Official YouTube Blog: November 2019

Google.org, Susan Wojcicki and her husband, Dennis Troper, support families experiencing homelessness with $1.35 million grant

Thursday, November 21, 2019

San Francisco Mayor London Breed and Susan Wojcicki

Today, CEO Susan Wojcicki stood with San Francisco Mayor London Breed at Hamilton Families, a nonprofit organization that supports families experiencing homelessness, and announced a combined grant of $1.35 million to the program. The grant comes from Google.org and from Wojcicki and her husband, Dennis Troper.

Here are her remarks from this afternoon:

"Thank you, Mayor Breed. I’m so glad to be here with you, and all of your leadership in fighting homelessness. I also wanted to say thank you to everyone here at Hamilton Families and the impact you've had in our community and in the lives of so many families.

Sometimes the scale of an issue can make us feel like it’s impossible to solve.

And even though we know it’s important, we wind up doing nothing because it feels overwhelming for us.

The work at Hamilton Families shows how we can make a difference in a tangible way, one family at a time.

Over the years, I’ve always recognized how serious a problem of homelessness is in the Bay Area, and I’ve contributed — along with my husband — to support many local organizations that help meet the needs of people experiencing homelessness.

I’m here today because of an idea that first started with a school project. Earlier this year, my daughter worked on a project about homelessness.

As I listened to her questions and reactions, I realized I didn’t have a lot of answers for something that was so important and affecting so many families. We spent time researching different solutions, including coming here, and that’s how we got in touch with Hamilton Families.

We were impressed by the services offered here that give families a fresh start.

And that’s why we’re gathered today — to announce a new grant to further support all the incredible efforts done by Hamilton Families to find families permanent homes, and along the way meet their needs by providing shelter, meals, and more. We appreciate everything you do, from offering counseling and job resources to giving children the chance to succeed at school.

Today, Google.org is contributing $850,000. And together with my husband, Dennis, we’re contributing $500,000 — for a total of $1.35 million to boost the work of Hamilton Families.

Over the next year, this grant will make an impact in our communities, and it will help Hamilton serve 700 families and find housing for another 200.

And it will also fund an outreach effort — a series of videos and podcasts — that will tell the stories of individuals who are facing homelessness.

Our goal is to help the community understand the problems that can lead to homelessness and also inspire others to get involved in whatever way they can.

Sometimes, the greatest gift we can offer is our time. And in that spirit, next year, we will organize an event for the YouTube employees to come to the shelter. We're very excited about that.

Homelessness is an incredibly complicated challenge for our society. But if we all come together to look out for one another, our combined contributions can make a big difference."

Can anyone match Freddie Mercury’s legendary voice? Queen and YouTube Music are challenging fans to find out!

Thursday, November 14, 2019

"Bohemian Rhapsody" is considered one of the greatest rock songs of all time, so it’s no wonder the music video recently hit 1 billion views on YouTube. For decades, fans have belted out the song’s iconic lyrics alongside Freddie Mercury’s one-of-a-kind vocals, but how many can really sing it just like Freddie? YouTube, Google Creative Lab, and Google Research — working in partnership with Queen, Universal Music Group and Hollywood Records — have built a new AI experiment called FreddieMeter to find out!

Released in support of Mercury Phoenix Trust, a charity founded by Brian May, Roger Taylor and Jim Beach to raise awareness and funds for the fight against HIV/AIDS, and in honor of the 44th anniversary of the band’s first-ever live performance of “Bohemian Rhapsody,” at the Empire Theater, Liverpool, U.K in November 1975; FreddieMeter was created to let fans around the world determine how closely their singing matches the voice of Queen’s legendary frontman, Freddie Mercury.

FreddieMeter shows users how closely their voice matches Freddie Mercury’s legendary range by analyzing the singer’s pitch, timbre, and melody to assign them a score of 0 to 100. Queen fans, killer impressionists, and anyone who enjoys a little karaoke and are ready to step up to the challenge can get started by doing the following:

SING: Pick one of four QUEEN songs on the microsite ("Bohemian Rhapsody," "Don’t Stop Me Now," "Somebody to Love" or "We Are the Champions") and sing your heart out!

SHARE: Get your score and share! Download the custom scorecard asset directly to your device, then share it on YouTube Stories, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.

CHALLENGE: Using the hashtag #FreddieChallenge on social channels, challenge three friends to see how they measure up.

DONATE: Encourage a charitable donation to Mercury Phoenix Trust in your post → http://www.mercuryphoenixtrust.com/donate

Google Creative Lab and Google Research created FreddieMeter using new on-device machine learning models, and it’s been trained on Freddie’s isolated vocals, as well as samples of people trying to sing like Freddie. FreddieMeter is trained on and optimized for individual singers and works on desktop, Android and iPhone devices, and the audio doesn’t get uploaded to any servers to be analyzed, so all vocals stay totally private unless shared by the user.

FreddieMeter continues YouTube’s celebration of Queen’s music and “Bohemian Rhapsody’s” 1 billion views milestone, which coincided with the release of a newly remastered HD version of the video. The achievement made history with the anthem being the first pre-1990s video to reach one billion views on the platform.

