand capability is included to reduce clutter. Actions like sharing, rating, saving or flagging a video are also now all grouped in one button bar.

    YouTube has replaced the five-star rating system with a like/dislike system. According to the company people pretty much just used the one star and five star options anyway. "Liking" a video will save it to your favorites.

    The new design comes with some new size and quality controls in the player. "When you pick the size, we’ll serve you the ideal quality," says YouTube. "For those of you hungry for more control, you can pick the specific video quality (for example, SD, HD or 1080p) in an associated drop-down menu. We’ll warn you when we think there may be a better quality choice, but the control is in your hands."

    Users will be able to search for other videos while a video is still playing, and the results will show on that same page. That will be a very nice addition.

    Also, there is more prominent placement of channel/subscriber information, a new "see more videos" feature, and a change in channel banner placement. YouTube says that you may notice an absence of the "more from [your channel]" feature, but this is only temporary. It will be back.

    Right now, YouTube is just letting users opt-in for the new design by clicking this link, but says the opt-in process will be made more accessible soon. If you have opted in, but wish to revert back to the old style, there is an opt-out link at the top of the new video page.
     

    Related Articles:

    > Will YouTube Be the Place to Rent Movies?

    > YouTube To Experiment With Live Sports Coverage

    > Google Gets Patent For YouTube Gaming

  • FBI Arrests Man Who Made YouTube Threat Against Cantor

    A Philadelphia man has been arrested and charged for threatening to kill Republican Party Whip Eric Cantor in a video on YouTube, according to the FBI.

    Norman Leboon, 33, threatened to kill congressman Cantor and his family in a YouTube video uploaded sometime in late March. In the video Leboon allegedly said: "Remember, Ericour judgment time, the final Yom Kippur has been given." The video then refers to Cantor as "Lucifer, you’re a pig you’re an abomination."

    US-Attorney-Michael-Levy "The Department of Justice takes threats against government officials seriously, especially threats to kill or injure others," said United States Attorney Michael L. Levy.

    "Whether the reason for the threat is personal or political, threats are not protected by the First Amendment and are crimes."

    Cantor’s office issued this statement about the threats. "Over the weekend, Congressman Cantor was notified by law enforcement that a threat was made against his life. Law enforcement officials informed Congressman Cantor that the threat was determined as credible and they were responding accordingly. The Congressman was later notified that an arrest was made and a suspect was in custody."

    "At this time, the Congressman will have no further comment on this threat or the investigation, and asks that inquiries be directed to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The Congressman is deeply grateful for, and would like to dearly thank all local and federal law enforcement involved, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Attorney’s Office in Virginia and Philadelphia, U.S. Capitol Police and the Henrico Police Department in Virginia."

    If convicted of all charges Leboon faces a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison and fine of up to $500,000.

     

  • YouTube Still Rolling Out Page Updates

    YouTube Still Rolling Out Page Updates

    YouTube has been testing page design upgrades and last week added a highlights view for comments that summarizes top rated comments, uploader comments and responses that can be drilled into for more detail.  YouTube also made some improvements to their new like/dislike ratings system. You’ll need to opt-in to be part of the test of these new features.

    (more…)

  • YouTube EDU Celebrates First Birthday

    YouTube EDU Celebrates First Birthday

    YouTube EDU turned one year old today, and it’s now one of the largest online video repositories of higher education content in the world, according to the company. "The team’s work in the last 365 days shows," YouTube’s Chris Dale tells WebProNews.

    Dale shared the following highlights of YouTube EDU’s first year:

    – YouTube EDU has tripled its partner base to over 300 colleges and universities.

    – We have grown to include university content in 7 languages across 10 countries.

    – Google’s auto-captioning and auto-translate technology has broadened accessibility to students hearing impaired students, and students who speak different languages
     
    – We now have over 350 full courses on YouTube EDU, a 75% increase from a year ago.
     
    – Today, our video library stands at 65,000 videos.

    – 1000s of aspiring students have viewed EDU partner videos tens of millions of times in their search for great educational content.

    YouTube EDU - Turns One Year Old

    Don’t forget that YouTube recently rolled out automated captions and auto-translation. According to the company, you can generate captions and translate courses into 50 different languages.

