Official Blog
A new YouTube look that works for you
Tuesday, August 29, 2017
When YouTube launched 12 years ago, it was a single website that supported one video format, 320x240 at 4:3 aspect ratio. Fast forward to today, and YouTube lets you watch any combination of SD, HD, 4K, 360, 3-D, and live video on nearly every device with an internet connection – from desktops to phones, tablets to TVs, game consoles, and even VR headsets.
We’ve also introduced apps and services that give you new ways to watch and get even closer to the content and creators you love. Music fans, gamers, and TV lovers each have unique experiences specifically tailored for their favorite content with
YouTube Music
,
YouTube Gaming
and
YouTube TV
. For families looking for the best way to watch together, we launched the
YouTube Kids
app. And for fans who want an uninterrupted, ad-free experience, and exclusive original content from creators, there’s the
YouTube Red
membership.
To put it simply, YouTube’s evolved … a lot. And we’re not even close to done. Over the last few months we've started releasing updates and will continue to throughout the rest of the year. When all is said and done, we'll bring a new level of functionality and a more consistent look across our desktop and mobile experiences.
Let’s start with the YouTube mobile app, which is getting a bunch of new features:
Clean new design
: We’ve made the header white to let content take the lead and moved the
navigation tabs
to the bottom of the app so they’re closer to your thumbs. We also added new
Library and Account tabs
that give you easy access to what you’re looking for.
Videos that move with you
: One of the things we’re working on is bringing gestures to YouTube. Earlier this year, we
introduced
a gesture that allows you to double tap on the left or right side of a video to fast forward or rewind 10 seconds. Give it a try! We already see billions of double taps per day. And I wanted to give you a sneak peek at another gesture I am really excited about. In the coming months, we'll experiment with a feature that lets you jump between videos with a simple swipe of your hand: just swipe left to watch a previous video or swipe right to watch the next one.
Watch at your own pace
: Users love that they are able to speed up and slow down the playback of a video on desktop, and we're excited to bring this feature to the mobile app today, so you can enjoy videos at whatever speed you prefer.
Adapt to any video, beautifully
: We've also been experimenting with new ways to display all videos in the best possible way. Soon, the YouTube player will seamlessly change shape to match the video format you’re watching, such as vertical, square or horizontal. That means you’ll always get the best viewing experience automatically – including vertical videos with no black bars on the sides!
Browse and discover while you watch
: We recently added a feature that lets you view a row of suggested videos while you’re watching in full screen. We're also working on transforming the area below the player so you can browse videos in totally new ways.
Looking beyond the YouTube app, we’ve also been
working
on a new desktop design. And thanks to all the positive feedback, we're now excited to make it available to all our users around the globe starting today! Our new look applies
Material Design
to YouTube and delivers a fresh, simple and intuitive user experience that lets content shine – because there's nothing more important than the creators and videos we all love to watch. My favorite feature of this new desktop design is Dark Theme, which turns the background dark while you watch for a more cinematic look.
The bright red cherry on top of this update sundae is a refreshed
YouTube Logo and YouTube Icon
. Designed for our multi-screen world, the updated Logo combines a cleaned up version of the YouTube wordmark and Icon, creating a more flexible design that works better across a variety of devices, even on the tiniest screens. Why’s it more flexible? When room is limited (say on a smartphone) you can use the brightened up Icon as an abbreviated Logo, which will be seen more easily and read more clearly. You’ll see the new Logo and Icon roll out across mobile and desktop today, and across all our other apps and services soon.
We know this is a lot of change, but we want to make clear that there’s one thing that stays the same: YouTube’s mission. We’re here to give people a voice and show them the world – no matter what device they use.
Neal Mohan, Chief Product Officer, recently watched "
YouTube: What will you watch next?
"
YouTube Live with Kevin Durant and host sWooZie
Monday, August 21, 2017
This Tuesday, August 22, 2017, NBA Champion and Finals MVP Kevin Durant will take over The YouTube Space LA.
Hosted by
sWooZie
, Durant will be interviewed by fan favorite YouTube stars
What’s Inside
,
Hot Ones
, and
Ryan ToysReview
for a special
VR180 livestream
. The event will be broadcast live exclusively on his
YouTube channel
starting at 3 p.m. PT.
