Australia Blog
News and rising stars from YouTube Australia
"Recent Activity" on Your YouTube Channel
Thursday 4 December 2008
We're happy to announce a couple of new changes to your YouTube channels, based on the feedback and suggestions you've given to us.
The first is the creation of a "Recent Activity" box on your YouTube channel. This box will provide your viewers with a snapshot of recent changes you've made to your public channel, making your channel more dynamic, fresh and timely. For example, if you recently added a new favourite to your channel, visitors can find this favourite in the new Recent Activity box (as well as in the usual "Favourites" box). The Recent Activity box will also consolidate the separate "My Recent Ratings" and "My Recent Comments" boxes into this single activity window.
As always, we give you maximum control over how your channel is configured on the
channel design page
. And now, the Recent Activity
privacy settings
page (also available in the upper-right corner of the Recent Activity box) lets you choose what activity you want to appear in the Recent Activity box. It's important to note that we've set your initial Recent Activity settings according to what you already publicly show on your channel today - so, for example, if you're not already showing the Favourites box on your channel, then the Recent Activity box won't suddenly start showing new favourites you make.
Regarding bulletins, we've listened to you, and most of you didn't see the value in bulletins as they are today. So, we're taking a first step to make bulletins more useful. Although the bulletin box will be going away, now you can broadcast a bulletin directly to your channel visitors in your Recent Activity box. This not only provides a fun place to shout out personal updates and news, but also provides an additional way to communicate and engage with your channel's fans.
We hope you like these changes, and are always eager to hear your feedback - so please feel free to
share your thoughts
with us!
The YouTube Team
A YouTube for All of Us
Wednesday 3 December 2008
As a community, we have come to count on each other to be entertained, challenged, and moved by what we watch and share on YouTube. We've been thinking a lot lately about how to make the collective YouTube experience even better, particularly on our most visited pages. Our goal is to help ensure that you're viewing content that's relevant to you, and not inadvertently coming across content that isn't. Here are a few things we came up with:
Stricter standard for mature content
- While videos featuring pornographic images or sex acts are always removed from the site when they're flagged, we're tightening the standard for what is considered "sexually suggestive." Videos with sexually suggestive (but not prohibited) content will be age-restricted, which means they'll be available only to viewers who are 18 or older. To learn more about what constitutes "sexually suggestive" content, click
here
.
Demotion of sexually suggestive content and profanity
- Videos that are considered sexually suggestive, or that contain profanity, will be algorithmically demoted on our 'Most Viewed,' 'Top Favourited,' and other browse pages. The classification of these types of videos is based on a number of factors, including video content and descriptions. In testing, we've found that out of the thousands of videos on these pages, only several each day are automatically demoted for being too graphic or explicit. However, those videos are often the ones which end up being repeatedly flagged by the community as being inappropriate.
Improved thumbnails
- To make sure your thumbnail represents your video, your choices will now be selected algorithmically. You'll still have three thumbnails to choose from, but they will no longer be auto-generated from the 25/50/75 points in the video index.
More accurate video information
- Our
Community Guidelines
have always prohibited folks from attempting to game view counts by entering misleading information in video descriptions, tags, titles, and other metadata. We remain serious about enforcing these rules. Remember, violations of these guidelines could result in removal of your video and repeated violations will lead to termination of your account.
The preservation and improvement of the YouTube experience is a responsibility we share. Let's work together to ensure that the YouTube community continues to thrive as a positive place for all of us.
The YouTube Team
Bigger Isn't Always Better... But in This Case, We Believe It Is
Monday 24 November 2008
Over the years we've heard a lot of feedback from you about what you'd like to change about YouTube, and the size of our video player is always top of mind. That's why today we're excited to announce a bigger YouTube player.
We're expanding the width of the page to 960 pixels to better reflect the quality of the videos you create and the screens that you use to watch them. This new, wider player is in a widescreen aspect ratio which we hope will provide you with a cleaner, more powerful viewing experience. And don't worry, your 4:3 aspect ratio videos will play just fine in this new player.
As always, we welcome your feedback and encourage you to
share your thoughts with us
on this exciting, new change happening for all videos on YouTube.
Have fun watching!
The YouTube Team
Help Center Videos Made By You: Call for Submissions - Round 2
Thursday 20 November 2008
Last month we took video submissions from the YouTube community to be included in our Help Center. We received a ton of creative, informative videos and have embedded six of them in our Help entries. Check out the
Round 1 selections
in the Favorites section of the
YouTubeHelp channel
.
Based on such great success last month, we are opening the floodgates for Round 2! We're asking you again to use your skills to create videos that we can embed in our Help Center. If selected, your video will be seen by many of the 1+ million users who visit the
Help Center
each day.
To participate, here's what you need to do:
1. Decide which
Help Center entries
you'd like to make an original video about:
Editing my video
Customizing channels
Contact lists
Transferring from camera to computer
File formats
Embedding videos
Can't hear audio
Clear cache and cookies
Using QuickCapture
Director, Musician, Comedian, Guru and Reporter accounts
2. Upload your video to your YouTube account, then submit it through
this page
.
Here are a few tips to help you along the way:
Keep it brief
(1-2 minutes is perfect. Last round we got some epics, which were great, but just too long).
Be creative, clear and 100% original
Stay on topic
(only submissions which address the Help Center entries included in the list above will be accepted)
Keep our
Terms of Use
and
Community Guidelines
in mind
Have fun with it
The deadline for submitting your video is
December 19, 2008
.
Grab a camera and show off your helpful community spirit!
The YouTube Help Team
Flagging at YouTube: The Basics
Friday 14 November 2008
The YouTube flagging system works best when you take the time to understand our
Community Guidelines
before you flag a video. Then, if you come across a video that you think may not belong on YouTube, it will be easier for you to let us know the reason you flagged it, whether it be for hate speech, nudity, violence, or another Guideline violation. Once a video is flagged, we review it quickly, and if we find that it shouldn't be on YouTube, we remove it within hours. It's as easy as that.
Lots of users ask us questions about flagging. Whether you're brand new to the Community Guidelines or looking to get a flagging refresher, check out this new video to get a closer look at how it works.
The next time you come across inappropriate content on the site, flag it!
We're counting on you.
The YouTube Team
Helping You Shape Your YouTube Experience
Friday 7 November 2008
As YouTube grows, more and more people from all parts of the world are communicating and connecting. We want to make it easy for you to reach out and learn from each other, while you engage only in those conversations you choose. That's why we've developed the Help and Safety Tool to help you manage communications with other community members.
Using the tool is easy: Once you are logged into your personal account, the tool lets you connect directly into your channel so that you can see all communications you've had with a particular user, remove comments you'd rather not keep, and even block the user from further communication.
In addition to letting you decide which communications you would like to see, the Help and Safety Tool also gives you a simple way to let us know about additional concerns you may have related to other users. This is only the first step; we'll continue to add more features to the tool to keep the power in your hands.
Remember: you have choices on YouTube. To learn more, visit our
Abuse & Safety Center
, where you can find additional information about these issues. If the Abuse & Safety Center doesn't answer all your questions, you'll find "Contact Us" links at the bottom of some of our articles. Click on the link to get to the new tool, and from there you can report your concerns to us.
