YouTube Australia Blog

YouTube in Rewind: What you were watching in 2012

Tuesday, 18 December 2012

It’s that time of year again to pause, rewind and remember the videos, the entertainers, and the moments that captivated us in 2012.

This year, Korean Pop music transcended boundaries and took the world by storm. Cover songs, parodies, and "do-it-yourself" music videos from all genres entertained us in countries near and far. Aussies participated in conversations at a global scale, uploading videos to share ideas on everything from nonprofit campaigns, to political satire, to new and surprising voices and talents. And all over the world, we tuned in for the most up-to-date news footage of presidential elections, natural disasters and more.

2012 has been a big year for YouTube. Globally, we’ve been watching over 4 billion hours of video a month. Millions of creators are using YouTube channels to experiment with innovative forms of entertainment, explore their passions and interests, take creativity and pop culture to new levels. 2012’s top trending videos showcase this creative ingenuity in ways we'd never before thought possible.

Check out Australia’s top trending videos for 2012 below:

Posted by Kevin Allocca, YouTube trends manager

YouTube Next How-to Guru: Could you be next?

Thursday, 13 December 2012

Picture this. You’re almost ready for that cocktail party and you realize you don’t know how to tie a bow-tie. Or you’re packing for the holidays and have no idea how to fit everything in your bag. Tons of people turn to YouTube to watch tutorials on everything from doing a perfect braid to learning how to poach an egg.

So we’re launching YouTube Next How-to Guru and are on the hunt to find the coolest, cleverest, canniest and most creative makers out there. Do you crochet with the crafters? Do you give tips about your Toyota? Do you offer pointers about pasta? No matter your speciality, whether it’s scrapbooking or baseball or anything else, we’d love to hear from all the How-To Gurus out there - you know who you are!

All you have to do is submit your channel which focuses on how-to videos, as long as it’s educational and family-friendly.

The top 16 YouTube Next How-To Gurus will be chosen, and will be awarded a special, private Google+ workshop series from industry experts and YouTube staff, $4,000 worth of production equipment, and promotion on YouTube to help bring new eyeballs to your videos.

The program is open to creators in the US, Canada, UK, Ireland, South Africa, India, Australia and New Zealand; it opens today and entries close on December 28, 2012.

We’re looking forward to seeing what you can teach us!

Austin Lau, YouTube Creator Programs Manager, recently watched “How To Kill a Mustache”

[Cross-posted from the YouTube Creator Blog]

A new look to help you to subscribe and watch channels on YouTube

Friday, 7 December 2012

A new look to help you to subscribe and watch channels on YouTube

Those of you who use YouTube most have learned the secret to making it even better—find the channels you love and subscribe, subscribe, subscribe. Last year we began to make it easier to subscribe to the channels you care about by introducing a Guide on the home page. When you add subscriptions to your Guide, you organize YouTube around what you like, available whenever you watch YouTube. Today, we’re taking the next step by bringing your subscription-filled Guide with you across both the site and all devices, as your best source of what to watch on YouTube.

Your Guide to YouTube

Just subscribe to your favorite channels and the Guide lets you know when there are new videos waiting for you to enjoy, suggests the latest and greatest channels you might like, and shows you what your friends are sharing across the web. You’ll also find the Guide and your subscriptions on apps across hundreds of millions of devices including Android, iPhone, Playstation 3, Google TV and more.

A cleaner, simpler look

You come to YouTube to watch the videos you care about, so it’s important that the videos stand out. In this new layout, you’ll find the most crucial elements are front and center when you watch a video: the video is right at the top of the page and the subscribe button, social actions and video information are all combined directly below the player. Playlists are now available to the right of the video so you can browse through while you watch. You’ll also see this cleaner and simpler design across the entire site.

Your feedback matters

We’d love to get your feedback on these updates, so we’ll be hosting a Google+ Hangout on Air and a Reddit IAmA in the coming weeks--stay tuned here for details. If you’re a YouTube creator, you can learn more about these updates on our YouTube Creator Blog.

Josh Sassoon, Senior Unicorn eXperience Designer, recently watched “Hipster Thanksgiving” and
Alex Nicksay, Staff Engineer, recently watched “Crystalfilm.”

First fan-voted ARIA Award for Best Video goes to Missy Higgins’ ‘Everyone’s Waiting’

Tuesday, 27 November 2012

We know the YouTube community loves its music videos, and yet even we were overwhelmed by the interest in the first ever fan-voted ARIA Award for Best Video, presented by ARIA and YouTube.

There were thousands upon thousands of votes, and last night Missy Higgins’ ‘Everyone’s Waiting’ was declared the winner.

The video’s director, Natasha Pincus, is no stranger to ARIA awards having won this Award last year for her now world-famous video, Gotye’s ‘Somebody That I Used To Know’.

Music videos have gone through a major renaissance in the last few years, and it’s wonderful to see our Australian artists embracing the medium and pushing creative boundaries. Last year's winner, Gotye, became one of the most viewed videos of all time on YouTube and it is a testament to the calibre of Australian recording artists and video producers that local talent continues to perform so well on YouTube globally.

Congratulations Missy and Natasha!

