YouTube Blog

Android 2.0 Introduces Improvements for Mobile Video

2009-11-06T11:55:00.000-08:00

Earlier this year, we revealed the rapid growth in mobile video uploads to YouTube, largely spurred by the launch of powerful devices (like the iPhone 3GS and increasing Android adoption).

Uploading and sharing mobile videos on YouTube are getting kicked up another notch with today's launch of the Verizon Droid by Motorola. The Droid is the first device to run the latest version of Android (version 2.0) and introduces some remarkable improvements:

DVD quality recording and easier sharing: It is now possible to shoot DVD-quality videos and upload them to YouTube with a single flick of a finger. Droid is the first Android powered phone with DVD-quality recording, and it offers the ability to add effects like sepia, solarization and red tint to your videos. In addition, the new YouTube widget gives single-tap access to recording and sharing capabilities right from the home screen, making it even easier to broadcast those special moments or sights, or even silly ones like this video exploring six ways to have a fruitful finish to a lunch meeting:

It's more like the YouTube you're used to: The controls on the new YouTube application on Android 2.0 now have a look and feel that's much more like the YouTube desktop experience. We've also added the ability to manage personal subscriptions in 'My Account,' and so now, with the ability to search, share, rate, comment and of course view videos, the on-the-go YouTube experience is closer to the one you're used to on your computer.

High quality playback and brilliant screen: The Droid by Motorola has a brilliant 3.7 inch screen with noticeably high resolution and crisp colors: 854x480 pixels with 16M colors. The YouTube App on Android 2.0 plays videos in HQ automatically when you are on wifi, bringing the best possible YouTube watching experience to a mobile device. And if you are out of wifi range, you can still watch videos in HQ by selecting "Menu -> More -> Watch in high quality."

Happy watching, recording and sharing -- if you like, include links to your best Android-filmed videos below. We'd love to see the creativity that springs forth from this technology.

Jonathan Matus, Android Lead Product Marketing Manager, recently watched "Stealth Bomber."

Funny or Die Joins YouTube

2009-11-05T06:00:00.000-08:00

We're happy to welcome a comedy legend to YouTube today, as Will Ferrell's comedy think-tank Funny or Die joins YouTube as a partner. YouTube viewers around the world will now have access to a collection of Funny or Die classics, plus a steady stream of new videos being uploaded each week.

As comedy fans know, Funny or Die works with some of Hollywood's top comedic talent to create a trademark blend of humor, celebrity and web originals. Jack Black, Natalie Portman and Lindsay Lohan are just a few of the famous names you can catch in hilarious Funny or Die sketches, and you never know who will show up next.

To celebrate this new partnership, Will Ferrell has selected his favorite Funny or Die clips for the spotlight on today's YouTube homepage. Here's a message from the man himself, and his Funny or Die co-creator Adam McKay :

Thanks, Will and Adam! So if you want to keep up with all things funny, "subscribe or die" to Funny or Die's new YouTube channel.

George Strompolos, Strategic Partnerships, recently watched "BAT FIGHT with Will Ferrell."

Help the Hungry This Thanksgiving

2009-11-02T12:00:00.000-08:00

On World Food Day, we asked you to donate to feed the billion hungry people in the world and your response was incredible: over 140,000 children got meals because of you. Thank you.

Now, we're looking at the facts close to home: one in eight Americans don't have enough food to eat, a fact that becomes even harder to digest at this time of year, as we prepare for Thanksgiving, a celebration of food and family.

Through Video Volunteers, we're hoping you can make a video for any nonprofit tackling the issue of hunger in America. You could create a video profiling the work your local food bank is doing or even volunteer to serve a meal at a shelter and record your experience. Hear more from David Arquette, our guest curator for this month's edition of Video Volunteers:

The top three videos submitted on the YouTube Video Volunteers channel will be featured on the YouTube homepage around Thanksgiving, alongside a video from our partner in this effort, Feeding America. Videos must be submitted by November 21 for consideration.

Ramya Raghavan, Nonprofits & Activism, recently favorited "Raising Malawi with Madonna."

Can You Beat Michael Phelps?

