Official Blog
You Choose '08: The Economy
Monday, March 31, 2008
We often describe our You Choose '08 platform as "the world's largest town hall" for political discussion. Every day there are thousands of discussions on YouTube over the issues that face our communities, our families, and our world. Starting today, in this blog, we're going to put forth a six-part series focusing on public topics that are being discussed in various circles on YouTube. We begin with the U.S. economy.
It's no secret that with the declining dollar, the U.S. mortgage crisis, and the recent collapse of Wall Street investment banking firm Bear Sterns, the U.S. economy is in trouble. YouTubers like
Yayatv
are encouraging people to
save their money
, while others like
billybobjoe57
warn people to sprint from the dollar as fast as they can. Some users think the solutions to the economic crisis lie with our leaders – take, for example,
n8glenn
, who says that Ron Paul's libertarian philosophies are the way to a
better future.
Several YouTube newscasts have tackled this issue with man-on-the-street interviews, like this one from
moblogictv
, which asks,
"What will you do with your $600 tax break?"
, or this one from
WMALnews
, which asks,
"What's left of your wallet?"
And of course the U.S. presidential candidates aren't going to miss out on the opportunity to weigh in on the economy, either. Senators
McCain
,
Clinton
, and
Obama
all have videos proposing solutions to the U.S. economic crisis. Check them out on our
You Choose '08
platform.
Finally, you can toggle through this playlist for a broader look at the conversations going on about the U.S. economy. Keep an eye out for the video from
wallstrip
-- it will make you laugh, even if your pocketbook is feeling wounded.
Yours,
Steve G.
YouTube News & Politics
YouTube Reveals Video Analytics Tool for All Users
Wednesday, March 26, 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, Favorites, Playlists > Manage my Videos."
The YouTube Team
YouTube Awards -- Winners Announced!
Friday, March 21, 2008
And the results are in! Hundreds of thousands votes were cast during the week-long voting process, and 12 videos emerged victorious in their respective categories. Head over
here
to see the winners or click
here
to review all the nominees, which were largely defined as the videos you favorited to watch again and again, that generated the most discussion or views, and/or made some kind of societal impact.
Tell us what you thought about this year's awards experience and how we could make it better in the future. More community involvement is definitely on the top of the list, as is giving the event more of a real-world presence (beyond the the mammoth trophy winners will receive).
Meanwhile, upload those videos and start building up an audience for them. Anything could happen in 2008...
Best wishes,
The YouTube Team
The Iraq War, Five Years On
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
This week marks the fifth anniversary of the Iraq War. Though YouTube did not even exist when American missiles first struck Baghdad five years ago today, it has since been used by hundreds of thousands of people to document, discuss, and debate the most controversial war of this century.
U.S. soldiers have used YouTube in unique ways. Some have filmed
holiday greetings
to send back home to family members. Others have documented
what life is like on the ground
, and a more creative lot have filmed music videos or raps like
"Lazy Ramadi"
, which has gained hundreds of thousands of views.
Still others have posted videos taking a more poignant look at what's taken place in the Middle East, like
this video reflection
posted by a defense contractor who shares pictures of his experience in Iraq.
Protest videos
have of course been popular, too, as regular people who wouldn't otherwise have a voice have used YouTube as their personal soapbox. And not to be outdone, the coalition forces have their own
YouTube channel
, where they've gotten great attention for the riveting pieces they've uploaded straight from the battlefield, like
this one
on Baghdad's Haifa Street that has over 2 million views.
Perhaps the most touching video we've seen came in a very unlikely form:
an opera
. For seven full minutes in this must-see clip, Baritone Andrew Garland softly sings the words from the last letter that Private Jesse Givens ever wrote to his wife Melissa, his five-year-old daughter Dakota, and his unborn child Carson.
There are more videos than we can acknowledge here, but check out this playlist for a look at more of the best.
Yours,
Steve G.
YouTube News & Politics
The Vancouver Film School/YouTube Scholarship Competition
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Film schools have helped produce some of the greatest filmmakers of all
time -- Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola, to name a few. But, in
many ways, they've also been restricted to a select few.
Which is why I'm pleased to report that today marks the start of a
partnership between YouTube and the
Vancouver Film School
to make film school accessible to up-and-coming filmmakers all over the world!
Aspiring directors, actors, animators, screenwriters – even sound
designers – in all of YouTube's 19 countries are invited to step up to
the challenge in order to win one of three scholarships to any of
Vancouver Film School's 14 outstanding educational programmes.
After Vancouver Film School whittles down the submission pool to top applicants, the YouTube community will vote for the three scholarship winners.