This line up of nominees for Best Video Award were:

Alex Weltlinger – 360 - Boys Like you
Luci Schroder – Alpine - Hands
Animal Logic – Hilltop Hoods - I Love It
Brent “Quincy” Buchanan – The Grindhouse – Jackson Firebird, Cock Rockin’
Emma Tomelty – Hermitude, from the album “Heperparadise”, Speak Of The Devil
Darcy Prendergast - Kate Miller-Heidke, I’ll Change Your Mind
Josh Logue - Lanie Lane – Oh Well, That’s What You Get Falling In Love With a Cowboy
Natasha Pincus- Missy Higgins, Everyone’s Waiting
Sam Bennetts – Bluejuice, Act Yr Age
Josh Logue -The Rubens, My Gun

Posted by Richard North, Content Partnership Manager, YouTube

Making it easier to watch YouTube videos on TV

Wednesday, 14 November 2012

Cross-posted from the Official YouTube Blog
What if you could send YouTube videos from your phone to your TV with a click of a button? It’s an idea we’ve been working on since 2010, and today we’re taking the next step.
We’re making it even easier to play videos from your phone or tablet on your TV, with a YouTube app update for Android and Google TV that automatically pairs your devices on the same WiFi. Just find a video on your YouTube app for Android — like the latest video from GoPro or H+ The Digital Series — click the TV icon that appears, and the video will play instantly on your Google TV. Like a remote control, you can pause, scroll or skip to the next video with your mobile device as it plays on your TV. Since your devices are connected in the cloud, you can also do things like find the next video to watch from your tablet or browse around the web on your phone, all while the video plays on TV. You can even connect multiple devices to the TV to have your friends add to the playlist. Stay tuned to see this feature coming to more devices and screens in the future. The next evolution of TV is in your hands. Timbo Drayson, Product Manager, recently watched all of H+ The Digital Series on his TV.

Have Your Say: 2012 ARIA Award for Best Video

Thursday, 1 November 2012

YouTube has become the world’s largest stage for up and coming musicians of all shapes & sizes (Gangnam anyone?). We’re proud to continue supporting Aussie music talent by giving you, the YouTube community, the chance to vote for the 2012 ARIA award for Best Video. Have a look at the nominees:

This year, Goyte’s musical sensation Somebody that I used to know has been viewed over 339 million times on YouTube, and that doesn’t include spin-offs and fan-uploaded videos that have been viewed over 260 million times. This group of five people on one guitar, and Wally’s own YouTube orchestra are two of our favourites.

To have your say, visit the official ARIA YouTube channel where you can watch all of the videos nominated for an ARIA this year, including the ten up for Best Video. Simply cast a thumbs up for who you think should win, and be sure to subscribe to the channel to find out who wins.

Posted by Ernesto Soriano III, YouTube Australia, just watched Minecraft Style - A Parody of PSY’s Gangnam Style

Social shift sees Gillard go viral

Wednesday, 17 October 2012

[Guest Blog Post by Kieran Ricketts, ABC News Online - Cross posted from the Google Australia Blog]
How does a piece of powerful Australian political theatre that saw accusations of misogyny hurled across the political divide become watercooler social media buzz the world over?
As with many ‘overnight’ online successes, it’s the result of a long tail of strategic thinking. The video in question – whatever your view of the politics that surround it – is compelling, polemic and tense.

And it’s had an extraordinary response – over 1.5 million views in less than a week. It has been watched so much that totalling the amount of minutes viewed equates to over 14.5 years of eyeballing – and it has been ‘liked’ on YouTube 15,000 times.

There are no happy accidents involved. ABC Innovation and ABC News Online have been participating in YouTube Partner Events over the last few months and gained some key insights into how we use the platform better.

We know that what we were doing in the past – simply channelling video en masse through to YouTube – was not working. We know people want a selection of video that is ‘watercooler’ content – content worth sharing, content that generates discussion and debate, powerful words and pictures. So we’re looking for that content actively, and putting it where people are – on social media platforms – instead of waiting for them to come to our News website.

The traffic to the Gillard clip comes from a range of places. It was featured on the YouTube front page, embedded by a variety of international mastheads including The New Yorker and played back 57% of the time on mobile devices – a statistic that would have been jawdropping years ago, but is now the status quo. We’ve also been working with our international social media partner Storyful to make content like this available to major international media partners the minute it is available.

Ratio of likes to dislikes on the video by the countries that viewed it the most between 8 and 14 October (ordered by number of likes)
To get to this position, we not only hinged off the back of some vastly improved technical processes that get crisp, clean video out of ABC News television systems and onto third parties at lightning speed – but also built a YouTube experience that encourages users to find more related ABC News content right alongside what they’re currently watching. We also place it all on a consistently branded YouTube channel. We’re heartened too that more YouTube users have reacted by subscribing to our YouTube channel so they see more of our content the minute it’s delivered.

The raw Gillard vision was available to a number of media outlets. That the ABC has had such a strong reception to this content ahead of other broadcasters is a reflection of our ability to get it online, in the right place at the right speed – a competitive advantage our rolling news focus at ABC News Online and ABC News 24 enables us to really leverage. It’s a coming of age story for us, really.

Guest post by Kieran Ricketts, ABC News Online

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