The
VR180 livestream
can be viewed on desktop and mobile devices in HD, or fans can enjoy an immersive VR experience with Cardboard, Daydream View, and PSVR.
During the livestream, Durant will meet up with Lincoln and Dan of
What’s Inside
to look inside the new
Nike KD10
. They will be joined by Nike Basketball footwear designer Leo Chang to speak more about the design and evolution of the KD signature line. He will also have fun with Ryan of
Ryan ToysReview
before meeting Sean Evans for a
Hot Ones
challenge.
“My experience on YouTube has been incredible and so has the feedback I’ve received from fans all around the world. Being able to give people an inside look at my life on and off the court, as well as push the envelope with never-before-done content is very important to me and the vision for my channel," said Durant. “As I continue to step up the level of content I deliver, and as I keep building my creative network the sky's the limit for what my team and YouTube can do together. The YouTube Live experience is a perfect example of that evolution and I look forward to having some fun as well during this livestream.”
Launched in April 2017, Durant’s channel has gained over 350,000 subscribers and nearly 11 million views fueled by video hits from
Still KD: Through the Noise
to an
epic slow motion dunk
in collaboration with YouTube sensations
The Slow Mo Guys
.
Don’t forget to
subscribe
to get notified when the action starts! See you on the livestream.
Five observations from my time at YouTube
Thursday, August 17, 2017
Earlier this year, I was asked by Google (because they know I am pre "Sucker M.C.") to work on a
Doodle
celebrating the 44th anniversary of the music that changed my life. The birth of hip-hop was a fusion of expression and technical innovation that forever changed our culture and Google wanted to celebrate the moment when it all came together.
I had one condition on participating: that the project be authentic and not some tech company’s interpretation of a cultural revolution. They couldn't agree more and the collaboration led to an amazing interactive experience that used technology and Google’s reach to celebrate the birth of hip-hop. It showed me that Google and YouTube know how to listen to feedback (in this case, mine), and are willing to work hard to get things right.
I joined Google and YouTube because I saw a great opportunity to bring tech and music together and do right by artists, the industry and fans. Eight months in, I’m more optimistic than ever that YouTube can do that, but the truth is there’s still a disconnect between YouTube and the rest of the industry.
So, how did YouTube get here? What explains the current state of YouTube’s relationship with the industry? I think there are five factors that explain the current situation.
Late to the party.
I get why some in the music industry would be skeptical of their relationship with YouTube. They were late to the subscriptions party and YouTube’s focus for many years was largely just on ads. While they have been at subscriptions for a year, and the numbers are very encouraging, YouTube must prove its credibility when it comes to its ability to shepherd their funnel of users into paid subscriptions.
But since I’ve been here, I’ve been incredibly encouraged by what I’ve seen. The team is serious about subscriptions. And now with YouTube Music and Google Play Music merging, I’m confident they will build an even better subscription service. And with more deals like the one YouTube recently signed with Warner, they’re going to be able to take it global.
Twin-engine growth.
The success of streaming subscriptions is one reason why I’m so optimistic about the future. Subscription revenue is still in its infancy, yet it’s already reaping billions for the music industry. It’s not just some business model on a whiteboard; it’s a real and rapidly growing source of cash for labels and artists today.
Some think ads are the death of the music industry. Ads are not death. Death is death. Irrelevance is death. Fans not being exposed to new music is death. My time at YouTube has me convinced that advertising is another powerful source of growth for the industry. YouTube’s ads hustle has already brought over a billion dollars in 12 months to the industry and it’s growing rapidly. Combined with YouTube’s growing subscription service, they’ve now got two engines taking the industry to a more lucrative place than it’s ever been before.
But that all depends on whether or not the industry chokes off these new sources of growth. I’m old enough to remember what the industry was saying about iTunes and Spotify before they started contributing billions to its bottom line. The growth that the industry is seeing today proves that ads and subscription thrive side by side.
Let’s talk dead presidents.
It is important that labels, publishers and YouTube come together to make transparency a reality, as I strongly believe it will help everyone in the industry move the business forward.