    YouTube has long been a great educational tool, even before the launch of YouTube EDU. In fact, I wrote about five reasons for this several months before YouTube EDU came out.

  • Marketing Tips to Promote Your Business in 2010

    Marketing Tips to Promote Your Business in 2010

    After a tough 2009, the majority of small businesses have high hopes of emerging from the sales doldrums in 2010. Some 86% of small business owners expect 2010 revenues to be equal to or higher than 2009 figures, according to research firm Ad-Ology. However, despite that glimmer of confidence, most small business owners don’t plan to increase their marketing budgets in the near term. In a February 2010 survey of small business owners called the Merchant Confidence Index, 46% of respondents said they expect their marketing expenditures to remain stable over the next three months, while just 29% expected to increase marketing spend.

    Just because you don’t have a lot of extra money to spend on marketing and advertising doesn’t mean you have to sit back and hope for the best in 2010. In fact, there are many free online marketing methods small businesses can use to connect with potential customers. Below are eight proven marketing strategies you can use to boost customer acquisition and increase sales in 2010 – which will cost you only your time.

    1.       Create a simple, clean website. There are dozens of self-service website creation services, such as Weebly, BlinkWeb, and Squidoo, which allow non-technical users to create simple, functional sites for free. Your site should include key words about your business so that people looking for your products or services can find you.

     

    2.       List your business on all free directory sites available to you. MerchantCircle, Google Local Business Center, Angie’s List, Yahoo! Local, Yelp, YellowPages.com, SearchLocal, and SuperPages are some of the online business directory services that allow businesses to create a free listing. If the site already lists your business, you can “claim” it by adding more details to the listing, such as your company website URL, a map, phone numbers, or business hours.

     

    3.       Use email to stay in touch with your best clients/customers. You likely already have the email addresses of your best clients or customers, so use them! An email newsletter is a great way to connect with your loyal customers. Create an email that includes a quick update on new products or services, and perhaps a printable coupon or promotional code. You can also add an image, a link to your website or a video you’ve posted on YouTube, or a link to you’re a business directory page that includes lots of positive customer reviews.

     

    4.       Create business pages on Facebook, Twitter, and other social sites. Social networking is here to stay, so your company needs to join the fray. Start by creating a Facebook business page and a Twitter account in your company’s name; both are free. If you have video content about your business, create a free “video channel” on YouTube, while B2B companies should also create a LinkedIn profile that details your business profile, lists key contacts, and provides information about your products and services. Make sure to encourage customers to sign up for your pages by printing your Facebook address and Twitter handle on all business materials.

     

    5.       Get creative with promotions. Everyone loves a bargain, and people are increasingly price sensitive after recently living through one of worst recessions in decades. Try offering different types of promotions: downloadable and printable coupons people can bring into your store or office; online coupon codes redeemable for a one-time discount; a 10%-off coupon for signing up for your email newsletter or Facebook Page; a refer-a-friend discount; or a discount for writing a review of your business on a directory site like Yelp. You can promote these discounts via free or inexpensive advertising options: your email newsletter, in-store banners, Twitter, and Facebook.

     

    6.       Search online for all businesses like yours. Use Google, Twitter, Facebook, and other search engines to find similar businesses in your city and in other areas to get a sense for what marketing tricks your competitors are using. Check out their social networking pages and their websites, and try searching for their latest promotions. Sign up for their email newsletters. Armed with this free competitive intelligence, you can see what’s worked for companies you admire, and fine-tune your own marketing strategies to compete with them.

     

    7.       Show your expertise. There are many sites where experts can provide answers to people asking questions about anything under the sun. Yahoo Answers, MerchantCircle Answers, and LinkedIn Answers are some of the most popular question-and-answer sites. Search all of these sites for questions related to your business or service expertise, and then provide answers to them. Offer thoughtful, expert advice people can really use; that’s great PR for your business in and of itself.

