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Friday 19 November 2010

Chrome Extensions for YouTube

I’m a movie buff, and love getting excited for upcoming releases by checking out trailers on YouTube. It’s easy and convenient to watch the trailers online, but I’ve often wished I could get closer to the theater experience in my browser. So I did some research, and found a few really handy Chrome extensions that can make your YouTube viewing experience bigger and better. 

For example, Window Expander for YouTube maximizes YouTube videos to fill your entire browser. With Turn Off the Lights, you can make the entire page outside the video fade to dark like you’re in a movie theater. Not sure whether a video is worth viewing? The OpinionCloud extension summarizes comments on YouTube (and Flickr!), so you can quickly get the crowd’s overall opinion.

And just recently the Google team released YouTube Feed, which notifies you whenever new videos are available in your YouTube homepage feed. You can directly access videos that your friends upload, rate and like right in your browser.




There are many other useful extensions in the gallery to make your YouTube experience more customized. Find out more about Google Chrome extensions here, or by checking out the video below.




Koh Kim, Associate Product Marketing Manager, recently watched “Rymdreglage - 8-bit trip”.

Next New Networks shares the spotlight with YouTube comedians

Next New Networks has developed, produced or promoted some of the most popular web series on YouTube, including “The Key of Awesome,” “Obama Girl” and “Auto-Tune the News.” They recently launched a new series, “Comedy Thunder,” to help introduce you to some of the great comedy channels available on YouTube. We asked them some questions about the new show...



1. Tell us about "Comedy Thunder." Where did the idea come from and what can the YouTube community expect?
It’s our version of a comedy festival. Each week the eight channels will tackle a topic that we select, like cute animals or blockbuster movies, and give their comedic take on it. We will also have surprise YouTube guests taking part in the series. 

From GoPotatoTV to Cyr1216, we want to showcase the best, up and coming comedy talent that YouTube has to offer. We're re-creating the experience of going to Montreal for Just for Laughs or HBO's now-defunct Aspen Comedy Festival and bringing it to YouTube. Like popping into a showcase at a big comedy festival, viewers will see a range of comedic styles.

2. You've had previous success with series like "Key of Awesome" and "Obama Girl." What words of advice would you give to other YouTube content creators looking to build their audiences?
YouTube is a social platform. Your audience wants to talk to you. Ask them questions. Get opinions and then feature them in your videos. You are leading a conversation.

3. Are you hoping to help the comedy groups you're working with get discovered? Is this kind of collaboration the future of online video?
Collaboration and cross promotion between channels is not the future of online video – it is the present. It is what makes YouTube a unique and social experience. Fans get excited seeing their favorite YouTube users show up on other channels they love. I am hoping that the series helps these channels grow their audience so they can get closer to making online video their full-time jobs. 

Give YouTube Topics on Search a whirl

We know that sometimes people come to YouTube looking for a specific video, but at other times, they have only a rough idea of the kind of videos they want. We’ve been there too, and have been thinking for a while about this challenge of searching when you don’t yet know exactly what you’re looking for.

Here’s a glimpse inside how we are approaching this challenge:





In coming up with a solution, we wanted to help you specify your search even if you started with something as vague as “funny”. We also wanted to surface varied sets of videos and make it easy for you to explore them further.

To that end, we have a prototype we’d like you to try out. It’s called “YouTube Topics on Search” and you can get to it from TestTube. Here’s a video showing you how it works:








Put simply, we try to identify topics on YouTube and associate videos with them. We use many different sources to find these topics, including frequently used uploader keywords, common search queries, playlist names, and even sources outside of YouTube such as Wikipedia articles.

When you search -- for example, let’s say for “obama” -- we suggest other related topics tied to videos that you might want to explore, such as “michelle obama” or “john mccain.” You can click to get to videos on these topics or you can find videos that contain both topics by clicking on the (+) next to the topic. This is handy for refining. For instance, try searching for “turkey” and you’ll see “thanksgiving” as a refinement option further down the page. We hope topics become a fun way to explore new and interesting corners of YouTube’s video universe.

To start you exploring, we’ve planted topic “Easter eggs,” which we challenge you to find. Here are a couple of hints relating to just some of the topics out there:
For more clues to other topic Easter eggs and for other questions you have, read this article in the Help Center.

Give Topics on Search a test drive and let us know what you think in the YouTube forum.

Monday 8 November 2010

Do you love K-POP?

Well, we know Will.i.am does after he called out the Korean girl group 2NE1 on YouTube earlier this year. If you are not familiar with K-POP, check out some of the top Korean music labels like YG Entertainment, SM Entertainmentand JYP Entertainment, then come back between November 10 and 28 for your very own chance to be the next K-POP star.