2009-11-01T22:30:00.000-08:00

Face facts: in a swimming race against 14-time Olympic gold medalist swimmer Michael Phelps, you'd have no chance whatsoever...but you may be able to beat him in speed putting! If you can make more than 12 five-foot putts in a minute, you'll have bragging rights forever:

This is "The Best of Us Challenge," presented by the International Olympic Committee, where Olympic athletes challenge the YouTube community to compete in some truly unique events. For example, you can challenge American Olympic gold medalist gymnast Shawn Johnson by tapping-your-ears-while-doing-a-handstand. (FYI: she did it 54 times in 30 seconds.) Or take on one of the world's fastest men, Jamaican sprinter Asafa Powell, who balanced a stick on his foot for two minutes and 30 seconds. Six-time Grand Slam winner and Olympic gold medalist Rafael Nadal picked up 24 tennis balls in 30 seconds (making great use of his groin area) — how many can you get?

If you've got the moxie to best these world class athletes, check out the The Best of Us Challenge channel on YouTube to learn how to submit your video. Prizes include a trip for two to the Vancouver Winter Olympic Games in February 2010 and a trip for two to the Youth Olympic Games in Singapore in August 2010, as well as T-shirts, video games and posters. Submissions end on Sunday, November 15, so whatever your skill is — putting, hand-standing, hula-hooping, etc. — get out there and show the world your best.

Andrew Bangs, YouTube Sports, recently watched "Tiger Woods Golf Swing in Slow Motion"

Now Playing: "Bram Stoker's Dracula"

2009-10-30T18:15:00.000-07:00

Update (11/1) Thanks to everyone who voted. Here are the final results of the "Who's the greatest Dracula" poll:

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Everywhere you look, vampires seem to be all the rage. But before the broody youngsters of "Twilight" and the Southern nightwalkers of "True Blood" took center stage, there was one Count who ruled the bloodsucking roost: Dracula.

In honor of the world's most famous monster (and everyone's go-to Halloween costume), we're pleased to bring you Bram Stoker's Dracula, courtesy of our friends at Crackle. Directed by Francis Ford Coppola and starring Gary Oldman in one of his most memorable roles, it's the story of darkness's cursed prince searching for his suicidal bride in 18th-century England. With Academy Award-winning costumes, killer performances from Anthony Hopkins, Keanu Reeves and Winona Ryder, and a healthy dose of horror, this flick has something for film buffs of varying tastes.

Before you watch, there are a few things we need to note. First, this film is rated R for violence and brief nudity. This means that you'll need to verify that you're 18 years of age or older by either signing into your existing YouTube account or creating a new one. Second, this video is limited to audiences in the U.S. (apologies to our international users). And, third, the film will only be available on YouTube through November 9.

How do you think Gary Oldman ranks in the pantheon of Count Dracula actors? Cast your vote in the poll in the upper right hand corner.

Happy Halloween!

Nate Weinstein, YouTube Entertainment, just watched "Vampires: Is it Real?"

The Doha Tribeca Film Festival Hits the YouTube Screening Room

2009-10-29T11:05:00.001-07:00

Today marks the first day of the inaugural Doha Tribeca Film Festival, a partnership between the Qatar Museums Authority and the Tribeca Film Festival, to celebrate the best of Arabic and international cinema through an annual film festival and year-round workshops in Doha, Qatar's capital. The festival hopes to inspire, engage and educate a new generation of cinema appreciation in the Middle East, much in the same way that the Tribeca Film Festival has stimulated the local film community in New York.

To celebrate the festival's launch, we've turned the YouTube Screening Room over to the expert curators at the Doha Tribeca Film Festival, who have put together a lineup of five films (four shorts and one feature), selected to highlight diverse filmmaking voices with a strong Middle Eastern connection. Each of these films possesses the ability to entertain and to educate, and we hope that after watching you'll feel compelled to continue the conversation by commenting on, sharing and rating those that move you. Here's a sneak peek....

"Clear Cut, Simple," directed by Vineet Dewan, is based on a true story about an American soldier in Iraq, torn between his duty to the military and his friendship with his Iraqi interpreter. "Eclipse," directed by Mark Lapwood, is a meditative visual journey featuring stunning images of Mumbai. "Itmanna: Make A Wish," directed by Cherien Dabis, explores the tensions of a politically charged environment through the prism of a young girl's quest to buy a birthday cake. "The North Road," directed by Carlos Chahine, tracks a middle-aged man's return to his home country of Lebanon to deal with his father's remains. And "Ramchand Pakistani," a feature film directed by Mehreen Jabbar, is based on a true story about a Pakistani Hindu family's accidental crossing of the Pakistani-Indian border in 2002.