Artists and songwriters need to truly understand what they’re making on different platforms. It’s not enough for YouTube to say that it’s paid over $1 billion to the industry from ads. We (the labels, publishers and YouTube) must shine a light on artist royalties, show them how much they make from ads compared to subscriptions by geography and see how high their revenue is in the U.S. and compared to other services.
For instance, critics complain YouTube isn’t paying enough money for ad-supported streams compared to Spotify or Pandora. I was one of them! Then I got here and looked at the numbers myself. At over $3 per thousand streams in the U.S., YouTube is paying out more than other ad supported services.
Why doesn’t anyone know that? Because YouTube is global and the numbers get diluted by lower contributions in developing markets. But they’re working the ads hustle like crazy so payouts can ramp up quickly all around the world. If they can do that, this industry could double in the next few years.
Fortune AND fame.
Every day for the last 30 years, I’ve woken up with the same thought: maybe today’s the day I’m going to meet an artist that’s going to change pop culture. I love watching when an artist goes from obscurity to celebrity. That’s my drug.
Every artist I’ve ever worked with wanted some fame and fortune. YouTube will deliver fortune … but I think they need to be just as focused on bringing the fame. YouTube is already a great force for breaking new artists; in fact, the majority of music watchtime on YouTube is coming from its recommendations, rather than people searching for what they want to listen to. But YouTube needs to find new ways to promote and break artists and their albums so they have a chance to shine on the platform and connect with their fans. This is one of my biggest priorities and you’ll see more coming soon.
Without safe harbor, we’d all be lost at sea.
I’ve spent my professional life fighting for artists to get what they deserve. I’ve worked with the RIAA and the IFPI to fight piracy since back when the main concern was bootlegged tapes. Safe harbor has become an obsession -- with many complaining it’s the cause of all of industry’s woes. I’m not parroting the company line when I say the focus on copyright safe harbors is a distraction. Safe harbor helps open platforms like YouTube, Facebook, Soundcloud and Instagram give a voice to millions of artists around the world, making the industry more competitive and vibrant.
Every artist should be concerned if their music shows up online without credit or payment. But YouTube’s team has built a system in Content ID that helps rightsholders earn money no matter who uploads their music. As of 2016, 99.5 percent of music claims on YouTube are matched automatically by Content ID and are either removed or monetized.
Before Content ID, when a fan shared a song with a friend through a mix tape, it was called piracy. Now it's generated over $2 billion for content owners and goes far beyond what the safe harbor provision requires.
One of the first jobs I ever had in the music business was working as a road manager for Run DMC. Doing that taught me a lesson that has formed the core of what I’ve tried to do my entire career: set things up well so that the artists and fans can come together and make magic happen. I’ve spent my entire life helping artists achieve fame and fortune. I wouldn’t have joined YouTube if I didn’t believe the company was committed to delivering more revenue to artists, labels, publishers and composers -- they just have to set them up well and get out of their way.
With love and respect,
Lyor Cohen
Lyor recently watched “
Brothers Gonna Work It Out
”
Introducing a new way to share YouTube videos
Monday, August 7, 2017
Remember the first time you heard the opening beats of “
Despacito
”? Your ears perked up, your foot unconsciously tapping beneath the table. Like every “Despacito” loving person before you,
you can’t help but dance
, and when you'd finally caught your breath, you had to share it with all your friends. It would be wrong to keep something
this good
to yourself. And that means you had to copy and paste a link into an email, social or messaging app to share that moment.
But like chats around the water cooler, shouldn't sharing a video be as easy as saying, “Have you heard this new song?” We’ve been experimenting with a better way to share videos on YouTube since last year. Thanks to all your feedback, we made some improvements and are now ready to roll out this new sharing feature to all users globally.
Starting today, you can share videos with your friends and family directly on YouTube. Not only can you share and receive videos in the app, you can also chat about them right on YouTube, reply with another video, invite others to the conversation, and more. We think it’ll make sharing easier, faster and more fun on your phone. And if you want to continue sharing videos through other apps, you can still do that too.
These shared videos all live in a brand new tab on your YouTube mobile app, making it easier than ever to catch up on videos your friends have shared or to show them a few of your own favorites.