MBC, the No. 2 TV network in Korea, is partnering with YouTube to search the world for the next big talent. Top Korean music labels have found audiences all over the globe watching their music videos and now it’s your turn to do your own performance. Don’t worry if you don’t speak Korean; you can audition in any language.



Based on the video views and votes for your submission, you’ll have the opportunity to be sent to Korea for a second audition on national TV. The final winner will be awarded KRW 300 million as well as a sponsorship from MBC to be debuted as the next K-POP star. For more details, visit www.youtube.com/MBCAudition.

Lois Kim, Head of Marketing & Communications, YouTube Korea, recently watched “Wonder Girls NOBODY US Debut Single HD MV.”

Emilynoel83 wins the first “On the Rise” spotlight

Meet Emilynoel83, a morning news anchor who's also a “makeup addict” who loves to make videos about beauty products. Today she's on our homepage. And you put her there.

Last week, we announced a new initiative to give rising channels greater visibility and hopefully also more subscribers. We selected four channels whose subscriber base flourished in the last month, and we asked you to choose which one should go on the homepage. As you can see, Emily won by a significant margin.

Here’s a few words from Emily herself:


The growth of "Beauty Broadcast" has been slow and steady since late 2007, gaining subscribers that are more loyal than I could've imagined. My YouTube channel is my passion, and I'm thrilled to think that more people can become part of it as a result of this poll! As many have found, Beauty Broadcast isn't just about makeup... but also positivity, fun, and inner beauty. Thanks to this opportunity, I hope many people will go "On the Rise" right along with me! :)




We’ll be back soon with four new channels for you to vote on in the next edition of “On the Rise.”

Mia Quagliarello, Product Marketing Manager, recently watched "Katy Perry & Russell Brand Makeup Tutorial."

Great videos on a budget: how to fake a zombie attack

Heather Menicucci, Director, Howcast Filmmakers Program, is writing weekly guest posts for the YouTube blog on filmmaking in the digital age. You can catch up on previous posts here.

Last week, we made some arguments for why quality matters in web video, and we heard from Howcast filmmakerLuke Neumann, who said that it matters “because you never know who’s watching.” Duh! Watching Luke’s videos, you can tell he’s motivated by much more than that, but as we said last week, it’s a good starting point.

Luke’s been making Howcast videos for about a year now and he’s got more than 50 under his belt. From the beginning, he impressed us with videos like “How To Yodel,” where he showed he could build a story around a simple script, work in some cool camera angles, and make us laugh. Last week we featured one of his newest spots, “How To Survive a Zombie Attack.” If we thought Yodel was pretty darn good when it came in a year ago, you can imagine "Zombie Attack" knocked our socks clean off.

Luke clearly strives for the best every time he uploads. The web offers free access to audiences like no medium ever has. As filmmakers, we’re tasked with not squandering this access. Every upload should be better than the last to keep this audience coming back for more and to refine our skills for the day when perhaps we are handed that huge check to make something. 

We asked Luke to let us in on how he does it. How did he make this gorgeous zombie video on a budget that would barely cover the average wedding video? How did he create that apocalyptic feeling, complete with fiery explosion? And, how did he make his zombies look like they’re decomposing before our very eyes? 

Here’s Luke’s first “Behind the Scenes” video for Howcast. This is the first part of a new series where we’ll be letting you come behind the scenes to see how our filmmakers make the most creative how-to videos on a DIY budget.Step 1: Cover yourself in plain old dirt to look like you’ve been to hell and back. The Walking Dead producers could learn something from Luke!



Want to learn more about how Luke created Zombie Attack? Visit his blog where he posted in-depth tutorials, photos and a cool trailer.

Heather Menicucci, Director, Howcast Filmmakers Program, recently watched “Howcast: Vlogger Wanted!

Wednesday 27 October 2010

Trip Report: Google and YouTube in Iraq

Earlier this month, a small team from Google and YouTube spent a week in Iraq on a trip arranged by the Department of Defense’s Task Force for Business and Stability Operations (TFBSO). Our goals were to explore opportunities for Google in Iraq, to understand the landscape of Internet access and connectivity in the country during this critical transition period, and to bring top-voted questions from YouTube to Iraqi leaders in a series of interviews. We met with students, private sector companies, NGOs and Iraqi leadership in the Kurdish city of Erbil in the north, and in Baghdad.