Sara Pollack, Entertainment Marketing Manager, recently watched "Easy to Assemble #1: What's In Store."

We Interrupt This Broadcast to Thank the PowerPosters

2009-10-26T11:59:00.000-07:00

The YouTube Help Forum is nearly entirely community-powered. In it, users answer each other's questions, share tips, and discuss the best ways to use the site and make videos. The system works pretty well: 78% of questions receive a response within three hours.

While there are a lot of helpful folks in the forum, we'd like to take a second to commend a group of exceptionally engaged and active users whom we've dubbed "the PowerPosters." They are: anmoose, battlefielddoktor, ebbixx, epontius, happycabbie, kohpelord, and rewboss. These folks are usually the first to offer advice, to set the record straight, or even just to provide a friendly word to other users looking for support. They've devoted tons of their personal time and boundless amounts of energy toward assisting users all over the world; they've helped to escalate about 250 site issues and contributed 5 tutorial videos to our Help Center. Sincere thanks to the PowerPosters for all they've done for our community and the betterment of the site.

So, if you're having trouble uploading, need video formatting advice, or wonder how to participate in AutoShare, we invite you to stop by the YouTube Help Forum and post your question. While you're there, see how you can make a difference by participating as well. Who knows, you could be the next PowerPoster.

The YouTube Support Team

Today, Animals Take Center Stage on the Homepage

2009-10-26T06:00:00.000-07:00

Earlier this month, through the YouTube Video Volunteers program, we asked you to create an amazing video on behalf of your favorite animal welfare organization and submit it for the chance to be featured on our homepage.

Over 100 users submitted videos about their animal org of choice. User mordeth13 talked about the plight of stray dogs in Taiwan, while partner ZackScott discussed how FoundAnimals is helping animals in the United States:

On Saturday, you voted on which videos you liked the best, and today the top three are featured on the homepage alongside a video for the Humane Society from actor Ben Stein. If you'd like to view all of the videos that were submitted, you can visit the Video Volunteers channel and click "Gallery."

Didn't have a chance to make a video for this month's round? Don't worry. We'll be kicking off our next installment of Video Volunteers on November 1, focusing on hunger in America.

Ramya Raghavan, Nonprofits & Activism, recently watched "In Regards to Defenders of Wildlife."

U2 Plays Live on YouTube

2009-10-24T14:25:00.000-07:00

Did you miss the live event that everyone's still buzzing about? Check out the concert in full on U2's YouTube channel.

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We are counting down the hours to this evening's U2 concert at the Rose Bowl stadium in Pasadena, CA. The live stream begins at 8:30 p.m. PT, and YouTube users all around the world can tune in. (To figure out what time the concert starts where you are, simply click the time converter here and select the name of your country in the pull-down menu.)

Once the show starts, scroll down on U2's channel for a Twitter gadget displaying real-time comments about the webcast. If you Tweet from this tool, you'll see that each message is pre-populated with the hashtag #U2webcast, instantly plugging your comments into wider discussions about the show.

For those of you who miss the live event, the full performance will be re-broadcast two consecutive times after it ends. It will also be archived as a video on the U2 channel -- so there's really no excuse to miss Bono's distinctive wail, the Edge's guitar mastery, the roll of Larry Mullen's drums, or Adam Clayton's thumping bass lines. Let this preview whet your appetite for the experience up ahead...

Michele Flannery, YouTube Music, recently watched "They Come From Everywhere"

Hollywood Honors Top "Come Clean 4 Congo" Video

2009-10-24T05:00:00.000-07:00

Tonight at the Hollywood Film Festival's Human Rights Symposium, Matt Smith will accept his award for submitting the winning video to YouTube's Video for Change program, "Come Clean 4 Congo," in partnership with the Enough Project. Back in May, we asked you to make videos demonstrating the connection between the "conflict minerals" used in cell phones and the war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Matt's winning video, voted #1 by the YouTube community, used spoken word to take a far-away, complex issue and make it understandable and compelling:

To say things aren't going well in the Congo would be an understatement. It is the deadliest conflict since World War II, and militias continue to use rape as a weapon of terror. The UN reports that in the first half of 2009, more than 5,000 women have been raped in the South Kivu province of the Congo. Al Jazeera News reports on the conflict from a clinic in the Congo, where many of the victims are being treated:

The Enough Project saw the connection between the minerals that are mined in the Congo and used in our cell phones, and wanted to use that connection to bring this issue home to people living in the U.S. Thanks too to all the YouTube users who made videos to raise awareness of this issue. If you'd like to learn more about what you can do to help, go to the Enough Project's website.