The YouTube Team
Holiday Solutions Center
Friday 7 November 2008
The holiday season is quickly approaching. For all the fun that ensues, there are always lots of things to do and sometimes a little stress. Well, YouTube is here to help. This year we've teamed up with Loews Home Improvement and created the
Holiday Solutions Center
to help with your holiday hassles and share some great ideas for the special season. This YouTube checkpoint is built to get you through the holidays without a hitch. From cooking to decorating and gift giving, our Holiday Solutions Guide brings together some of our favorite festive experts in one place.
First time hosting Thanksgiving dinner at your house?
Epicurious.com
gives you recipes and tips on the staples. Want to give your place an inviting feel for the holidays?
E-How
has plenty of DIY ideas that are quick and simple. Whatever your quandary, the Holiday Solutions Center is the perfect place to visit when you need answers to your holiday questions.
Happy Holidays
Sadia H.
YouTube HowTo & Style
Brrrrrraaaaaains!
Thursday 30 October 2008
It's Halloween and as everybody knows the holiday is about all things scary: gory costumes, teeth-decaying sweets, and hyperactive children dressed in gory costumes eating teeth-decaying sweets. This year, users from around Australia have spilled their brains onto the floor, lost an eyeball and generally zombied it up for this presentation of "Undead 2.0."
Special thanks to the YouTube Oz users who spent time making these frightful videos.
Errrgg, arrrgh,
Damien E.
The YouTube Team
Addressing Youth Violence On YouTube
Monday 27 October 2008
Like you, we're continually surprised, moved, and entertained by the videos people post on YouTube. And, like you, we're occasionally dismayed when people use YouTube for less positive purposes. That's why we count on you to know our
Community Guidelines
and flag videos you believe don't belong on the site.
We've recently made a change to our flagging menu we think you should know about: We replaced the category "minors fighting" with "youth violence." You can find it in the pull-down menu under "Violent or Repulsive Content," and we'll still follow our usual process of reviewing all flagged videos quickly and removing those that violate our Guidelines.
The reason for this change in language is simple: We want to make it easier for you to help us take down the increasing number of videos showing children involved in violence of some sort, including threats and actual altercations. The "minors fighting" flag simply wasn't being used enough, yet the number of these kinds of videos has been increasing. Now you can more easily flag violent videos that include underage people, and we'll take it from there.
Think of the Guidelines and the flagging pull-down menu as part of our ongoing conversation with you. We give you a structure that makes it easier for you to talk to us, and you become the eyes and ears of the site. Of course, the best conversations are never static, and the same is true about this one. We're always reviewing our Guidelines and the flagging categories to make sure they reflect what you see on the site.
The new flag is part of a larger, continuous effort here at YouTube to keep the community safe for all of our members. But we can't do it alone.
Literally.
With 13 hours of video uploaded every minute, we need you to be our first line of defense against content that violates our Community Guidelines, and we'll keep doing all we can to make doing your part clear and easy.
We're committed to having transparent, effective policies and to helping you understand them through blog posts like this. (If you haven't seen it, check our our
first post
in this series about how to contact us to report abuse.)
Let us know how we're doing and what you think about this new flag. And check back here soon for the next post in our series: How to Flag Videos.
The YouTube Team
A Behind the Scenes Look at Contacting Us
Monday 20 October 2008
We've heard some of your concerns around trying to get the assistance you need when having an issue on the site. Our ultimate goal is to keep improving the product so you essentially won't need any help at all. We try our best to keep our
Help Resources
up to date with information about all of our features and policies, in addition to any current product issues or quirks. Most often, the solution to your problem is one that you can resolve on your own rather than contacting someone at YouTube directly.
Please keep in mind that human beings do actually review emails that are sent to us, but if we see the answer to your issue is already listed in the Help Centre we may not send a customised response. Many of our help options (listed below) allow you to resolve a problem immediately, rather than wait for a member of our team to respond to your inquiry by email:
First, and most importantly, check out our
Help Centre
. The handy search box lets you search for information about YouTube or look up issues across all Google products (as well as the entire Web). Click around and check out the articles. We're constantly adding more content to address site issues, big and small.
Our
Abuse and Policy Centre
is a one-stop-shop for resources related to safety and abuse on YouTube. You can browse through articles covering topics like how to deal with spam or gaming, how to control your account settings to limit interactions with certain users, and how to keep yourself generally safe while using the site.
The
YouTube Community Help Forum
is also a great resource. The Forum's discussion board is the official place to share ideas, provide feedback, ask and answer questions, and offer help to your fellow YouTube community members.
If after checking out all these resources you still haven't found exactly the information you're looking for, go ahead and send us an email. If the answer to your question isn't already in our Help Centre, we'll do our best to get back to you as soon as we can. Check back in the coming weeks and months for more posts about how to keep your YouTube experience safe, exciting, and always entertaining.
Here for you,
The YouTube Team
Your Video Second-by-Second
Friday 10 October 2008
YouTube Insight
has helped you learn more about your YouTube videos, enabling you to establish when and where your videos prove popular. But what if you could learn not just which of your videos are hot on the site, but which specific
parts
of those videos are hotter than others? What if you could know exactly when viewers tend to leave your videos, or which scenes within a video they watch again and again?
Happily, this information is now available to all YouTube video uploaders via an innovative new feature for Insight called "Hot Spots." The Hot Spots tab in Insight plays your video alongside a graph that shows the ups-and-downs of viewership at different moments within the video. We determine "hot" and "cold" spots by comparing your video's abandonment rate at that moment to other videos on YouTube of the same length, and incorporating data about rewinds and fast-forwards. So what does that mean? Well, when the graph goes up, your video is hot: few viewers are leaving, and people may be rewinding on the control bar to see that sequence again. When the graph goes down, your content's gone cold: viewers are moving to another part of the video or leaving the video entirely.
Here's an example of Hot Spots in action, based on a video of YouTube employee Michael Rucker
making like Soulja Boy
:
src="/img/hot_spots_blog.jpg" width="456" height="414">
You can see that many viewers are not initially impressed with Rucker's efforts; they're leaving the video at a faster than average rate almost immediately after the video begins. But the longer the video plays, the more people tend to stay, generating a hot spot at the end of the video. Better late than never.
We think you'll find Hot Spots useful in several ways. For example, you can figure out which scenes in your videos are the "hottest" and edit them accordingly, or insert annotations at key moments to keep your audience more engaged. Now that Insight shows what parts of videos viewers are watching and skipping, you'll no longer have to guess why people watch your work – you'll know. You can find this new feature under the "Hot Spots" tab within the
Insight dashboard
(you must be logged in to your YouTube account).
As with all of Insight's features, we learn about
the most creative examples
from you. Are you using Insight in a new and interesting way?
Upload
a video to YouTube and let us know.
Have fun,
The YouTube Team
New Video Upload Redesign Beta
Sunday 28 September 2008
We're excited to unveil our new and improved video uploader. A random sample of YouTube users have already been using the beta version, but now we're inviting everybody to check out this more streamlined uploading experience. Just login to your YouTube account and click
this link
to opt in. The new video upload flow includes these cool features:
You can enter in your video's metadata (title, description, tags, etc.) while the upload is processing.
