Official Blog
It's Like Niagara Falls Over Here
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
My in-box overfloweth. And I love it that way. But it's also making me feel guilty for not being able to respond to each and every one of you who sends in feature suggestions (yes, Casey from Maryland and Clive from England, I mean you!). So I wanted to reassure you that even though you may not get a personal response from me, I do really watch all your videos and consider them for the home page. Don't believe me? Here are some videos we featured thanks to your email alerts:
Free Hugs
You Tube: The Movie
Spamland #1
La grúa y la Jirafa
Crutch!
Spice Test
Mr. Pringles Press Conference
Taco Bell Dog
Some helpful hints when writing to
editor@youtube.com
: include the link to your video in the email and don't forget that we don’t allow content that uses copyrighted soundtracks or images. Oh, and I can also sniff out when you get your friends to spam me about a video. But that's OK. It's good to have friends.
Alright, I’ve spent enough time on this post and have to get back to…your emails. Not that I’m complaining. In fact, please keep ’em coming and thanks so much for your patience.
Always,
Mia
The YouTube Team
P.S. I'm in the market for baby names. Got any ideas? "Lonelygirl15" doesn't exactly roll off the tongue...
Thank You
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
I was trying to think what I should title this blog entry...'GooTube', 'YouTube is here to stay', 'Who's a moron now Mark Cuban' all came to mind, but I settled on the only thing I really can say - thank you. YouTube would not exist and be where it is today without the YouTube community. We owe everything to you guys and we will never, ever forget that.
I've been watching your videos, reading your comments and emails and I know there is a lot of concern and speculation of what may happen to YouTube because of the acquisition. I am here to say, if anything changes it will only be for the better. Being a start up, we have struggled a lot over the past year. We've had site performance problems and nasty bugs. We haven't always been able to respond to your emails or help you with your problems. There have been things we know we need to improve (like spamming and flagging) but just haven't had the time or resources to get it done as quickly as we would like. While there are still a lot of things to be hashed out over the coming months, many of the obstacles that used to stand in the way of us delivering you the best possible product have now been removed. And for all of you who have complained about our sucky search, well you can bet that will change. :)
So no, you won't have to start paying for videos and YouTube won't be replaced with Google video. We aren't going anywhere. YouTube and all the wonder that you have brought to it is here to stay.
From day one, every single thing we have done has been about building the site, building features for our users, continually making the product better. Our goal has always been users first, everything else second - and that will not change.
I honestly never expected to have this much passion for YouTube - but it is each and every one of you who has brought that out in me. You have awed me with your creativity, humbled me with willingness to share your lives, and yes, at times shocked me with your...well...nevermind. You have changed my life and opened my eyes in so many, many ways.
So once again, thank you, from all of us at YouTube.
Maryrose
The YouTube Team
How Flagging Works
Sunday, October 8, 2006
A few days ago I posted that we've been feverishly working on ways to combat both abusive flagging and spamming on the site. We've gotten tons of emails with some really great ideas of things we could implement to help in these areas, so thank you for both your patience and your suggestions.
There does, however, seem to be a fair amount of confusion about the way flagging currently works so I think some clarification is probably needed. A video gets 'flagged' by a user clicking on the 'flag as inappropriate' link located below each video. Once a video is flagged, it is sent into a queue for our customer support team to review. Videos are NEVER automatically removed simply because they've been flagged. Every single flagged video is reviewed by someone at YouTube who then determines if the video contains material that is against our terms of use. You may have noticed that sometimes you're asked to login or register to verify your age because the video you're attempting to view may contain content that is inappropriate for some users. Sometimes flagged videos that we review do abide by our terms of use, but are not quite appropriate for all YouTube users. This could be due to a number of things - profanity, violence, adult content etc. Although they still abide by our
terms of use
, you can think of these videos as 'R' rated.
There are thousands of videos that are flagged for review every single day, and since we're still a small company with an even smaller team of people reviewing videos we do admittedly make mistakes at times. Occasionally a video gets flagged and we accidently take it down, or mark it as inappropriate. We're doing everything we can to diminish that margin of error but we would be lying if we said it's a 100% fail proof system.
We'll be continuing to roll out improvements to our flagging and spam filtering controls over the coming weeks so please check back here for continual updates. As always, thank you for patience and your feedback.
Best,
Maryrose
The YouTube Team
Our days are numbered
Thursday, October 5, 2006
Last night was our last feature release in this office. That's right, we're moving on to bigger, less
rat infested
digs next week. I can't even begin to tell you what a crazy ride it's been this past year and moving out of this, our first real office, has definitely been a little emotional for me. But more sappiness and nostalgia later. Tomorrow we're having a last day in the office shin dig and we'll be sure to post some videos from that.