     

    8.       Create some online marketing videos. Most people prefer to ‘see’ something rather than ‘read’ something – so create some videos for your business! There are several sites, such as Jivox and Spotzer, where you can create simple marketing videos for free using stock footage, then add your company’s URL, phone number, address, and clickable coupons. You can also shoot marketing videos yourself using an inexpensive hand-held camera, and then polish them with free online editing tools like JayCut. Post your videos on your Facebook Page and on YouTube, and use them on your website and in your email marketing campaigns.

     

    Small business owners are a creative and hard-working bunch, used to doing a lot with few resources. In 2010, take the time to invest in the growth of your business, implementing a few creative marketing strategies that deliver real results in return for just a little elbow grease.

     

     

     

  • YouTube Pulls Plug on YouTube RealTime

    YouTube Pulls Plug on YouTube RealTime

    Update: YouTube has decided to pull the plug on the RealTime feature. The company wrote in the Help Forum:

    We’ve seen some of you wondering what occurred to the Realtime Toolbar. The Realtime Toolbar was recently retired and is no longer an available feature on YouTube.

    We were excited to release and experiment with Realtime and it has inspired us for new features on YouTube in the future. We look forward to introducing many new features in the coming months and are sharing them with you all. Many thanks to those of you who used Realtime and for your feedback to us on this feature- your suggestions and input help the Team shape the site and determine what should be developed to further improve the YouTube community.

    (Via)

    Original Article: Today YouTube has launched the beta version of YouTube RealTime, which comes in the form of a toolbar that resides in the lower right corner of the page on YouTube.

    YouTube From this toolbar, users will be able to see which YouTube friends are currently online (much like Facebook) and what they’re watching. A history of their recent activities on the site are also able to be viewed as well as real-time notifications when they perform activities like commenting, favoriting, and uploading.

    At this point, YouTube is only offering the feature to the first 100 people that say "Yes! Sign me up" in the comments section of this post on the official YouTube Blog. Each of these 100 people will get an invite.

    "Please keep in mind that you will need to have friends on YouTube for this to work — the more you have, the richer the experience, so be sure you accept friend invites and actively manage the list," says Ryan Junee, a Product Manager on the YouTube Team."

    Junee encourages those who get the invites to give feedback via the forums or in the same comments section.

    YouTube also announced some changes to its home page for signed out users today. More on that here.

  • Parliamentary Clips May Come To YouTube

    Parliamentary Clips May Come To YouTube

    Some rather important proceedings might soon become viewable to everyone with an Internet connection and access to YouTube.  A report’s indicated that a ban covering video footage of the UK’s House of Commons could be lifted in the near future.

    YouTube Logo

    Elected Members of Parliament hold debates and vote on legislation in the House of Commons, making it somewhat similar to America’s House of Representatives.  It’s essentially footage of the democratic process that’s at stake, then.

    So here’s the latest information: Dan Sabbagh reported that a ban "could come to an end in the coming weeks after months of delicate negotiations between the Palace of Westminster and broadcasters led by the BBC."

    Sabbagh later explained, "Negotiations have been going on for over 18 months within the Parliamentary Broadcasting Unit Limited, a committee of officials and broadcasters responsible for licensing parliamentary footage.  If the BBC succeeds, it would allow any third party to ’embed’ prime minister’s questions, or any part of the proceedings of parliament."

    This would count as a major win for YouTube.  Granted, it’s hard to say whether or not lots of people would watch the footage, and news clips and transcripts prevent Members of Parliament from keeping secrets.  But YouTube has made many efforts over the years to be a source of serious information, and a breakthrough here would help it on that front.

  • YouTube, Viacom Fight Gets Fiercer

    YouTube, Viacom Fight Gets Fiercer

    Almost exactly three years ago, Viacom sued YouTube for copyright infringement, and since then, neither side has been able to say much in public.  But today, 108 pages’ worth of court documents were released, and YouTube also issued a more comprehensible, 865-word statement.

    YouTube Logo

    In the statement (which was posted on the YouTube Blog), Zahavah Levine, YouTube Chief Counsel, raised several interesting points.  One group of claims made Viacom sound like an absolute villain, too.