Upload multiple files at once, without downloading a plugin (separate progress bars will display for each file).
The file-size limit for uploads has been raised from 100MB to 1GB.
We want your feedback, so don't be shy. Please leave a comment here, upload a video (using our
new upload beta
, of course) or
join the discussion
on our Community Help Forums.
The YouTube Team
Announcing "In My Name," a Global Effort to End Poverty
Thursday 25 September 2008
Today, in New York City, world leaders will meet to discuss the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), eight time-bound, measurable goals that they set in the year 2000 to combat global poverty. These ambitious objectives were promises made to the poor, meant to hold world leaders accountable for ending global poverty by 2015. Today, we are halfway there.
That's why YouTube, Will.i.am, and nonprofit organisations
Oxfam
,
GCAP
,
Save the Children
and
Comic Relief
are launching "
In My Name
," a global effort to raise awareness around these goals -- and to give you the opportunity to tell your leaders to do more. See Will's message on the project here:
John Legend, Scarlett Johansson, Fergie and others are joining Will to speak out about the importance of achieving these goals. But world leaders also need to hear from you.
From now through November 1, visit
www.youtube.com/inmyname
to upload a video stating your name, your home country, and your simple message to your government about the need to meet the MDGs. Be as creative, compelling, simple, or wordy as you like -- this is your chance to join the video petition to end world hunger.
At the end of the programme on November 1, a mash-up of the most powerful submissions from around the world will be broadcast directly to global leaders at the United Nations General Assembly, as proof that global citizens are holding them to their commitment to create a better world for everyone.
You can make a difference in the fight against poverty -- all it takes is your name.
Sincerely,
Ramya R.
YouTube Nonprofits & Activism
New Features For Channels: Category Browsing & Comments Moderation
Monday 15 September 2008
New features for channels we hope you dig:
BROWSE CHANNELS BY CATEGORY
All channels are now categorised so you can more easily find your favourite creators and videos. On the
Channels
page, under
All
, you can browse for channels uploading videos to categories like
Film & Animation
,
News & Politics
,
Sports
, etc. You can also use this functionality to filter your results to show
Partners
only.
MODERATE COMMENTS ON YOUR CHANNEL
Now you can moderate all comments other users leave on your channel page.
To turn this feature on, go to the
Edit Channel Info
page in
My Account
. There you can change your settings to allow comments from "Friends" or "Everyone" to display on your channel automatically or only once you have approved them. All comments waiting for your approval are highlighted on the
"see all"
page of your channel comments. Once you have chosen which individual comments you want to approve, click the "Approve Selected" button. If your
email options
are set to notify you of new bulletins or comments on your channel, the link in your email brings you to the page where you can approve selected comments.
We're always interested in hearing your feedback! So, if you've got something to say about the aforementioned features, please leave a comment on this post or join active discussions on our
Community Help Forums
. You will find pinned topics for the site improvements listed above in the
Feeback & Suggestions
section.
Holler at us,
The YouTube Team
Help Centre Videos Made By You: Call for Submissions
Saturday 13 September 2008
YouTube is, well, a video product. So we thought, why not use videos to provide help to our users? That's where you come in...
We know you know how to make informative, creative videos -- the site's full of them. We're asking you to use your skills to create videos that we can embed in our
Help Centre
. If selected, your video will be seen by many of the 1 million+ users who visit the Help Centre each day!
To participate, here's what you need to do:
1. Decide which
Help Centre entries
you'd like to make an original video about:
Captions / Subtitles definition
Editing my video
Make a playlist
How to upload
Customizing channels
Contact lists
Transferring from camera to computer
Add/Change Profile Picture
Viewing Higher Quality Videos
Video annotations definition
2. Upload your video to your YouTube account, then submit it through
this page
.
Here are a few tips to help you along the way:
Keep it brief
(1-2 minutes is perfect)
Be creative, clear and 100% original
Stay on topic
(only submissions which address the Help Centre entries included in the list above will be accepted)
Keep our
Terms of Use
and
Community Guidelines
in mind
Have fun with it
The deadline for submitting your video is
October 10, 2008
, so get up off of your keester and make some videos to help your fellow users!
Good luck,
The YouTube Help Team
Project: Report -- YouTube's First Journalism Contest
Tuesday 9 September 2008
In partnership with the
Pulitzer Center
, YouTube presents
Project: Report
(www.youtube.com/projectreport), a journalism contest (made possible by
Sony VAIO
and
Intel
) for non-professional, aspiring journalists to tell stories that might not otherwise be covered by traditional media.
In each of the three rounds of Project: Report, reporters will be given an assignment to complete. Each of these assignments gives you an opportunity to report on the important individuals, issues and communities in your life that most people do not yet know about.
The assignment for Round 1 is to profile someone in your community in three minutes or less, highlighting a story you think deserves to be heard by a wide audience. Submit your video entry for Round 1 by midnight EST on Sunday October 5, and a panel of journalists from the Pulitzer Center will narrow the field to 10 semi-finalists. The assignment for Round 2 will then be announced, and the judging for this round will be opened up to the YouTube community to determine the five finalists who will move onto the third and last assignment. Winners of each round will receive technology prizes from Sony VAIO and Intel, and the grand prize winner will be granted a $10,000 journalism fellowship with the Pulitzer Center to report on a story outside of their home country.
Even if you did not participate in or advance past Round 1, you may still complete the assignments for Rounds 2 and 3, though you will not be eligible for the grand prize. With
Project: Report
, YouTube and the Pulitzer Center hope to highlight as many of your stories as possible and draw attention to important topics that have been under-reported, misreported, or not reported at all.
So, it's time to pick up that video camera, take on this assignment, and start reporting your stories to the world.
Yours,
Olivia M.
YouTube News & Politics
Metallica's Favourite YouTube Shredders
Sunday 7 September 2008
Heavy metal rockers Metallica have inspired countless musicians on YouTube – think extreme guitar soloists, pounding drummers, violin trios, hard-edged vocalists and even animated kerrang-ing Lego musicians. Turns out the band itself has noted this phenomenon. Here's drummer Lars Ulrich revealing his favourite Metallica-inspired videos and wondering if some of these talented musicians might even out-play his own group:
Some of the videos the band chose for YouTube.com include an eight-year-old
guitar phenom
from Sweden, a Spanish
violin trio
performing "Nothing Else Matters," teenagers banging out
"Master of Puppets"
in their bedroom, and Canadian "Shred the Web" winner (and uber-fan)
Francisco Meza
. Lars shares the whole playlist on the
MetallicaTV
channel and today we are featuring them on YouTube's home page. Also featured is the new Metallica
video
, "The Day That Never Comes," an epic guitar-solo journey through the desert during wartime.
Happy Headbanging,
Michele K-Tel
YouTube Music
YouTube: Edinburgh's Virtual Venue
Sunday 31 August 2008
The Edinburgh Festival Fringe has a deserved reputation for featuring the best the comedy circuit has to offer. From first-timers to established names, every August the talent heads to Scotland to improvise, present new material and brave late-night variety shows in pursuit of laughs, ticket sales and critical acclaim.