Regardless of your feelings about the Iraq War, it’s immediately evident upon arrival just how completely the country missed the Internet boom during Saddam Hussein’s regime. Internet penetration rates in Iraq are among the lowest in the Middle East—somewhere between one and eight percent. Only 15 percent of Iraqis say they use the web, and the largest percentage of them live in Baghdad. There are no commercial data centers in Iraq and much more fiber connectivity is needed to meet consumer needs. Most connections are via satellite, and those who do have connections pay dearly for it—we heard estimates of up to $150 U.S. dollars per month for a 512kb connection. To incentivize and enable private companies to lay more fiber in Iraq, a complex set of roadblocks must be addressed—from security concerns to regulatory frameworks to licensing structures. As the country is still struggling to form a government more than seven months after its last election, much of this progress has been stalled.

There are signs of progress, however. Mobile penetration has skyrocketed in Iraq in the past seven years, from effectively zero percent in 2003 to over 70% today. And the Iraqi people are highly educated. We met with dozens of computer science students at Salahaddin University in Erbil and at Baghdad University, and though they lack equipment and resources, they’re highly motivated to innovate and believe the web is a critical component of their economy’s future.

Many young people in Iraq and around the world submitted questions in Arabic and English for three interviews we conducted in partnership with Middle Eastern news agency Al Arabiya. Google Translate enabled anyone to vote on their favorite questions regardless of language, and we brought the top five questions to current Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, the Prime Minister of the Kurdish Regional Government in Erbil, Dr. Barham Salih, and Iraqi politician and once the interim Prime Minister of Iraq, Ayad Allawi. Here is the television special that Al Arabiya produced showcasing their answers:






The Iraqis we met consistently expressed their desire for increased access to the web and for more access to content and tools in both Kurdish and Arabic. We believe access to information and high-speed connectivity to the cloud will be key to the future of the country. The power of the web to change people’s lives grows the further one gets from Silicon Valley, and we look forward to continuing our work with companies, governments and citizens in Iraq and other countries in transition.

Mary Himinkool, New Business Development, and Olivia Ma, YouTube News & Politics, recently watched "Voices: Conversation Between Iraqi and American Students."

AFI Fest 2010

The American Film Institute's AFI Fest, featuring a world class selection of short and feature films, is only a week away. In this guest blog post, AFI's Bob Jennings and Lane Kneedler discuss the festival and the treasure trove of short films they find online.

Any festival can tell you programming short films is very hard. At AFI Fest, we only have space for about 30 shorts and over 3,000 submissions to choose from. However, this year we didn’t limit ourselves to just submissions. We also travelled to other festivals and looked increasingly to the web as a source for content to curate and showcase.

It’s an incredible experience to find short films and show them in a theater with an audience. Hearing a group of strangers laughing and crying together in the dark is an almost spiritual experience. We are also delighted to showcase as many films from our Official Selections on YouTube as possible. We want to help short filmmakers find audiences in any way we can. YouTube has proven that there are huge audiences out there for this content and it’s our pleasure to help highlight as much as we can, which is why we're happy to be the guest editors of today's homepage.



AFI is also proud to be a YouTube Partner. Our channel has nearly 700 videos that include never-before-seen interviews with Master Filmmakers like Alfred Hitchcock and Martin Scorsese, clips from our annual AFI Life Achievement Award and more. Recently, we started posting a new video every Monday through Friday and the response has been astounding as we’re approaching nearly 2 million views per month.

While AFI is proud to host a prestigious film festival and continues to build a robust YouTube Channel, we are a non-profit organization that relies on a national membership program to help us preserve the history of film, educate the next generation of filmmakers and honor the artists. If you're interested in joining, check out AFI.com/members.

AFI FEST 2010 presented by Audi takes place November 4-11 in Hollywood, California. For more info visitwww.afi.com/afifest.

Bob Jennings, Manager, AFI Social Media & Lane Kneedler, Associate Director of Programming, AFI Fest just watched Marcel the Shell With Shoes On

Tricking and treating with Disney this Halloween

We’d like to welcome today’s guest blogger, Annjanette Isorda, Senior Manager of New Media Business Development at the Walt Disney Company. Annjanette works with Disney Consumer Products, a division that extends the Disney brand to merchandise ranging from apparel and toys to books, magazines and even food. Today, she shares her experiences on how they use their Disney Living YouTube Channel to engage fans and communicate about holiday promotions.

The Disney Living channel was born in March 2009 when we realized that YouTube could provide a great way to answer the growing demand for entertainment and information on Disney products – everything from bridal fashion shows featuring gowns inspired by our Disney Princesses to sneak peeks of our latest toys and tech gadgets. We’ve found that YouTube has broad appeal and, unlike virtually any other channel, YouTube videos allow us to tell stories that we couldn’t convey in print or other online media. We create original content that you can’t see anywhere else for YouTube fans and the active blogger community.