    Levine wrote, "For years, Viacom continuously and secretly uploaded its content to YouTube, even while publicly complaining about its presence there.  It hired no fewer than 18 different marketing agencies to upload its content to the site.  It deliberately ‘roughed up’ the videos to make them look stolen or leaked.  It opened YouTube accounts using phony email addresses.  It even sent employees to Kinko’s to upload clips from computers that couldn’t be traced to Viacom."

    Sound far-fetched?  Well, here’s another accusation of Levin’s, and this one has been verified.  He wrote, "Viacom’s efforts to disguise its promotional use of YouTube worked so well that even its own employees could not keep track of everything it was posting or leaving up on the site.  As a result, on countless occasions Viacom demanded the removal of clips that it had uploaded to YouTube, only to return later to sheepishly ask for their reinstatement.  In fact, some of the very clips that Viacom is suing us over were actually uploaded by Viacom itself."

    Obviously, YouTube feels very strongly that it’s in the right.  If a judge decides otherwise (and it remains unknown when a ruling might come down), we remind you: Viacom asked for $1 billion when it first filed its lawsuit.

  • YouTube Video Upload Rate Tops 24 Hours/Minute

    Legend has it that St. Patrick performed a miracle by driving all the snakes out of Ireland.  Now, it seems that YouTube’s accomplishing an amazing feat of its own just by functioning.  A director of product management revealed this afternoon that a whopping 24 hours of video are now uploaded to the site every minute.

    Hunter Walk (who, we must note, once worked for Conan O’Brien) wrote on the YouTube Blog, "Today, we’re announcing that you’ve done it!  In just 60 quick ticks of the second hand, more than a full, action-packed day in Jack Bauer’s life is now uploaded to YouTube."

    Walk then put this fact into perspective by listing a number of other things that occur in 24 hours: "The earth rotates 360 degrees as it orbits the sun," "[t]he second hand on your bedside clock ticks 86,400 times," "[t]he earth’s fastest rocket can reach Saturn," "[t]he most skilled climber reaches Mount Everest’s summit," and "2.5 days go by on Jupiter."

    Impressed?  Well, here’s something else to think about: the last time we heard about the rate at which videos are uploaded to YouTube was May of 2009, and at that point, the pace was 20 hours per minute.  So an increase of 20 percent has taken place in less than a year.

    At that rate, we might be hearing how 30 hours’ worth of video is uploaded every minute by St. Patrick’s Day 2011.

  • YouTube Looking For Indie Bands

    YouTube Looking For Indie Bands

    YouTube has expanded its partner program and has introduced "Musicians Wanted" aimed at getting independent bands or artists to submit music videos to the site.

    Interested independent bands or artist can apply for Musicians Wanted through YouTube’s Partner Program. Those who are accepted will have their own page where they can add details about where they will be playing, provide links to buying music and showcase their music videos.

    Independent artists will also share YouTube’s advertising revenue generated by their music video plays as well as when videos are embedded on other websites, such as music blogs.

    The YouTube Blog offers more details. "So whether you make hip-hop, folk, noise-rock, jazz or a genre of your own invention, we are looking for all types of original music video content."

    "One thing to keep in mind is that right now this program only supports video content by U.S.-based artists, though there are plans to roll out the program more widely in the future."
     

  • Google Gives Advertisers Another “In” On YouTube

    In a move that investors and marketers alike should applaud, Google’s figured out another way to make money off the site it bought for $1.65 billion three and a half years ago.  Today, Google explained that it’s come up with a tool to help small organizations advertise on YouTube.

    Emily Williams, a member of the Inside AdWords team, explained on the corporate blog, "[W]e’re announcing another new feature in Display Ad Builder that lets advertisers use simple templates to create InVideo overlays and companion ads on YouTube."  (FYI: "An InVideo ad is an animated flash overlay that appears at the bottom part of a video that a user is watching.")

    Williams later continued, "Now, any advertiser can use Display Ad Builder to turn their image ads into overlays and run a campaign on YouTube in minutes.  Depending on the type of campaign an advertiser wants to run, overlays can be bought on a CPC (Cost Per Click) or CPM (Cost Per Thousand Impressions) basis, and can be matched to YouTube videos based on numerous criteria (like demographics or content categories), or even on a video by video level."