And if you're in the LA area and want to register to attend the Human Rights Symposium, sign up here.

Steve Grove, Head of News, Politics & Nonprofits, recently watched "Ask a Nobel Laureate, John Mather."

Celebrating free expression 20 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall

2009-10-23T01:15:00.000-07:00

In 1989, the fall of the Berlin Wall became a striking symbol for free expression far beyond the borders of Germany. Just 20 years later, Iranian citizens used online tools like YouTube and Twitter to share firsthand accounts of the brutal government crackdown waged against protesters disputing the country's election results. Many Iranians risked their lives to document the violence, despite the government's attempts to expel journalists and stifle any voices of dissent.

The democratizing power of the Internet has enabled individuals to share their stories with a global audience in ways never before possible, and given a voice to those who wouldn't otherwise be heard.

To commemorate the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, we're launching a YouTube channel — youtube.com/GoogleFreeExpression — to highlight and celebrate free expression around the world, and we want to hear from you.

This channel is designed to feature your stories and reflections on free expression. Tell us about how you or someone you know has taken a stand for free expression. Perhaps you've protested against something you didn't agree with, taken action when someone else's free speech was being suppressed or been inspired by someone who has stood up for the right to speak out. Make a short video sharing your experience, upload it to YouTube, and add it as a reply to this one:

We'll be featuring the best submissions on the Google Free Expression channel, so be sure to check back in the weeks to come. We look forward to hearing from you.

Annette Kroeber-Riel, European Policy Counsel, recently watched "Getting past the 'Barbed Wireless'"

Thanks, YouTube! 140,000 Children Have Lunch Because of You

2009-10-20T16:16:00.000-07:00

Last Friday, on World Food Day, we asked you, the online billion, to turn your YouTube views into action to feed the billion hungry people in the world.

You blew us away with your response, collectively donating enough money to the United Nations World Food Program through this video to give school lunch to close to 140,000 children. And your donations are still coming in.

Some of you donated $1, others donated $50. Some even created video responses encouraging others to give. The WFP is so thrilled with your efforts that their Executive Director Josette Sheeran recorded this special thank you message to the YouTube community:

Added Pierre Guillaume Wielezynski, WFP's Head of Online Communications, "It is heartening to see the YouTube community step up and help. We often forget about the billion people who go to bed hungry. If every web user does a little, we can achieve a lot." YouTube user angelinthesky26 echoed this sentiment, commenting "we can all make a difference in our own simple way."

So, thank you YouTube, for making a difference. We're incredibly inspired by you.

Ramya Raghavan, Nonprofits & Activism, recently watched "Human Rescue Plan/Sean Penn"

Search Comments on YouTube in Real-Time

2009-10-19T16:14:00.000-07:00

Today, Comments Search moves into Test Tube, the place where our engineers and developers test out new features and gather data and feedback before pushing them out to a wider audience. This feature allows you to search the comments people are making on YouTube in real time. The full comment will appear on a continuously updated results page, and "trending topics" indicates the hottest topics of conversation on YouTube at that particular moment. Comments Search is a way you can find out what YouTube users are saying about everything from the news stories of the day (below, see results when we typed in "balloon boy") to your individual channel or brand.

So try it out, enter your feedback here or comment below, and help us get this feature ready for the masses. We're always working on new ways to enhance search across YouTube and give quick and easy access to the information people are looking for.

Jamie Davidson, Product Manager, recently watched "Strange Cloud Over Moscow Oct 2009."

U2 on YouTube -- Live!

2009-10-19T11:07:00.000-07:00

If you are a fan of the Irish rock band U2, you may have already caught wind of a little secret. Earlier today, the band alerted fans that they will be able to watch their upcoming performance from the Rose Bowl in L.A. on their YouTube channel.