This year some of the key festival venues, including
The Underbelly
,
The Gilded Balloon
and
The Pleasance
enabled performers to film their sets and upload them to YouTube. These have been pulled together at the
Edinburgh Comedy
channel (introduced by the inimitable
Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre
:
The page includes excerpts from Funny Women Fringe Award winner Bridget Christie, 2008 Malcolm Hardee Award recipient
Edward Aczel
and finalist in the hard-fought if.com Best Newcomer category
Pippa Evans
. So what are you waiting for? Get clicking for some of the best stand-up on offer at Edinburgh this year.
Have fun,
The YouTube Team
New Captions Feature For Videos
Saturday 30 August 2008
Here at YouTube, we're always trying to find new ways to enrich your viewing experience and to help video creators reach a wider audience. As part of this goal, we've added a new captioning feature which allows you to give viewers a deeper understanding of your video. Captions can help people who would not otherwise understand the audio track to follow along, especially those who speak other languages or who are deaf and hard of hearing.
You can add captions to one of
your videos
by uploading a closed caption file using the "Captions and Subtitles" menu on the editing page. To add several captions to a video, simply upload multiple files. If you want to include foreign subtitles in multiple languages, upload a separate file for each language. There are over 120 languages to choose from and you can add any title you want for each caption. If a video includes captions, you can activate them by clicking the menu button located on the bottom right of the video player. Clicking this button will also allow viewers to choose which captions they want to see.
Some of our partners have already started using captions to offer you a better understanding of their videos (even with the audio turned off):
-
BBC Worldwide
: captions are provided in five different languages on
this clip
from Top Gear.
-
CNET
: tech
product reviews
from CNET's Crave blog.
-
UC Berkeley
: footage from the
Opencast Project Open House
.
-
MIT
: full lectures on subjects like
Physics
.
-
Gonzodoga
: English subtitles on this awesome Japanese
animation
.
We hope captions will serve to tighten the YouTube community by bringing together international users from different cultures.
We're excited to see what kinds of fun and creative uses for captions you'll be coming up with for your videos!
For more information about how to use captions, visit
this page
.
The YouTube Team
Video Annotations Now Display On Embeds
Wednesday 20 August 2008
Just so you know, the same annotations feature shown on YouTube videos is now visible on our embedded player. We're excited to finally release annotations on embeds, especially since this feature has been requested frequently in your feedback since our initial launch. Annotations bring an interactive element to your videos, and now you can reach an even larger audience when you embed your annotated videos on other sites. You can give your viewers more background and add commentary with speech bubbles, notes and spotlights, and by adding links to any YouTube video, channel, or search results page.
'
Hug the world
' is a stellar example of the many different ways you can use annotations to optimize your videos:
We've already seen an extraordinary amount of creative uses of this feature and we encourage video creators across all YouTube sites to continue using annotations.
For more information about how to use annotations on YouTube, visit
this page
.
The YouTube Team
Beijing From All Angles
Friday 8 August 2008
For the next 16 days, the eyes of the world will be on Beijing and the Games of the XXIX Olympiad. Several of our premier news providers will be there, too, on the ground in China creating feature pieces, photo montage videos, human interest stories and cultural tours of the city. If the athletic competition isn't necessarily your thing but you're still curious about what's going on over there, we've created a central hub of Summer Games content from these providers
here
.
On the Summer Games channel, you'll find the latest news from
Associated Press
, daily round-ups and a photographer's journal from
Getty Images
, in-depth feature pieces from
Reuters
,
Euronews
,
France 24
and
The New York Times
, and unique, up-close-and-personal views of life in Beijing from
Travel Channel
,
GroundReport
and, of course,
SexyBeijingTV
.
Here's a preview from Getty Images:
When the Olympics end on August 24, check back to our Summer Games channel in early September for video from the Beijing
Paralympic Games
, where the magnificent
Oscar Pistorius
will be running in a hotly contested 100-metres and other athletes will be competing for gold on the world stage.
Cheers,
Andrew B.
YouTube Sports
The YouTube Screening Room: New Features, New Films
Saturday 2 August 2008
With over five million views and counting, the films featured in
The YouTube Screening Room
since its
launch a little over a month ago
seem to be holding your attention as much as they've held ours. This program, designed to connect those of you looking for original, compelling film content with talented filmmakers seeking out new audiences, continues to grow and we thank you for your many comments, ratings and messages.
Today, we're pleased to announce two new features, based on your feedback, and four new films. First up: we've launched an easier way to leave comments on films. You'll now find that you can directly link to a film's comments from The YouTube Screening Room landing page by clicking on the blue hypertext Comments number. Second: those of you who wanted a reminder to check out new films every two weeks can now subscribe to The YouTube Screening Room and get updates in your Subscriptions box when new films are featured. To subscribe, just click on the button on the top right side of the "Featured Films" box.
On to the new round of films! This diverse selection of shorts tackles wide-ranging subjects, including how mannequins contribute to female body image, the journey of Polish émigrés, avian interstellar conquest, and the interconnectedness of urban life. They include an Academy Award winner, a Palme d'Or winner, and a Tribeca Film Festival Honourable Mention…
And if you missed a previously featured film, no need to fret! Visit The YouTube Screening Room archives, located at the bottom of the page, to catch up.
Don't forget the popcorn,
Sara P.
YouTube Film
A More Customised Local Experience on YouTube
Thursday 31 July 2008
YouTube is dedicated to presenting original content uploaded by people from around the globe. Last year, when we launched local YouTube sites around the world, we were able to more fully appreciate the diversity of talent in our global community.
Not all French speakers live in France. Japanese entertainment extends far beyond Japan. We are thrilled to unveil a truly global experience on
youtube.com
. We've enhanced the site so you can pick a language and, separately, a local lens for the content. For example, you can view today's Featured Videos for Canada while navigating the site interface in French, UK English, or any of the other 15 offered translations. The language and local content selection links are found in the masthead, right next to the YouTube logo.
And with YouTube localised in 19 geographies and available in 15 languages including Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish, Russian, Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese, there are 300 ways you can customise your international experience, making our site accessible to more people around the world -- even if you're a French Canadian living in Italy and interested in what's popular in Korea. It
is
a small world after all.
The YouTube Team
New YouTube Community Help Forums
Thursday 17 July 2008
Community Help Forums
have just been launched! This new discussion board is the official place to share ideas, feedback, ask and answer questions, and offer general help to your fellow YouTube community members. Here, you can find out the latest on
Announcements
,
Bug Reports & Issues
,
How-to's
and
TestTube Feedback
.
You can access the Community Help Forums through the
Community Tab
, our
Help Centre
or by clicking the
Community Help Forums
link displayed at the bottom of most pages on the site. In addition to related articles, forum posts are now included within search results in the Help Centre. Although YouTube staff may jump in periodically to post updates on bugs, upcoming features or make general announcements, the purpose of this board is for experts from our community (like you) to have a centralised place to post commonly asked questions and provide answers about site usage. You must be logged into your YouTube and Google account to post a question or reply, but anyone can read messages on the Community Help Forums. You will need to click on "Join this group" upon your first visit to the forums, then you can post as often as you like while still logged in.
Our ultimate goal is to make
Community Help Forums
the easiest and fastest way to get help on YouTube - but we can't do it without you. We encourage everyone to stay active, post often and help us make this discussion board the main destination for users to seek help from community experts.