As we go into the holidays, YouTube has emerged as one of the best ways for us to engage directly with a wide audience. For example, Halloween is an especially fun holiday for us at Disney. To make this year’s festivities unique, we created fun activities for the family on YouTube. We produced a "Disney Store 30 Costumes in 30 Seconds" YouTube Halloween Sweepstakes and have also set up a Halloween Dress Rehearsal Party for families to show off outfits in person (and receive free prizes!). The Disney Living channel helps us easily bridge the online and offline worlds.

Additionally, Disney Living is tricking and treating YouTubers to three scary movie spoofs, inspired by the flicksThe ShiningThe Ring, & The Sixth Sense. These Ghoulish Greetings are short e-greetings made to delight and surprise our audience. We hope fans will have a laugh and be inspired to share them with family and friends and participate in our Halloween contest with a video response of your own. We’ll choose five lucky winners after Halloween to win a $100 gift card to the Disney Store. We will continue to produce content like this for our YouTube channel because it is a powerful platform that allows us to create value for our subscribers and audience.





Finally, our last advice to anyone else considering building a presence on YouTube: connect it to your other social marketing efforts. We always connect our content to our Facebook fan page and share it in our tweets from Twitter. We’ve promoted the videos to the YouTube community as well to help connect more people to some of our most popular content. We have found using a mix of social media and paid advertising helps us reach both core Disney fans and newcomers.

We’re genuinely excited about engaging with our fans on YouTube and carrying on the Disney tradition of inspirational storytelling. Stay tuned — there will be more YouTube fun as we move into this year’s holiday season!

Individual Video Program, one year later...

What if Michelangelo had sculpted the David and that was his one and only masterpiece? What if Francis Ford Coppola had shot one scene of The Godfather, then called it quits on a film career? What if Jim Henson had only given the world Kermit the Frog, and then decided to become a plumber? Would you still want to see these hallmarks of creativity? Chances are, you would.

It’s been well over a year now since the launch of the Individual Video Program (IVP), which celebrates the very nature of rewarding the one-hit creative spark or remarkable moments caught on video. Some of the most well known videos run the gamut through rough-cut home video (“Jessica’s Daily Affirmation”), wonders of the natural world (“Praying Mantis Attacks Hummingbird”), or good old fashioned comedy clips (“Laughing Baby,” with 33M views). Here's one of our recent favorites:



What’s even more powerful than sharing these moments through video? Hearing how the lives of the people who have uploaded them have been changed. For instance, in one of the most heart-warming videos featuring a U.S. solider reunited with his dog after returning from Afghanistan, the earnings made from the video went to the local animal shelter where their pet was rescued.

Online video is evolving, and we believe there should be a place on the web where all forms of content are celebrated and brought to the masses. In fact, did you know that...

We’re proud to have our Individual Videos share in our business success, and plan to find more ways to encourage a diversity of video on the site.

Jury selection for YouTube Play revealed at last

Today we announce the jury selection for YouTube Play. A Biennial of Creative Video with the Guggenheim.

It was our goal to reach the widest possible audience, inviting individuals from around the world to submit a video for consideration. While our original goal had been to select 20, the jury was so moved by the quality of work submitted that we decided to honor a final list of 25. We believe the end result is 25 of the most unique and innovative video work to be created and distributed online during the past two years.

Tonight we will be celebrating this announcement with a live streamed event: YouTube Play. Live from the Guggenheim. Head to youtube.com/play for the live stream and for highlights after the event.

1. Auspice
Bryce Kretschmann, b. 1974 in California, USA, lives in Newark, NJ, USA. 





2. Bear untitled - D.O. Edit
Christen Bach, b. 1978 in Kolding, Denmark, lives in Berlin, Germany.






3. Bathtub IV
Keith Loutit, b. 1973 in Melbourne, Australia, lives in Coogee, Australia.




4. Birds on the Wires
Jarbas Agnelli, b. 1963 in Sao Paulo, Brazil, where he still lives. 





5. Birdy Nam Nam ‘The Parachute Ending’
Steve Scott (Director), b. 1970 in Plymouth, UK, lives in London, UK. Will Sweeney (Art Director and Illustration) b.1973 in London, UK, where he still lives. 




6. deuce
Monica Cook, b. 1974 in Dalton, Georgia, USA, lives in Brooklyn, NY, USA. 