Start a group, share your favorite “Despacito” version and make a friend dance!
Benoît de Boursetty, Product Manager, recently shared “
A new way to share on YouTube
.”
An update on our commitment to fight terror content online
Tuesday, August 1, 2017
A little over a month ago, we told you about the
four new steps
we’re taking to combat terrorist content on YouTube: better detection and faster removal driven by machine learning, more experts to alert us to content that needs review, tougher standards for videos that are controversial but do not violate
our policies
, and more work in the counter-terrorism space.
We wanted to give you an update on these commitments:
Better detection and faster removal driven by machine learning
: We’ve always used a mix of technology and human review to address the ever-changing challenges around controversial content on YouTube. We recently began developing and implementing cutting-edge machine learning technology designed to help us identify and remove violent extremism and terrorism-related content in a scalable way. We have started rolling out these tools and we are already seeing some positive progress:
Speed and efficiency
: Our machine learning systems are faster and more effective than ever before. Over 75 percent of the videos we've removed for violent extremism over the past month were taken down before receiving a single human flag.
Accuracy
: The accuracy of our systems has improved dramatically due to our machine learning technology. While these tools aren’t perfect, and aren’t right for every setting, in many cases our systems have proven more accurate than humans at flagging videos that need to be removed.
Scale
: With over 400 hours of content uploaded to YouTube every minute, finding and taking action on violent extremist content poses a significant challenge. But over the past month, our initial use of machine learning has more than doubled both the number of videos we've removed for violent extremism, as well as the rate at which we’ve taken this kind of content down.
We are encouraged by these improvements, and will continue to develop our technology in order to make even more progress. We are also hiring more people to help review and enforce our policies, and will continue to invest in technical resources to keep pace with these issues and address them responsibly.
More experts
: Of course, our systems are only as good as the the data they’re based on. Over the past weeks, we have begun working with more than 15 additional expert NGOs and institutions through our Trusted Flagger program, including the Anti-Defamation League, the No Hate Speech Movement, and the Institute for Strategic Dialogue. These organizations bring expert knowledge of complex issues like hate speech, radicalization, and terrorism that will help us better identify content that is being used to radicalize and recruit extremists. We will also regularly consult these experts as we update our policies to reflect new trends. And we’ll continue to add more organizations to our network of advisors over time.
Tougher standards
: We’ll soon be applying tougher treatment to videos that aren’t illegal but have been flagged by users as potential violations of our policies on hate speech and violent extremism. If we find that these videos don’t violate our policies, but contain controversial religious or supremacist content, they will have some features removed. The videos will remain on YouTube behind an interstitial, won’t be recommended, won’t be monetized, and won’t have key features including comments, suggested videos, and likes. We’ll begin to roll this new treatment out to videos on desktop versions of YouTube in the coming weeks, and will bring it to mobile experiences soon thereafter. These new approaches entail significant new internal tools and processes, and will take time to fully implement.
Early intervention and expanding counter-extremism work
: We’ve started
rolling out features from Jigsaw’s Redirect Method
to YouTube. When people search for sensitive keywords on YouTube, they will be redirected towards a playlist of curated YouTube videos that directly confront and debunk violent extremist messages. We also continue to amplify YouTube voices speaking out against hate and radicalization through our
YouTube Creators for Change
program. Just last week, the U.K. chapter of Creators for Change,
Internet Citizens
, hosted a two-day workshop for 13-18 year-olds to help them find a positive sense of belonging online and learn skills on how to participate safely and responsibly on the internet. We also
pledged
to expand the program’s reach to 20,000 more teens across the U.K.
And over the weekend, we hosted our latest Creators for Change workshop in Bandung, Indonesia, where creators teamed up with Indonesia’s Maarif Institute to teach young people about the importance of diversity, pluralism, and tolerance.
Altogether, we have taken significant steps over the last month in our fight against online terrorism. But this is not the end. We know there is always more work to be done. With the help of new machine learning technology, deep partnerships, ongoing
collaborations
with other companies through the Global Internet Forum, and our vigilant community we are confident we can continue to make progress against this ever-changing threat. We look forward to sharing more with you in the months ahead.
The YouTube Team
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