The YouTube Team
Goodbye to the "World's Oldest Blogger"
Tuesday 15 July 2008
Olive Riley, who, at 108, was the "world's oldest blogger," passed away last Saturday at her nursing home near Sydney, Australia. Olive posted many YouTube vlogs retelling tales of her youth and sharing songs that helped to convey her most fundamental belief: "I want to be happy, but I can't be happy 'til I make you happy too."
Back in October 2007, we were fortunate to have Olive be a part of the YouTube Australia launch for which she made this welcome video:
We will miss the woman who once said: "If a woman who left school in 1914 can embrace the Internet in her 106th year, what is there you can't do, friend?" If you knew Olive or have thoughts on her passing, please post a comment below or upload a video memorial to her.
Best,
Damien E.
The YouTube Team
New "My Videos" & Subscription Center
Monday 14 July 2008
Optimisations included in the
beta version
of "My Videos" are now live for all users, along with even more cool features to make managing your videos even easier.
NEW "MY VIDEOS" & SUBSCRIPTION CENTRE
The YouTube video management tools have been improved! Now you can manage all of your videos (
uploads
,
favourites
,
subscriptions
, etc.) in one centralised place. It's easy to quickly add multiple videos to
playlists
,
favourites
, and
quicklists
by clicking the "add to" button. Searching across all of your videos is now possible, as is filtering them via title, time, date added, views and rating. You can also choose to view your videos in a list, grid, or condensed format (displaying up to 20 videos per page). Playlist management and sorting functions are now more streamlined, and include a collapsible menu for editing details.
Don't forget to comment here and let us know what you think of these upgrades.
The YouTube Team
Living Legends Presents Rap Pioneers
Saturday 12 July 2008
The latest instalment of YouTube's Living Legends series is a double dose, featuring two of the greatest rappers of all time. These reigning members of hip-hop royalty represent both East and West coast styles and are two very different voices in the genre's past, present and future. So, get ready for
Public Enemy
guiding force Chuck D. and the one and only Cardozar Calvin Broadus Jr., better known to the world as
Snoop Dogg
. They're eager for your questions:
You'll be in good company as you quiz Chuck and Snoop: we've already got videos from a veritable posse of hip-hoppers and other notables who took time out to share their thoughts on how these two influenced their lives in music or politics. The
Living Legends channel
contains moving testimonials from Black Thought of the Roots, Afrika Bambaataa, Boots Riley from the Coup, as well as political activists like Fred Hampton Jr. and congresswoman Maxine Waters from L.A. There are also insider tales from David Aaron, Snoop's engineer, and Darryl Brooks, a concert promoter who booked Public Enemy on their very first tour. Take a peek:
So, at long last, it's time to
"Bring the Noise"
AND
"Drop it like it's Hot"
– all in the same spot. Upload your question(s) for Chuck and Snoop
here
and/or share your own inspirational story about how these two (or hip-hop in general) touched your life by uploading a video response to the testimonial you like most.
Holla!
The YouTube Team
The Law and Your Privacy
Friday 4 July 2008
As you may have seen in the news, YouTube received a court order to produce viewing data from our database, including usernames and IP addresses. In order to protect our community's privacy, we strongly opposed this motion when Viacom and others filed it.
The court felt differently and ordered us to produce the data. Viacom said that they need general viewing information to determine the proportion of views on YouTube of copyright infringing content vs. non-infringing content.
Of course, we have to follow legal process. But since IP addresses and usernames aren't necessary to determine general viewing practices, our lawyers have asked their lawyers to let us remove that information before we hand over the data they're seeking. (You should know, IP addresses identify a computer, not the person using it. It's not possible to determine your identity solely based on your IP address. Rather, an IP address can reveal what geographic area you're connecting from, or which Internet service provider you're using.)
Why do we keep this information in the first place? It helps us personalise the YouTube experience, getting you closer to the videos you most want to watch. We have many features on the site that help users discover and share compelling content, and we're improving the video experience through recommendations, related videos, and personalised directories that help you find meaningful videos.
We'll continue to fight for your right to share and broadcast your work. The court did impose some encouraging limits -- they agreed with us that Viacom should not have access to private videos or our search technology. Also, the information we provide will be designated highly confidential under court order and only Viacom's outside counsel and experts will have access to it.
Legal matters aside, our focus remains on providing you with the best possible YouTube experience and we continue to be committed to protecting your privacy. Every day, millions of creative people from around the world are posting new, original content. You, our community, are creating the YouTube experience now and tomorrow.
Sincerely,
The YouTube Team
The YouTube Screening Room: Round 2
Friday 4 July 2008
It's been two weeks since the launch of
The YouTube Screening Room
, and that can only mean one thing: a fresh batch of short films for your viewing pleasure.
For those of you who missed the initial announcement, The YouTube Screening Room is our new platform to help top films from around the world find the audiences they deserve. So far, hundreds of thousands of YouTubers have checked out the films, and thousands more have left comments.
We hope you'll enjoy the second round of films as much as you enjoyed the first. "The Clap," from the UK, tells the comic story of a music aficionado who finds a unique way to celebrate his favourite performer. "The Big Empty," from the US, stars Selma Blair as a young woman searching for a cure to her inner ache. "I Met the Walrus," from Canada, is the beautiful animated tale of a 14-year-old Beatle fan's real-life encounter with John Lennon. Finally, "School of Life," from the UK, follows a schoolboy as he learns life's most important lesson.
Stay tuned for our third round of films, debuting in two weeks on July 18.
Finally, for those of you interested in being featured in the YouTube Screening Room, email
ytscreeningroom@youtube.com
.
Happy viewing,
YouTube Film
New Personalised Homepage and Improved Email Notifications
Tuesday 24 June 2008
The new features included in our most recent site update are geared toward a more personalised experience for you. Here is a quick rundown...
NEW PERSONALISED HOMEPAGE
Our goal is to give a simple answer to the question, "What should I watch today?" with a personalised, customisable homepage that makes it easy to find the videos and the people that you care about. After reviewing results from our beta test and feedback from the community, we're happy to now release the new personalised homepage to all logged-in users. Since launching the beta version in February, data has shown an increase in the number of users visiting the homepage, the frequency of visits and the number of subscriptions users make over time. So, this optimised version of the homepage not only means a customisable experience for you, but more exposure for your YouTube videos and channels (Note: if you are logged out or do not have an account, you won't be able to access personalised homepage and will default to our former incarnation).
IMPROVED EMAIL NOTIFICATIONS
The email messages you receive from YouTube have been updated with a new layout. In addition to a streamlined design and many wording changes, any comments or messages are now included directly within the body of the email, helping you keep track of your conversations over time.
We're eager to hear your feedback, so please
let us know what you think
of this latest round of updates.
The YouTube Team
The YouTube Screening Room: Now Playing
Friday 20 June 2008
Today, we're pleased to announce the launch of
the YouTube Screening Room
, a platform for films from around the world to find the
audiences they deserve.
Every year, tens of thousands of films are produced, but many of them
never get a chance to be seen by a wide audience. Until now.
The YouTube Screening Room will connect films and audiences in the
world's largest theatre, not only providing filmmakers with a
much-needed showcase, but also helping you find new high-quality
content every two weeks.