    This could prove to be a very popular option, considering that takeover ads on the YouTube homepage are said to be sold far in advance for hundreds of thousands of dollars.  And the move also earns points for being low risk, since it probably didn’t take much in the way of resources to execute and doesn’t cut any privacy corners.

    Now we just get to guess how much Google will actually make from the new feature.  One slightly relevant note: earlier this month, a Citigroup analyst estimated that YouTube will pull in about $1 billion in gross revenue this year.

  • Nielsen: Online Video Usage Significantly Up YOY

    Glass-half-full and glass-half-empty types, prepare to be split.  New stats from Nielsen indicate that February of 2010 was a great month for the online video industry compared to February of 2009.  Last month was a little bit rotten compared to January of 2010, however.

    The chart below shows how the big-picture data categories played out.  "Unique Viewers" and "Total Streams" made the most progress year-over-year, even as "Total Streams" and "Streams per Viewer" slipped the most month-over-month.  You’ll see the YOY gains are generally bigger than the MOM losses, at least.

    As for how some specific brands performed between January and February, YouTube lost ground in terms of unique viewers, video streams, and time spent per viewer (-3.4 percent, -10.7, and -3.6 percent, respectively).  Hulu only slid in terms of unique viewers (-7.4 percent), while making small increases elsewhere.

    At the same time, Facebook pulled in some more unique viewers (4.7 percent), and is actually coming somewhat close to matching Yahoo in this category.  Also, the CNN Digital Network and Microsoft’s sites racked up big gains on the unique viewers and video streams fronts (20+ percent in both cases).

    Finally, on a somewhat related note, WebProNews will be generating some video of our own as we’re in Austin to cover SXSW.  Look for live video in addition to our traditional recorded coverage.

  • YouTube Solicits Ideas For Partner Program

    YouTube Partners are, pretty much by definition, some of YouTube’s most important users.  They create original content, don’t violate copyright laws, and have huge audiences.  It makes sense, then, that YouTube is now looking hard for ways to improve its Partner Program.

    The hunt has taken the form of a crowdsourced project.  Just as the Ideas Page for YouTube was created not too long ago for the sake of the whole site, the new Product Ideas Page for the YouTube Partner Program covers this single subject.  People can submit ideas and vote on which ones they think are best.

    It’s an effective process.  On the YouTube Biz Blog, Filipe Lima noted with respect to the first effort, "It was a success, receiving almost 3,000 ideas and more than 300,000 votes.  We even launched a few features that directly addressed some of the requests – namely, an HTML5 Beta (there were many HTML5 advocates who participated) and a sneak peek of our new cleaner video page (some desired a ‘less cluttered’ YouTube)."

    So now we’ll see where round two takes us.

    The deadline for both new submissions and votes is April 12th.  If you have any suggestions, get them in earlier, though, for the sake of giving them more time to become popular.

  • YouTube Launches New Mobile Ads

    Google is launching ads on the home page, search page, and browser page on the mobile version of YouTube in the U.S. and Japan.

    "This is a great way for advertisers to reach YouTube viewers across multiple platforms," says Google Strategic Partner Development Manager Taylor Cascino. "In fact, at launch YouTube will immediately provide one of the largest audiences for a mobile ad campaign anywhere on the mobile web. And because YouTube mobile attracts early adopters, the site can deliver to advertisers a coveted demographic of tech savvy trendsetters. We’ve already seen some early campaigns run on YouTube’s mobile site by advertisers like Sony (for the DVD release of "District 9") and Kia, both of whom were able to easily reach their target audience, no matter where they were looking for video."

    YouTube’s mobile site traffic grew by over 160% in 2009, and you can probably expect that growth to continue along with smartphone usage. Don’t forget that YouTube is the number 2 search engine on the web. That’s a lot of people searching for videos.

    YouTube Launches new mobile ads in U.S. and Japan

    "The increased usage of high-end devices like the iPhone and Android is also making mobile advertising easier and more effective for advertisers," says Cascino.

    Ads on the YouTube mobile site will come in the form of banner ads sold on a full-day basis. YouTube tested the mobile ads with brands like L’Oreal and Land Rover, and the company says these showed strong results in terms of click-throughs, user experience, and brand awareness.