This is your chance to continue the democratization of filmmaking and to determine who some of our brightest future film stars might be.
Check out the
competition
and visit our
FAQs
to confirm your eligibility and pick up tips on creating a top-notch entry.
Happy filmmaking,
Sara P.
YouTube Film
YouTube Videos in High Quality
Friday, March 14, 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.
Right now the Help Center information is pretty basic, but ongoing we'll be making more specific details available for those content creators who really want to tune their videos for YouTube.
Keep creating and watching...
The YouTube Team
The YouTube Awards Are Back!
Thursday, March 13, 2008
In 2007, we witnessed an explosion of ideas and creativity on YouTube. You showed us that online video is not just a way to share pet and baby videos (though it is certainly good for that, too), but rather it can be so much more: a showcase for aspiring artists, a megaphone for everyday people, a way to learn new skills and even to change the political process.
In recognition of all of these vibrant uses of and communities on YouTube, we expanded the awards this year to include five new categories -- Best Short Film, Best Political Video, Best Sports Video, Best Eyewitness Video, and Best Instructional Video – for a total of 12. Each category now has six nominees instead of 10 (a special nod to those of you with short attention spans).
You'll also notice that the structure of the awards and the way voting works look a little different this year. Every time you refresh the page, the order of the categories and the featured thumbnail change in a random order so there can be no bias in the way the content is viewed or presented.
As you might imagine, whittling down any category to six videos was a gargantuan task and already we'll say we're sorry to the hundreds/thousands of deserving content creators who didn't get nominated. But you can't exactly blame us - you made these videos memorable and helped them rise to the top of the YouTube charts. The nominees reflect some of the most buzzed-about videos on the site, particularly the ones you bookmarked to watch later (and presumably again and again).
So head over to the
YouTube Video Awards channel
to start watching and voting for some of the videos that defined '07. You can vote once per day (though you may not change your vote on the same day) and you have until 11:59pm PT on March 19, 2008, to do so. Winners will be announced on March 21, 2008, at which point we'll feature them on
this page
as well as overnight them
a trophy like no other
(and believe us when we say this). Winners will also get a special invitation to a YouTube event later this year.
Good luck and have fun!
The YouTube Team
YouTube Videos in High Quality
Tuesday, March 11, 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.
How do you select 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
SXSW on YouTube
Sunday, March 9, 2008
For the next week and a half, the
SXSW festival
is taking over Austin, Texas, to celebrate music, film and all things interactive. If you think a few of the shorts in the SXSW line-up sound familiar, that's because they do - YouTube features
href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fY4Epc2XSGc">My First Crush,
Knock Knock
,
"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQPDU9uqxTA">The Golden Egg and
Spider
all made it to the big screen, so congratulate your fellow YouTube filmmakers!
And to stay up-to-date with the music program here in the Land of Dee-licious BBQ, stay tuned to our
music category
for new videos from guitarist extraordinare Kaki King and Bay Area singing-songwriting treasure Kelley Stolz.
If you're attending the festival yourself, don't be shy. Get those cameras out and rolling, and let us know when you post your videos. We want to see the festival through your eyes and hear about the bands You. Just. Can't. Miss. If you need some inspiration, check out some of these fantastic video diaries from last year, as well as the festival's
href="http://www.youtube.com/user/SXSWFilmFestival"> official channel.
value="http://www.youtube.com/v/WcW8uXWmvcI">
value="transparent">
src="http://www.youtube.com/v/WcW8uXWmvcI"
type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425"
height="355">
value="http://www.youtube.com/v/XJ5_BNabiRY">
value="transparent">
src="http://www.youtube.com/v/XJ5_BNabiRY"
type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425"
height="355">
Cheers,
Sara P. and Michele K-tel
YouTube Film and Music
Sigur Ros Take Over
Friday, March 7, 2008
We are thrilled to let the shy and beguiling Icelandic post-rock quartet Sigur Ros take over our home page with a full, 97-minute presentation of their DVD
Heima
, along with 10 videos created by their fans out of unused footage from the film.
What is this otherworldly road trip?
Heima
documents Sigur Ros' 2006 free tour of Iceland and it's their first-ever concert film. With the shows announced only by word-of-mouth, the band ended up performing in deserted fish factories, far West fjords and tiny regional community halls. "Heima" means both "at home" and "homeland" in Icelandic.
Sigur Ros invited their fans to participate in their film project by creating
a video contest on YouTube
asking users to create their own "little Heima" with extra footage from the DVD. After sorting through nearly 150 videos, the band selected their favorite, by sdewitt108, whose film has been referred to as
"The Cosmic Sheep."