While some of these films have played at film festivals around the
world, others will be showing to a wide audience for the first time.
Our debut shorts include an Academy Award nominee from the United
States, an Academy Award winner from Norway, the world's first
animated opera from Sweden, and a poignant short from indie favourites
Miguel Arteta and Miranda July, also from the United States.
In the next few months, you'll see films from the UK, Canada, Germany,
Ireland, Australia, Austria, France, Kenya and more. Every Screening
Room film is displayed in our High Quality player, and has been posted
with the filmmaker's involvement. So be sure to rate, share and leave
comments. This is your chance to not only watch great films from all
corners of the globe, but also to converse with the filmmakers behind
them.
And if you're a filmmaker interested in playing in the YouTube
Screening Room, send an email about your film to
ytscreeningroom@youtube.com
. We look forward to hearing from you!
The future of film on YouTube starts now,
Sara P.
YouTube Film
YouTube In Your Living Room
Monday 16 June 2008
We've heard many users say, "YouTube is the new TV!". Well, the YouTube Syndication team is excited to now offer a number of options to actually consume YouTube on your television sets. We're also proud to have helped many leaders in the consumer electronics space create YouTube experiences on TV.
Getting YouTube right on TV is extremely challenging from both a design and technology perspective. Each of our partners' engineering and design teams had similar questions:
- What would users, accustomed to a simple remote control interface for their TVs, expect given their typically much richer interaction options when surfing
youtube.com
?
- How could the YouTube experience be personalised for TV?
- How could the extra computing power and memory often required to make this work on their devices be added effectively?
- What were the most important YouTube features to retain, and how would they translate to a 10-foot user experience?
All these partners used the
YouTube APIs
to build their products. One partner's summary of their experience with the APIs: "The YouTube API was very simple, but powerful. It enabled us to develop our user interface flexibly and quickly." Music to our ears!
Here's a quick overview of some products that enable you to access YouTube from your living room...or anywhere else you may have your television(s)!
AppleTV
: In
June 2007
this became the first product to offer a way to watch YouTube on your TV.
Sony Bravia Internet Video Link
: Last week, Sony announced the general availability of YouTube content on their Bravia TVs via the Internet Video Link. Some clips from the YouTube team at the event are linked below.
Nice tie
, Brent!
HP MediaSmart
:
HP announced availability
of YouTube as part of the HP MediaSmart platform.
Panasonic: At
CES 2008
, Panasonic announced
VieraCast
, which allows you to
access YouTube
directly from your TV. The device will be available later this month.
Samsung: Samsung launched their IPTV device which supports YouTube (currently only available in South Korea) in early May.
TiVo
:
Announced that YouTube would be available
on their devices.
Verismo
: A start-up in the IPTV space, has
announced availability
of a YouTube-enabled device.
Videos from the Sony announcement in NYC:
We're excited that the YouTube APIs have enabled these products and look forward to sharing information about even more products, upgrades and innovations from our partners. We're determined to see more devices and applications
"Powered by YouTube"
so that our vision of YouTube Everywhere feels even more real to our users. Head over to the
API Blog
to read more about where you can expect to see YouTube other than
youtube.com
!
The YouTube Team
Video Annotations: New Beta Feature
Sunday 8 June 2008
We're happy to announce a new way to add interactive commentary to your videos: Video Annotations. Using this new tool you can add background information on-screen, create branching ("choose your own adventure" style) stories or add links to any YouTube upload, channel, or search results page -- at any point in your video.
Uploaders have control over creating and editing an unlimited number of annotations on their videos. To start annotating, first make sure you have videos uploaded into your account. Log in, then go to view one of your videos. On the Video page, click the blue "Edit Annotations" button to the right of the video.
As you play your video, you can insert commentary by adding speech bubbles, notes and highlight boxes anywhere you want. You can also use the menu on the left to save a draft, delete commentary, edit start/stop times or add links to your annotations. Once you save the final version, click "Publish" to reveal your annotated video to other users. (Note: Video Annotations are shown by default, but the viewer can turn them off while watching a video through the "Menu" button on the bottom right of the video player).
Looking for some creative ways to use annotations? Check out these examples: a
shell game
,
skydiving adventure
and
magic trick
.
For more information on how to use annotations, please visit the
Help Centre
.
We're really looking forward to seeing how you decide to use this new facility and will add more fun tools and features soon!
Don't forget to
share your feedback
with us,
The YouTube Team
How Can the Internet Make the World a Better Place?
Friday 6 June 2008
Trying to remember what life was like before the Internet gets a little bit harder every day. How did I buy a plane ticket again? We wrote letters by hand and sent them in the mail, you say? What did I do when I needed driving directions?
The Internet has become a necessity in the daily lives of people all around the world, and on June 17 and 18, ministers from more than 40 countries will meet with global business leaders, technical experts, and academics in Seoul, Korea, at the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)'s meeting on the "Future of the Internet Economy." Here they will discuss how the World Wide Web can make the world a better place, and they want to hear from you.
Similar to YouTube's Davos Question framed around the World Economic Forum back in January, the OECD wants to give you the opportunity to ask questions and share your ideas with global leaders about the future of the Internet and how it can be used for good. The best videos will be shown during the meeting in Seoul, and responses from the ministers will be posted on YouTube during the event.
So share your questions and ideas on YouTube now! Visit the OECD's
"Future of the Internet"
channel and tell the world what you think by submitting a video to it.
Cheers,
The YouTube Team
Accuracy Restored to Subscriber Counts
Wednesday 28 May 2008
If you notice a significant change in your subscriber count within the next few days, don't be alarmed - this is due to a fix we are running to rectify a bug which has affected subscriber counts on some users' channels. Normally, when a user subscribes/unsubscribes from your channel, this change is reflected in your subscriber count almost immediately. We discovered an issue which was preventing these numbers from being updated. We expect the fix to take just a few days to reach affected accounts. Once it is complete, everyone's channels will reflect the current and accurate number of subscribers.
Thanks for your patience,
The YouTube Team
New Features For Search, Contacts and Inbox
Saturday 17 May 2008
Hey 'Tubers, it's time for another round of site updates. We added some new features to improve searching for videos, inbox and managing your contacts on YouTube. Check it...
QUERY SUGGESTIONS FOR SEARCH
A query suggestions option is now available for search. To opt in, click the "advanced" link next to the search button, then choose "Display query suggestions as I type" from the search settings. As you type in your search terms a menu will appear with suggested results to choose from to help you more quickly find the videos you're looking for. On the search results page you'll also get an additional list of recommended searches by clicking on any of the terms listed next to the new "Also try" menu.
GOOGLE CONTACT IMPORTER
To import your Google contacts into YouTube, click "Import" on the
"My Contacts"
page, then log in to your Google account. Once we've finished importing, click "Share" to easily send a video you're watching to any of your contacts. You can even "friend" your YouTube contacts and we'll help you stay up to date on the videos they're favoriting, rating, and uploading.
INBOX IMPROVEMENTS FOR COMMENTS
Based on your feedback, we've made some improvements to the notifications for video comments in your YouTube
Inbox
. Comments made to your videos are separated from comments left in response to your comment on someone else's video. The actual text of the comment is also now displayed and you can approve or reject a comment in-line.