So, what were we doing here until the wee hours of the morning last night?
Launching a few new features
. First off,
QuickLists
. The idea for QuickLists actually came from us watching users open up multiple browser windows so they could 'load up' a bunch of videos to watch later. Well, ⌘ N no more. See those little + icons on all the video images? Clicking on it will add that video to a list that is saved for later viewing. You can access your
QuickList
at anytime by clicking on the link at the top of every page, or by clicking the QuickList bar under any video you watch. You can watch all the videos in your QuickList at once by clicking 'play all', and if you want to keep the list permanently you can save it as a PlayList.
We've also been working diligently to combat two issues that have been somewhat plaguing YouTube lately - abusive flaggers and spammers. We get a lot of emails about both problems, and although we're not able to respond to everyone individually, please be rest assured that we are actively working on both of these issues and developing ways to abolish this type of abuse from the site. It's one of our highest priorities right now and we promise that in the coming weeks there will be much continued improvement in these areas.
In other news,
The Underground
contest is now accepting submissions. We've all spent countless (and I mean countless) hours this past week watching the entries and there are some truly amazing ones. Submissions are open until 10/18, so if you're a musician get your butt in gear and go make a video!
Best,
Maryrose
The YouTube Team
Greetings, YouTubers!
Friday, September 22, 2006
My name is Mia (I won't bother with the 12-syllable last name) and I'm the new czarina of programming. Huh, you say? Basically, that means a big part of my job is making sure we are finding and featuring the best videos in the YouTube universe –
your
original videos that never cease to amaze me with their creativity, senses of humor and, sometimes, strangeness.
I'm closing in on my second week here, and already I love working at YouTube (and it's not just the Oreos that call my name daily from the pantry behind me). In fact, you might think it's amazing I didn't run from the building on my first day, when I was greeted by an engineer snoring on a couch and I heard about The Rats (who better not touch my Oreos!).
Now I've worked at some pretty neat non-rat-infested places – MTV Networks, Rhapsody and Apple – but rarely have I felt such an immediate connection to the people who actually
use
the product. We feature a video, and you instantly tell us what you think about it. We can watch you acting silly, see what an awesome drummer you are, meet your whole family, and go deep inside your world on a daily basis. I can't think of anything much cooler than that.
So I'm really excited to be here and hope you'll continue to be as vocal as you are.
Click here
to send me an email with suggestions of videos you think we should feature or to tell me about a new clip you've just uploaded or a new talent you've just discovered on the site. We may not be able to feature everything you send us, but we'll certainly pay close attention to what you're thinking and doing. After all, that's the YouTube way!
Yours 'Tube-ly,
Mia
The YouTube Team
Underground
Thursday, September 21, 2006
We love our indie musicians at YouTube. Their spirit, creativity and often raw talent make for some of the best content on our site. I'm always filled with glee when someone tells me they 'discovered' a new band on YouTube. As a life long music junkie and avid supporter of local music scenes I take great personal pleasure in being part of something that can help indie musicians bring visibility to their music in a whole new way. We're constantly working to find new ways for musicians to promote themselves and connect to each other, so it's with great excitement that we announce our first-ever contest –
The YouTube Underground
(well, besides all those goofy contests we did last year, but nevermind that). It's pretty simple, really: if you're a musician, make a video, enter it in the
contest
and the YouTube community will vote for their favorites. Four grand prize winners will get a whole lot'o stuff, including:
All-new equipment from Gibson Guitar
Roundtrip airfare to New York City and lodging
Use of Gibson's pimped-out tour bus
Appearance on Good Morning America
Photo shoots and interviews
Video featured on YouTube
and of course...the envy of all eyes.
So go make videos, musicians! This is your chance to shine like the rock star you were always meant to be.
Maryrose
The YouTube Team
The Deal with Warner
Monday, September 18, 2006
No doubt you've read the news about the partnership we announced with
Warner. This is great news for the YouTube community!
Up front, let me say that the details will be worked out
with Warner, its recording artists and YouTube over the next few months. Our
goal is to provide you with the most entertaining service and more creative
options.
The cool thing is that Warner will be posting top music videos,
interviews with your favorite artists and behind-the-scenes footage, and
more. You'll be able to enjoy and share these videos without concern that
they could be removed.
What's even better is that Warner is the first record label to
embrace and support your creativity by authorizing use of their
music content for free, in partnership with your favorite artists! This new
architecture will be available by the end of the year. We will have more
details to share then.
Meanwhile, we love hearing from you and want to know how we can
continue to be the best way to share your talent with a growing
audience.
Cheers,
Powers
The YouTube Team
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