In partnership with Universal Music Group and Hollywood Records, YouTube also recently launched ‘You Are The Champions,’ a unique campaign that gave fans an exclusive chance to become a part of Queen history with a starring role in brand-new, user-generated videos for three of the band’s most celebrated tracks: “A Kind of Magic,” “Don’t Stop Me Now” and the iconic “Bohemian Rhapsody.” The results were pulled from more than 10,000 submissions from more than 120 countries around the world, showing the depth and love for Queen and Freddie amongst their loyal global fanbase.

To take on the #FreddieChallenge now or find out more about FreddieMeter, visit freddiemeter.withyoutube.com.

Nate Boyer: From Green Beret to the starting lineup

Monday, November 11, 2019

Nate Boyer at the Texas Longhorns stadium. (YouTube)

Nate Boyer is no ordinary football player. While being deployed in Afghanistan, the former Green Beret learned how to play football by watching YouTube tutorials. At age 30, after practicing relentlessly, Boyer joined the Texas Longhorns as the team’s long snapper.

YouTube caught up with Boyer in advance of Veterans Day to learn more about his journey from the military to the football field, and to get his advice for others who might want to follow in his footsteps.

YouTube: Today is Veterans Day. What does this day mean to you?

Nate Boyer: Veterans Day for me is a time for us all to come together — veterans, civilians, families, everybody — to recognize those who have defended this country. In particular, it’s important to me that we honor the vets who didn’t come home to the same kind of appreciation that we get today, especially Vietnam vets. It’s also an important moment for vets to recognize each other and ourselves. It’s okay to receive that appreciation and pat yourself on the back; you’re somebody who was willing to make a sacrifice for their country.

YouTube: Your story is incredibly inspiring for many young people. What would you say to a kid who dreams of making it in the big leagues?

NB: I’m a testament that anything is possible. I’m not a great athlete. I’m good, but not great. I’m not very big. I was too old, too inexperienced. I had every reason to not even try. I knew I was capable, because of my experience in the military, and that’s what gave me the confidence to go all-in and chase my dream. But it’s important for all young people to know that they can keep plugging away, against all odds. Don’t quit, and you’ll get better every day. Be okay with the process and understand that it takes time to improve. It will happen.You will achieve some success and you will probably get a lot farther than you had imagined.

YouTube: How can we help?

NB: The cool thing about YouTube is that it helps you see what is possible. I had a dream that I wanted to make come true for myself, to play college football. People have dreams and crazy ideas, and they wonder if it’s possible to make it happen. On YouTube, you can find all kinds of examples of what other people have made happen for themselves, and it makes you believe that your dreams are possible, that there is a path you can follow. We’re all capable. We need to believe that we can take a chance to follow our dreams.

If you can dream it, you can YouTube it. If you can YouTube it, you can do it.

YouTube: What else have you learned from watching YouTube?

NB: I have learned all kinds of things around the house: how to replace the lightbulb in my headlight, putting together a bed, following recipes. I’m now working in film and television, and I even use YouTube to learn about acting and hosting. You can learn anything from YouTube.

— The YouTube Team

Introducing a fresh new look for YouTube on desktop and tablets

Thursday, November 7, 2019

Starting today, we’re bringing you the new YouTube homepage — a design that brings more features to the viewing experience on Home to help you find the next great video to watch. The updated design will begin rolling out today across desktops and YouTube apps on Android and iOS tablets, and will be available to everyone soon. Here’s what you can expect to see:

Customize what to watch next with your queue

You’ve told us you want a better way to queue up the next video to watch, so we’re introducing the option to add to queue on desktop. You can select a handful of videos to watch next without interrupting the video you’re currently watching. Videos in your queue won't save after you've closed your browser, but you can always save videos to your permanent "Watch Later" playlist, too.

Remove suggestions from channels you don’t want to watch

We launched a feature on mobile earlier this year to make it even simpler for you to tell us to stop suggesting videos from a particular channel, and today we’re bringing this to desktop. Just select the three-dot menu next to a video on the homepage, then select “Don’t recommend channel.” After that, you should no longer see videos from that channel suggested to you on the YouTube homepage. You may still be able to find these videos if you search for them, or visit the channel page or Trending tab.

Coming soon: select topics to refine your Homepage and Up Next videos

Earlier this year, we added a new feature to the YouTube Android app that lets you select your favorite topics and customize your Home feed with related videos. We’ll be releasing it on desktop and tablets soon!

We’ve been experimenting with this updated design for a few months and — based on your input — have made dozens of improvements to the layout, most notably adjusting the thumbnail sizes and showing more videos on larger screens. We’re excited to roll this out to everyone, and we hope you’ll find the updated design and new features helpful as you navigate the incredible breadth of content available on YouTube.

Posted by Essam El-Dardiry, Senior Product Manager

A super launch of Super Stickers

Tuesday, November 5, 2019

Today, we’re launching Super Stickers to deepen viewers' connections with creators in fun, new ways! Stickers come in different packs and languages, helping creators earn more money while also connecting with their audience. Read more about the stickers here.

Official Blog

Google.org, Susan Wojcicki and her husband, Dennis Troper, support families experiencing homelessness with $1.35 million grant

Can anyone match Freddie Mercury’s legendary voice? Queen and YouTube Music are challenging fans to find out!

Nate Boyer: From Green Beret to the starting lineup

Introducing a fresh new look for YouTube on desktop and tablets

A super launch of Super Stickers

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