Thanks to
Pzottolo
for another video version of our latest site update:
Don't forget to share your feedback with us via
video
,
email
or throw some comments on this here blog.
Best,
The YouTube Team
Cannes 360
Thursday 15 May 2008
Generally speaking, Cannes is considered the
grand-mère
of all film festivals. For 11 days every spring, the cinematic world descends on this beach town in the south of France to celebrate everything film, from the lowest-budget student shorts to the summer's biggest blockbusters.
Starting today and for the next 11 days, we'll be featuring a diverse selection of content from the French Riviera in our
Film & Animation section
, including industry panels from
the Short Film Corner
and the 2008 Real Ideas Studio Community Documentary Challenge, which consists of short works from the best student documentarians.
Finally, what would the world's most glamorous festival be without coverage from the red carpet, courtesy of
IFC
? With Clint Eastwood, Charlie Kaufman and Steven Soderbergh in the running for the prestigious Palme d'Or prize, and world premieres from Stephen Spielberg and Woody Allen, there should be plenty to talk about.
So tune in to YouTube throughout the festival and get those cameras rolling. Whether you were there or not,
we want to hear
your perspectives on Cannes -- the films, the fashions, the French fabulousness!
Happy Festival-going,
Sara P.
YouTube Film
May 10th is Pangea Day!
Sunday 11 May 2008
Today is
Pangea Day
, a global event dedicated to bringing people together through film. With its eclectic mix of movies, live music and passionate speakers, Pangea Day aims to help us see life through the eyes of others. There are live events taking place right now in Cairo, Kigali, London, Los Angeles, Mumbai and Rio de Janeiro.
But don't worry if you live far from any of these cities or couldn't make the actual festivities: On today's YouTube homepage, you'll find a sampling of the 24 short films being featured in the Pangea Day program. Selected by Pangea Day's international competition from over 2,500 submissions from over 100 countries - many of which came from YouTubers heeding last year's call for entries - these films inform and inspire, and provide a taste of what this event is all about.
Pangea Day has also set up an
official YouTube group
for you to share your thoughts about the videos on the homepage. And if you
were
able to make it to one of the live broadcasts, then go on and tell us about that, too.
Be inspired,
Sara P.
YouTube Film
Cannes Film Festival on YouTube
Friday 9 May 2008
The Short Film Corner at Cannes is one of the world's premier destinations for shorts. But you don't need to make the trip to France to see the best of what the festival has to offer, thanks to the National Film Board of Canada's Online Film Competition Cannes 2008.
In its fourth year, the contest features ten shorts, selected from among 650 films from over 40 countries. Representing an eclectic mix of languages and genres, the finalists are all available for viewing on the
NFB's YouTube channel
. The prize? In addition to bragging rights, the director of the winning short film will receive a professional DV camera and a portable computer with post-production software.
Ready for the best part? You determine the winner. That's right -- the winning film will be chosen by audience voting, based on the one-to-five-star rating scale you know and love.
Film jurors, it's time to cast your votes.
Sara P.
YouTube Film
Cannes Film Festival on YouTube
Friday 9 May 2008
The Short Film Corner at Cannes is one of the world's premier destinations for shorts. But you don't need to make the trip to France to see the best of what the festival has to offer, thanks to the National Film Board of Canada's Online Film Competition Cannes 2008.
In its fourth year, the contest features ten shorts, selected from among 650 films from over 40 countries. Representing an eclectic mix of languages and genres, the finalists are all available for viewing on the
NFB's YouTube channel
. The prize? In addition to bragging rights, the director of the winning short film will receive a professional DV camera and a portable computer with post-production software.
Ready for the best part? You determine the winner. That's right -- the winning film will be chosen by audience voting, based on the one-to-five-star rating scale you know and love.
Film jurors, it's time to cast your votes.
Sara P.
YouTube Film
New Inbox And My Contacts Features Are Live
Saturday 3 May 2008
Updates made to the
Inbox
and
My Contacts
features are now live for all YouTube users. After announcing the
beta launch
for these features a couple of weeks ago, we made some changes to the Inbox based on your feedback. Now mini-thumbnails appear on the list of messages for video responses and videos users have shared with you. Also, the link to view all comments has been restored in email notifications for comments made to your videos and responses to comments of your own.
We'd really like to hear what you think about the newest versions of Inbox and My Contacts, so please share your feedback with us via
video
,
email
or leave a comment on this blog.
The YouTube Team
Placing Videos Into Google Docs Presentations
Sunday 27 April 2008
Last month, we
posted
about our efforts to make YouTube as open as possible and shared a few examples of partners who were integrating YouTube content into their applications. Today, we'd like to point out another example.
Google Docs
is a free, web-based word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation application that allows you to share and collaborate with others in real-time. The Docs team just
announced
on their blog that you can now search for and insert YouTube videos into your presentation slides. This means that you'll be able to insert your favourite videos in your presentations and play them to your audience when you're giving your presentations.
To see this new feature in action, check out this
published presentation
.
Haven't heard of Docs? Watch this video that explains what Google Docs is in plain English:
The YouTube Team
Beta Launch for YouTube Feature Updates
Sunday 20 April 2008
We just launched beta versions of two new feature updates to improve overall management of your messages and contacts. These tests are already being served to a small percentage of randomly selected users, but anyone can choose to opt in and test them out. Once logged in to your account, click the following links to start using the beta versions of the new
Inbox
and
My Contacts
features.
NEW INBOX
Along with a slick new interface, the new YouTube
messaging system
sports significantly faster loading times and a smarter message throttling system (in other words, non-spammers should see "Sorry, please wait to send more messages" a whole lot less). Video comments, responses, shared videos, friend invites and personal messages can now be seen in one unified view, and a new counter will show the number of unread messages in each category. You can now send a message to multiple recipients, and other people can no longer see whether or not you have read their messages. Friend invites are now easier to manage, with the newest invites appearing on top of the list, new pagination controls, and fewer page refreshes all around.
MY CONTACTS
For the new
My Contacts
beta we changed the layout and functionality to make creating contacts and organising your friends, subscribers and subscriptions much easier. You can select multiple contacts at once to view details, apply labels and send messages. You can also add a real name and email address to the info listed for a contact to make it easier to identify your friends when sharing videos or messaging (since you may not always remember that your friend Daniel is really vidcritic517). In addition, your Friends label is now reserved exclusively for users who you have confirmed to be your friend.
We'd love to get your feedback on these new features before we launch the full release, so please post a comment here,
upload
a video or shoot us an
email
and let us know what you think!
Happy testing,
The YouTube Team
YouTube Policy Enforcement Changes
Friday 18 April 2008
We are very excited to announce some big changes to our policy enforcement systems. Having clear rules and fair consequences are genuinely important to us and these improvements have been a long time coming.
STRIKES THAT EXPIRE
It didn't seem fair that a user who uploads three videos that violate the
Community Guidelines
over the span of a year was being treated the same as someone who uploads those same videos over the course of a week. To change this, we've made it so that violations are now rescinded after six months. Accounts that had one or two warnings (as of April 16, 2008) for Community Guidelines (or
Terms of Use
) violations have been given a clean slate and are going forward under the new system, too!
Note that this does not apply to copyright claims, which don't expire and are not being cleared.