We'll let Sigur Ros tell you (in their own reluctant manner) about the contest, the cosmic sheep, and their unique and magical film:
We hope you enjoy this peaceful journey of music and epic landscapes from
Heima
, as presented by Sigur Ros and, of course, you.
Takk,
Michele K-Tel
YouTube Music
Escape From Spring Break
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
It's March and, on the travel front, that can mean only one thing: sojourners, beware. In these waters, there be Spring Breakers.
For the next month, many of the Western hemisphere's finest vacation destinations will be inundated with legions of sun-worshipping students hellbent on having the most unforgettable week of their young lives. And, yes, the irony that much of that week will actually be forgotten is not lost on us here at YouTube.
Unfortunately, not everyone looking for a little end-of-winter respite fits into that enviable demographic. Some of us just want to get a little sun, a little good food, and a lot of peace and quiet. For those of you looking to avoid the throngs of young revelers, do not despair. YouTube's travel community has come to the rescue.
And for those college students thinking about a spring break that's a little more off the beaten path, here are a few fantastic ideas from some inspiring YouTube users.
Happy Travels,
The YouTube Team
March 4th Madness
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
The race for the White House continues today as Texas, Ohio, Rhode Island, and Vermont hold their presidential primaries. All eyes are on the Democratic primaries in Ohio and Texas as Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton face off for crucial votes that could determine which candidate gets the nomination. Will today's primaries seal the deal for Senator Obama, or will they signal the resurgence of Senator Clinton and push this contest all the way to the Democratic National Convention?
As usual, YouTubers from all over the country are weighing in on what's happening in Texas and Ohio.
And while the GOP nomination is all but locked up for John McCain, Mike Huckabee still has his share of supporters -- like the Pena family, who wrote a song reminding Texas voters not to give up on the former Arkansas governor just yet.
Finally, if you're confused about the Texas voting system, with its unique combination of caucuses and primaries, watch this
video
from WhyTuesday, which offers a helpful and entertaining explanation. And as always, check back to our
You Choose '08 platform
for election news and commentary from voters, candidates, and news organizations as today's primaries unfold.
Yours,
Steve G.
YouTube News & Politics
You Choose '08 New Features
Sunday, March 2, 2008
As the 2008 presidential primary election continues to winnow the Republican and Democratic field, our You Choose '08 platform has expanded to include more election content for you to watch. Not only do we have videos from the candidates' YouTube channels, but we also have more content from news organizations, bloggers and, of course, you. Check out the redesign
here
.
We'll feature five timely election videos here every week day -- and every Friday we'll post a "Best of the Week" list so you can catch up over the weekend if you missed anything. Our Election News section will feature videos from our news partners, including the
Associated Press
,
CBS News
, and
The New York Times
. In addition, lots of local news stations have YouTube channels and we'll be highlighting their content too.
In our playlist box, you can keep track of the candidates' views on the important issues in this election, and we've planted a few of your ideas in there as well. You can also can keep track of past political programs that ran on YouTube (the debates, primary and caucus voter video projects, international political platforms) by clicking on the icons down in the footer of the page.
So what do you think? Shoot us an email with your thoughts as we continue to develop You Choose '08 to bring candidates and voters together in effective ways. We'd also love your video ideas for the You Choose '08 playlists.
Finally, stay tuned to the
You Choose '08
platform as the 2008 election broadens beyond the presidential race to Congressional, state and local elections, or head over to our political platforms
in the UK
and
Spain
for a taste of politics beyond the 50 states.
Yours,
Steve G.
YouTube News & Politics
Site Update 2/27
Saturday, March 1, 2008
The following features are now appearing on YouTube. Check out the goods...
CHARACTER COUNTER FOR VIDEO COMMENTS
The visual counter lets you know exactly how many characters you have left before approaching the limit. Now you will always know how many words you can fit in before hitting 'submit'.
CONTEXTUAL HELP IN MY ACCOUNT
You'll notice some new help icons next to features on your
account
. To see instructions and helpful information related to managing things like your
channel design
and
videos
, just hover over the " ? " icons. Click the "read more" link to go directly to the full article related to that particular feature in our Help Center.
EXPERIMENTAL PERSONALIZED HOMEPAGE BETA
We just launched a new experimental personalized YouTube homepage. Check out all the details in our
previous blog post
before you opt in to the beta by clicking
here
.
And now, we grace you with the stylings of
pzottolo
in the latest edition of YouTube News:
Best,
The YouTube Team
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