If you live in one of the 16 countries listed below*, you can join U2 live on Sunday, October 25 at 8:30 p.m. (PT). In addition with pumping your fist along with Bono, you'll be able to join YouTube's global listening party via a Twitter gadget embedded on U2's YouTube channel. And if you miss the concert, just press play when you wake up or get to a computer: the uploaded rebroadcast of the full show will be available the next day.

Michele Flannery, YouTube Music, recently watched U2360 "The Cow Man".

*Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, South Korea, Spain, U.K., U.S.

Wanted: Travel Videos of American Journeys

2009-10-17T08:00:00.000-07:00

The My Journey program is all about creating and sharing videos of your memorable American journeys. Some great videos have come in so far, but we want more! You've got one week left to submit a video about your favorite American spot or trip. (Entries are due October 25, 2009.) The YouTube community will then decide who earns a seven-day travel reporting assignment in San Francisco, as well as a feature on LonelyPlanet's website and YouTube channel. The winning videographer will also receive video equipment and advice from the Lonely Planet team on how to take his or her reporting skills to the next level.

You're always showing us the world through your eyes, and we can't wait to see your American journeys. Get inspired by the examples below, and enter your videos here.

My Journey is presented by The T-Mobile® myTouch™ 3G.

Sadia Harper, YouTube Travel, recently watched "The Cheeseburger Show: Episode 11."

Taxi Driver Viewing Party Tonight!

2009-10-16T14:49:00.000-07:00

Movie buffs of YouTube unite.

Tonight, we'll be hosting a live viewing party of the critically-acclaimed feature film Taxi Driver in the YouTube Screening Room, courtesy of our friends at Crackle.

Visit the Screening Room at 6pm PT to start watching. You'll see an embedded Twitter feed collecting real-time tweets from other fans watching the film. If you want to offer your own comments, log in to your Twitter account and post them with the hashtag #yttaxidriver.

We'll be there with you, dropping some trivia, quotes and favorite moments for your communal viewing pleasure. Remember, Taxi Driver is rated R, so you'll need to be logged into your YouTube account to watch, and unfortunately, the video is restricted to users in the U.S. only.

To stay on top of great new films from Crackle, be sure to subscribe to their YouTube channel.

See you in the Screening Room.

Nate Weinstein, YouTube Entertainment, just watched The Most Dramatically Normal Day Ever.

Can a Billion Views Help a Billion People?

2009-10-16T06:17:00.000-07:00

Last week, we announced that YouTube serves over one billion video views per day. It's a pretty staggering number, right? That's also the number of people in the world who don't have enough food to eat. According to the UN World Food Program, for the first time in history, there are over 1 billion hungry people on Earth -- that's one in seven humans.

Today, on World Food Day, the World Food Program (WFP) is showing how you, the estimated one billion internet users, can help the one billion people who live in hunger:

The WFP isn't alone in their efforts. Nonprofit Action Against Hunger is calling on Al Gore to create a video about hunger as he did for climate change with An Inconvenient Truth (after all, who better to mobilize the internet community than the man who invented it?) And singer Christina Aguilera is lending her voice to the cause with this video:

So internet people, we're challenging you to make a difference today. Just think...if every person donated $1 to feed the hungry each time they viewed a YouTube video, we'd be a lot closer to a hunger-free world.

Ramya Raghavan, Nonprofits & Activism. This blog is cross-posted on the Huffington Post.

"The Key to Curation Is Curiosity" Meet Our Curators of the Month

2009-10-14T19:00:00.000-07:00

We're thrilled to have the folks behind the Wooster Collective, one of the Web's most-trafficked sites devoted to urban and street art, curating our homepage today. For anyone interested in cool art videos, their YouTube channel is a must-subscribe; from their vast network of artists, they're often the first to know about videos like notblu's MUTO, which has gone on to garner more than 5 million views.

The Wooster Collective are a model of an important -- but often under-the-radar -- group on YouTube: curators, those people who have a knack for finding great videos, organizing and archiving them on their YouTube channel, and perhaps also distributing them off of YouTube via a blog or social media. In this case, the curators post daily to the Wooster blog, while on their YouTube channel they cluster finds into playlists with themes like The Classics, Outdoors, Timelapse, Geek Graffiti, and Guerrilla Knitting. Learn who they are, how they find such gold on the site, and a bit about their philosophy on all this:

How do you find such great videos?
A few different ways. First, amazingly talented artists and videographers from all over the world share links with us of new videos they upload to YouTube. We receive a hundreds of emails about new work every day. But, in addition to this, we use the terrific tools that YouTube offers to keep up with what's new on the site. We subscribe to many artist and videographers' channels. We also check out the videos that are recommended by YouTube. Every day we discover new things.