7. Die Antwoord – Zef Side
Sean Metelerkamp, b. 1984 in Knysna, South Africa, lives in Cape Town, South Africa. 





8. Gardyn
Pogo (Nick Bertke), b. 1988 in Capetown, South Africa, lives in





9. I Met the Walrus
Josh Raskin (Director and Animator), b. 1980 in Toronto, Canada, where he still lives. James Braithwaite (Drawings), b. 1978 in Edmonton, Canada, lives in Montreal, Canada. Alex Kurina (Computer illustration), b. 1981 in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, lives in Toronto, Canada. Jerry Levitan (story and voice), b. 1954 in Toronto, Canada, where he still lives.




10. Ladybirds' Requiem (digest version) 
Akino Kondoh, b. 1980 in Chiba Prefecture, Japan, lives in New York, USA. 


Tips for partners: LockerGnome reveals how he built his brand and audience

In our Tips for Partners series over the last month, we have certainly covered a lot! Beyond our suggestions, our partners have given their own tips on these topics as well. Specifically,
Hold on to your seats. For our last post in this series about engaging with your audience, we’re bringing you (drum roll please...) LockerGnome (a.k.a Chris Pirillo) who’s well versed in how to make a hit channel, get more subscribers, and interact with his audience through social media. 

Chris publishes a personal blog and lifecast and joined the partner program in 2007. Technology enthusiast and self proclaimed geek extraordinaire, you can’t help but be impressed when Chris gives tips on how to make a good PowerPoint or discusses USB Hub problems. Also, in case you are in need of some pet costume ideas for Halloween, Chris can help you out. 





You can also check this video out on his Watch Page. Let us know in the comments section of Chris’ video if you have great tips to share on how to build your brand and audience or if you have feedback for Chris. We’d also love to hear how your videos have been impacted once you have used some of these tips to better engage with your audience. 

This post concludes our Tips for Partners series. We have covered many important topics to help you leverage and build your own hit channel and encourage you to utilize all of YouTube’s tools and features to build the best channel possible. 

We enjoyed hearing from our partners to find out their optimization tips, so we will be moving this initiative to the Partner Communications Hub and posting a Partner Education Spotlight on a regular basis. If you have a great optimization tip you want to share, let us know and we would love to spotlight your video as well as your channel!

Thanks for tuning in and providing great feedback. Here on the YouTube Partnerships team, our goal is to support and educate our partners on how to use various tools to better create and share content. That, in turn, gives you the power to do what you do best: creating videos that represent the Zeitgeist of our world. So if that means funny cat videos or how to make your house more energy efficient, go forth and prosper! 

Thursday 14 October 2010

Today, Animals Take Center Stage on the Homepage

Earlier this month, through the YouTube Video Volunteers program, we asked you to create an amazing video on behalf of your favorite animal welfare organization and submit it for the chance to be featured on our homepage.

Over 100 users submitted videos about their animal org of choice. User mordeth13 talked about the plight of stray dogs in Taiwan, while partner ZackScott discussed how FoundAnimals is helping animals in the United States:


On Saturday, you voted on which videos you liked the best, and today the top three are featured on the homepage alongside a video for the Humane Society from actor Ben Stein. If you'd like to view all of the videos that were submitted, you can visit the Video Volunteers channel and click "Gallery."

Didn't have a chance to make a video for this month's round? Don't worry. We'll be kicking off our next installment of Video Volunteers on November 1, focusing on hunger in America.

Search Comments on YouTube in Real-Time

Today, Comments Search moves into Test Tube, the place where our engineers and developers test out new features and gather data and feedback before pushing them out to a wider audience. This feature allows you to search the comments people are making on YouTube in real time. The full comment will appear on a continuously updated results page, and "trending topics" indicates the hottest topics of conversation on YouTube at that particular moment. Comments Search is a way you can find out what YouTube users are saying about everything from the news stories of the day (below, see results when we typed in "balloon boy") to your individual channel or brand.

So try it out, enter your feedback here or comment below, and help us get this feature ready for the masses. We're always working on new ways to enhance search across YouTube and give quick and easy access to the information people are looking for.

Wanted: Travel Videos of American Journeys

The My Journey program is all about creating and sharing videos of your memorable American journeys. Some great videos have come in so far, but we want more! You've got one week left to submit a video about your favorite American spot or trip. (Entries are due October 25, 2009.) The YouTube community will then decide who earns aseven-day travel reporting assignment in San Francisco, as well as a feature on LonelyPlanet's website andYouTube channel. The winning videographer will also receive video equipment and advice from the Lonely Planet team on how to take his or her reporting skills to the next level. 

You're always showing us the world through your eyes, and we can't wait to see your American journeys. Get inspired by the examples below, and enter your videos here