NEW NOTIFICATIONS
It used to be that if a video was removed for violating the Community Guidelines or due to a claim of copyright infringement, the user would be sent a notice via email. But these notices sometimes get caught by spam filters or go unread. The new system also displays the notice on YouTube the next time they access the site.
MUTING ACCOUNTS
We are experimenting with ways of correcting some types of abusive behaviour that aren't as harsh or as permanent as suspending users. What we've come up with is to temporarily mute users, so that they can still use the site and watch videos, but they can't post new content. Right now it is set up to affect users who have two Community Guidelines warnings in a six-month period and will last two weeks. Let us know what you think, if it works well we may expand it to help address other kinds of abuse as well.
These are just a few of the first visible changes made to the way these things work. There is a lot of work being done behind the scenes to continue to improve upon them. We look forward to your feedback and further enhancing the safety and experience of the YouTube community.
For more information, please see our new Help Centre article on
General Policy Enforcement Information
.
The YouTube Team
YouTube Partner Programme travels to Japan, Australia, Ireland
Wednesday 16 April 2008
What do Japan, Australia, and Ireland all have in common?
They are the newest countries from which users can now apply to become partners in the YouTube Partner Programme.
Now open in six countries, the
YouTube Partner Programme
is our way of recognising the most popular and prolific original content creators in the YouTube community worldwide. It's only been four months since we
first expanded
in December, but the results have already exceeded our expectations: we've paid out more than $1,000,000 in total revenue to user partners as part of the Partner Programme. The programme continues to grow every day, and we are excited to welcome
tokyomimecity
and
Hughsnews
as two of our newest partners.
So for those YouTube users from the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Ireland, Japan, or Australia: if you've built a significant audience on YouTube and would like to become a YouTube partner,
apply now
. To others around the world, please sit tight -- we hope to bring the programme to new countries soon.
The YouTube Team
Site Update 4/9
Friday 11 April 2008
Some very cool new features have just been unveiled on YouTube, check 'em out...
VIDEO SHARING IMPROVEMENTS
We revamped the video watch page by adding more sharing features and a new streamlined design to the Share, Favourite, Playlists and Flag sections. We now show some top social sharing sites directly on the video watch page, making it easier for you to share your favourite videos with your network. These top sites are also personalised based on your usage - so if you Digg more often than you Facebook, Digg will show up instead. Video comments and responses have also been reorganised into a "Commentary" tab, including thumbnails for video responses and a handy scroll bar for easier navigation. The new "Statistics & Data" tab houses collapsible sections for recent ratings, video honors and sites linking to that video.
ADVANCED SEARCH OPTIONS
New advanced search options are now available anywhere you see a search field on YouTube. Just click "advanced search" to choose the results you want, based on different key word combinations such as exact phrases, all words, excluding certain words, etc.. You can also hone down your results further to find videos matching specific upload criteria like language, category, date uploaded, duration of video, as well as videos uploaded within a specific time period (i.e. "This Month, "This Week" and "Today").
MULTIFILE UPLOADER FOR MAC
When we
launched
our multifile uploader for Windows PC users last year, we promised to follow it up with a Mac-friendly version. Now Mac users can
download the software
and access the
Multifile Upload page
where you can upload several videos at once. Each video may be up to 10 minutes in length and up to 1GB in size, and all will be available in
My Videos
after processing.
Now, for the video version of these exciting changes, here's Mr.
Pzottolo
with this edition of YouTube News:
Keep your eyes peeled for more updates coming soon,
The YouTube Team
Introducing Living Legends
Friday 4 April 2008
Today we are proud to launch
Living Legends
, a new monthly programme that invites luminaries from around the world to communicate directly with the YouTube community by answering your questions and becoming a genuine participant on the site. We plan on bringing you an exciting roster of leaders in film, sports, politics, and a whole lot more. But, first, we begin with a little rock 'n' roll.
Only these gentlemen are not exactly little, with more than 24 studio LPs released and over 200 million albums sold. They've got an unquenchable passion for blues and R&B and have blended it into a unique sound that has influenced countless musicians around the world. Take a look at the video they made just for YouTube, part of which was shot -- intriguingly -- in a bathroom:
Yep, it's the Rolling Stones. So, start thinking of a good question for Mick & Keef, fire up those video cameras and upload your question to the
Living Legends
. And, of course, stay tuned for more legends to come…
Getting Our Ya-Ya's Out,
The YouTube Team
YouTube Reveals Video Analytics Tool For All Users
Thursday 27 March 2008
Whether a YouTube video has 10 views or 10,000,000, people always want to know the same thing: who's watching this? Where do viewers come from? How did they find my video?
Finally, we have some answers. Today we're releasing YouTube Insight, a free tool that enables anyone with a YouTube account to view detailed statistics about the videos that they upload to the site. For example, uploaders can see how often their videos are viewed in different geographic regions, as well as how popular they are relative to all videos in that market over a given period of time. You can also delve deeper into the lifecycle of your videos, like how long it takes for a video to become popular, and what happens to video views as popularity peaks.
How does this help you? Well, using these metrics, you can increase your videos' view counts and improve your popularity on the site. For instance, you might learn that your videos are most popular on Wednesdays, that you have a huge following in Spain, or that new videos that play off previous content become more popular more quickly. With this information, you can concentrate on creating compelling new content that appeals to your target audiences, and post these videos on days you know these viewers are on the site. (Maybe even post your next video in Spanish?) And for those of you who are also
partners
, the more popular a video is, the more advertising revenue it can generate.
We'll be making new features and additional information available fairly quickly -- like a specific breakdown of how viewers discovered the video -- so keep an eye out as we roll out new features. As for now, you can find currently available metrics by clicking under the "About this Video" button under "My account > Videos, Favourites, Playlists > Manage my Videos."
The YouTube Team
YouTube Videos in High Quality
Monday 24 March 2008
You may have noticed that we're now giving you the option of watching some YouTube videos in higher quality. We're making these streams available on certain videos, based upon the source file uploaded to us, and over time you'll find a greater percentage of the library is available to view in higher quality. This feature applies to all eligible videos uploaded from the YouTube community, and is not restricted to partner content, so everyone can enjoy this upgrade.
How do you watch higher quality videos? On your
Account
page you're now able to choose "always show me higher quality when available" or "never show me higher quality." We suggest you select "always show me..." only if you have a fast internet connection, otherwise you might find that videos don't play as quickly or smoothly as you're used to. Higher quality videos also have a link right below the video player which will allow you to select between the normal or higher quality settings.
We want to help everyone understand that YouTube will continue to evolve with the videos you're creating. We're especially excited about offering this upgrade in video quality to our community of filmmakers and animators, who have been requesting this feature for some time. As more of you guys produce great-looking videos, we want to make sure they can be seen in all their glory. So we'll continue to increase quality behind the scenes and make tweaks to support your uploads. (Remember, we can now support uploads up to 1GB in size.)
You may also wonder how video quality is chosen. Our general philosophy is to make sure that as many people as possible can access YouTube and that videos start quickly and play smoothly. That's one reason why you don't see us racing to call this "Super Duper YouTube HD," because most people don't want to wait a long time for videos to play.
Keep creating and watching...
The YouTube Team
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