For us, the key to curation is curiosity. The best curators in the world, both online and off, are curious people by nature. We love seeing new things, learning about new artists, and exploring new subjects. We’re constantly wanting to be inspired and wanting to share what’s inspiring us with others.

Can you offer any tips about organizing these videos on your YouTube channel?
We love organizing the videos into playlists. The playlists feature is great because you can show both breadth and depth of what you’ve curated. We also like changing the featured video three or four times a week so when you go to the Wooster YouTube channel, it’s different each time.

If someone's into street art, what are some of the must-subscribe channels on YouTube relating to that topic?
Some of our favorites are: Walrus TV, Wallkandy and Romanywg.

Which video that you've found do you think is criminally under-seen?
Here’s one of our favorites, a timelapse by our friends The Barnstormers.

Subscribe to the Wooster Collective's YouTube channel to get a notice in your feed every time they favorite, rate or comment on a video.

Know of other great video curators on YouTube or on the Web? Leave their channel name or site URL in the comments below.

Go Mobile! It's Tips & Tricks Week for YouTube on Your Phone

2009-10-12T10:37:00.000-07:00

This week we're joining in Google's celebration of all things mobile to make sure you're aware of the power you hold in your fingertips with YouTube on your phone. Not only can you watch millions of videos, but also you can upload videos directly from your device; maybe it's footage of a breaking news event, the drama unfolding at the party Saturday night, or your baby's first steps. Since we want to provide the best experience for each of you, we occasionally have different solutions for different phones -- so read on to find out what's available for yours.

Almost any phone with a browser can access the YouTube mobile website at m.youtube.com. (Some mobile phone operators offer a pre-programmed link, so if a YouTube link displays on your phone, click it to visit our site.) Once there, you can access your YouTube account, your favorite videos, your uploads and your favorite channels. You can also share, rate, and comment directly from the mobile website to other YouTube users. Or, if you've captured a great moment, upload your own video by sending it via MMS or email (sign in to YouTube and click here to get your unique address) and it will appear almost instantly on the website.

In addition to the website, you can also play high-quality YouTube videos with special applications on many devices, including Windows Mobile, Symbian S60, iPhone, Android, Palm Pre, and BlackBerry Storm v1 devices. For devices not listed, it means that there were either technical limitations to getting YouTube on the phone, or the experience wasn't a significant improvement over just visiting the mobile website. FYI, the apps for iPhone, Android and Palm Pre also support direct-to-YouTube uploads. To install the app on a compatible phone, visit m.youtube.com/app.

Keep an eye out this week as we tweet some useful tips and tricks for YouTube mobile. And be sure to let us know how you're liking it and what we can do to improve the mobile experience. To get started, just Go Mobile!

Robin Norvell, YouTube Mobile Operations, recently watched "Mobile Tricks."

Y,000,000,000uTube

2009-10-09T04:00:00.000-07:00

Three years ago today, Steve and I stood out in front of our offices and jokingly crowned ourselves the burger kings of media. We'd just made headlines by joining with Google in our shared goal of organizing the world's information (in our case, video) and making it easily and quickly accessible to anyone, anywhere. Today, I'm proud to say that we have been serving well over a billion views a day on YouTube. This is great moment in our short history and we owe it all to you.

Looking back at those early days, we were committed to some basic principles that have since become fundamental tenets in the world of online video:

Speed matters: Videos should load and play back quickly.
Clip culture is here to stay: Short clips are voraciously consumed and perfect for watching a wide variety of content.
Open platforms open up possibility: Content creation isn't our business; it's yours. We wanted to create a place where anyone with a video camera, a computer, and an Internet connection could share their life, art, and voice with the world, and in many cases make a living from doing so.

Three years after the acquisition, our platform and our business continue to grow and evolve. We are still committed to the same principles that informed the site early on, but we know things have changed. As bandwidth has increased, so has our video quality. As we've started to see demand for longer, full-length content, we've brought more shows and movies to the site. There are now more ways than ever to make and consume content, and more of you are looking to turn your hobby into a real business. We're working hard to keep up with the fast pace of technology to bring you everything you would expect from the world's largest video site: better quality; a full spectrum of choices and tools for users, partners and advertisers; and ways to make the YouTube experience your own anywhere, anytime.

Chad Hurley, CEO and Co-founder

You Talking To Me?

2009-10-08T18:00:00.000-07:00

If you don't know who Travis Bickle is, you probably should.

Widely considered one of the greatest films of all time, Taxi Driver paints a dark, gritty, and at times violent portrait of a lonely man in the urban jungle. Now, courtesy of our friends at Crackle, you can watch the entire film on YouTube through next Sunday, October 18.

Even if you haven't seen the film yet, you may be familiar with some of the memorable quotes (like "You talkin' to me? You talkin' to me? Well, I'm the only one here."). Well, if you think you've got a killer Bobby D. impression, now is the time to share it with the world. Film yourself reenacting a scene from the movie, and post it as a video response to Taxi Driver. The best impressions will be featured in a blog next week.

One quick note -- as you may know, Taxi Driver is rated R for violence and language. This means that in order to watch it on YouTube, you'll need to be signed into your account and confirm that you are 17 years of age or older.

We'll be partnering with Crackle to bring you more great films in the future. Be sure to stay on top of what's new by subscribing to their YouTube channel.

Enjoy!

Nate Weinstein, Entertainment Marketing, just watched "Super Action Man."

Webinar on Basic Shooting Techniques: Join Us!

2009-10-08T14:17:00.000-07:00

Update (10/12/2009): Results of the poll, for topics you want covered during this Webinar:
Total votes: 1305
49% handheld camera techniques
46% microphone techniques
44% equipment buying advice
41% lighting & filtering
40% art of composition
25% button basics: using camcorder

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YouTube's Creator's Corner and Videomaker magazine are excited to bring you the first in a series of Webinars that explore the basics of video production and will help you take your videos to the next level. Videomaker offers intensive weekend courses here in Northern California, and they've generously offered to share their knowledge with the global YouTube community for free, as well as take your questions.

The first seminar will focus on "Basic Shooting Techniques" and it's scheduled for October 27, 2009, at 2 p.m. PT / 5 p.m. ET. Click here to register.

Because we want these sessions to be really useful for you, we want you to help us set the agenda. Below is a list of topics the class could cover. Vote in the poll in the top right corner of this blog to tell us which topic(s) you most want to know about. You can also submit and vote on specific questions here. We'll use the results of the poll and the most popular questions as a guide when structuring the Webinar. Again, here are the topics you can vote for:

Shopping for a camcorder: Learn what to look for before buying one
Button basics: Master the most important buttons on the camcorder and how each of them works
Light and filter it right: Creative tips on lights and filters that will improve the look of your videos
Microphone techniques: Get the best sound from your mic with the least amount of hassle
The art of composition: Simple composition rules to set your video apart from ordinary videos
Smooth moves: Handheld camera techniques

Finally, if you've got a strong preference for days of the week or times when you'd most likely be able to tune in to a Webinar, please let us know in the comments below, and we'll take that into consideration when planning future events.

Thanks!

Mia Quagliarello, Community Manager, YouTube, and Jennifer O'Rourke, Managing Editor, Videomaker

Follow the Announcement of Nobel Prizes in Real-Time on YouTube

2009-10-06T04:00:00.000-07:00

This week, Nobel Prizes will be awarded in a variety of categories, and for the first time you can follow the proceedings live on YouTube. Through October 12, YouTube users can tune in to the Nobel Prize YouTube channel for live-streamed announcements of each prize. This marks the first time that a European event will be live-streamed via YouTube.

Missed the earlier announcement of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine? You can view it here:

The complete schedule of awards announcements is below. Click here to watch them all, live as they unfold:

Physics
Tuesday, October 6: 11.45 a.m. CET, 09.45 a.m. GMT

Chemistry
Wednesday, October 7: 11.45 a.m. CET, 09.45 a.m. GMT

Literature
Thursday, October 8: 1.00 p.m. CET, 11.00 a.m. GMT

Peace
Friday, October 9: 11.00 a.m. CET, 09.00 a.m. GMT

Prize in Economic Sciences
Monday, October 12: 1.00 p.m. CET, 11.00 a.m. GMT

Kim Alltorp, Associate Product Marketing Manager, Nordic Region

Inside User Research at YouTube

2009-10-05T13:00:00.000-07:00

If you think about watching a video online, it may seem pretty easy. A player, a play/pause button and some content. Done. But what about if the video is being played on a mobile phone? Or on a big screen? What if it's being viewed in Nairobi? Or Shanghai? Now let's say it's being viewed by someone who wants to share her thoughts on the video and by someone who wants to do nothing more than watch more videos. Before you know it, watching a video becomes more complicated than you realize.

Enter user research. While far from providing all the answers, it can help illuminate how the site is actually used -- as opposed to guessing how it might be used or assuming the user is just like the people designing the site.

So what exactly is user research like at YouTube? Sometimes it means letting users design their ideal experience. For example, last year we used a method called FIDO (first utilized by Fidelity Investments) where we cut out different elements of various video sites, stuck them on magnets, and had users arrange their ideal organization of the elements (see below for an example). Other times we use a more standard research method called a usability study, which entails seeing whether a user can or can't complete certain standard site tasks in a usability lab.

Sometimes having users come into labs is not enough, though; we want to understand how users use YouTube in their context, in their living room, with their laptop on their lap, sprawled out on the couch. In this case we might have field studies where we interview users in their homes. In addition to such qualitative research, we look closely at the behavior of millions of users through traffic analysis and try to understand what users think of the site by deploying thousands of surveys.

We still have a lot left to learn about how people use YouTube, but some things have become clear. One of the most important findings has to do with the difference between the large group of users who are on YouTube simply to watch videos and a smaller, but very important, group of more engaged users -- often uploaders. The latter group will, unsurprisingly, care about details like how to make communication with their audience easier and more effective, how to grow their audience, and even how to make money on YouTube. The former, on the other hand, want as simple of an interface as possible: "Just let me watch the video, please!" You can see this difference in the results of the FIDO experiment we mentioned earlier -- note how differently each kind of user arranged features on the pageand the sheer number of elements in the scenario on the right:

To make matters more complicated, not everyone fits nicely into one of the two aforementioned categories -- for instance, there are users who like to watch videos, but they might also occasionally comment or favorite. Their ideal experience likely looks like something in-between the two examples pictured above.

It's not always easy to know what the best balance is for everyone, but we are committed to working towards figuring it out. One thing we know for sure is that at the end of the day, we need to build a product that is easy to use and understand. If it becomes too complicated or cluttered, we'll all need to step back and think again.

If you have any thoughts on this, you can let us know here and see what a user research survey looks like if you haven't encountered one yet. In addition, if you'd like to participate in any upcoming research we have, please fill out this form.

Sasha Lubomirsky, User Experience Researcher, recently watched "Five Years Time."

Release Notes: 10/1/09

2009-10-01T15:00:00.000-07:00

News and notes from our most recent push:

Personalized recommendations on the homepage: Recommendations for you aren't just for users with accounts anymore. Now everyone can visit the YouTube homepage to get an answer to the question, "What should I watch today?" We'll automatically generate some suggestions based on your past viewing history. Of course, you'll still get better, more specific and more consistent recommendations by creating a YouTube account.

Beginning the conversion of remaining old channels: We're starting the process today to convert all remaining channels still using the older platform to the new one. (This migration could take up to two weeks to complete.) Once again, your comments and feedback have been instrumental in helping the new version evolve and grow (you can see a list of items we addressed here). Now customizing and editing your channel is a lot easier, with plenty of options for organizing videos, and the channel refocuses attention on engaging with you and your videos, which, after all, is the centerpiece of any YouTube experience. And we've got a lot of great ideas and input from you on things you'd like to see next.

YouTube in Portuguese (the European kind): We've added Portuguese (as spoken in Portugal) to the list of languages in which you can experience YouTube. Scroll down to the bottom of the page, find "Current Language" and click on "Show languages." You'll see options there for both Português and Português (Brasil).

New discount in Creator's Corner: Logitech is offering YouTube users in the U.S. 15% off select Webcams. Click here for the coupon code and link.

Always, The YouTube Team