Tag Archives: YouTube

YouTube introduces Video Editor, skippable ads coming soon

News, Technology, , , , , ,

On June 16 YouTube introduced an online video editor that allows YouTube members to complete simple edits on their uploaded videos.  The YouTube Video Editor allows you to “combine multiple videos you’ve uploaded to create a new longer video, trim the beginning and/or ending of your videos, add soundtracks from our AudioSwap library of tens of thousands of songs, and create new videos without worrying about file formats and publish them to YouTube with one click — no upload necessary.”  Google says the new editor is “ideal for merging single, short clips into a longer video” and “for trimming a long video down to the moments you really care about.”  Currently the video editor can be accessed at YouTube’s TestTube page; since it’s a new product, YouTube is asking its users to give it a try and provide appropriate feedback.  So give it a shot!  If you fall in the category of people who love to shoot and upload videos to YouTube but cannot afford/find the proper editing software, the free and easy to use YouTube Video Editor just might make all your dreams and wishes come true.

Here’s more YouTube news for you to chew on (and get rather excited about).  According to a Wall Street Journal report, Google senior product manager Baljeet Singh says that Google is readying a new YouTube feature dubbed “skippable” ads.  In the future, YouTube video windows will include a new button that when clicked will stop those annoying ads from running before videos.  Apparently Google has been “playing around with it for the last three quarters and seeing really great results.”  Singh believes that the notion of skippable ads will force advertisers to create more compelling advertisements so customers won’t want to skip them so often.  Adverisers will not be charged for skipped ads.  In addition, YouTube viewers will ability to choose from a series of ads to watch before particularly longer videos (you might have experienced this using Hulu).  Listen here, Google: If you give us the ability to skip ads, WE ARE ALWAYS GOING TO SKIP THE ADS.

[Via YouTubeBlog; GoogleSystem; WSJ]

Happy 5th Birthday, YouTube

News, Technology, Video, , ,

On Sunday May 16, 2005 the beta version of YouTube.com was launched.  To celebrate its five year exsistance, YouTube put together a “FiveYear” channel “which features people from all over describing how YouTube has changed or shaped their lives.”  Check it out!  Also, be sure to watch the video above that timelines the birth and quick rise of YouTube.  The most interesting and outstanding fun fact?  YouTube now receives two billion views per day.

[Via YouTube blog]

YouTube gets a facelift

News, Technology, , , , ,

YouTube has gone ahead and given itself a makeover, pretty much making everything a whole lot more streamlined.  The overall look is stripped down and clean, making the video player the most prominent part of the screen real estate.  In the past, the user’s video information was placed in an expandable box to the right of the video.  All of that has been move and broken up into two different place.  Directly above the video player you’ll find the username link, more videos from that same user (when clicked it expands down to reveal a horizontal list of all their uploaded videos), and a subscribe button to subscribe to all of their videos.  Directly below the player you’ll find the video description that expands down to show category, tags, and more information about the video.  Next to the video description is the Views total; not only does it tell you the number of view the video has, but it can also be expanded down to share stats, links, and honors associated with the video.  Underneath the video description you’ll find a panel of buttons called the Actions Bar.  First there’s the new ratings system; a thumbs up/thumbs down model replaces the original 5 star rating system.  The Save To button allows you to favorite a video or add it to one of your playlists.  The Share button allows you to share the video via email, Facebook, Twitter, etc.  Lastly there’s the Embed and Flag buttons, to copy the video inside another website and flag a video as inappropriate, respectively.  If you happen to click on any video in a playlist, you will find the Next Up box, located in the top-right of the page.  Next Up makes for a consistent viewing experience; depending on what you search, the Next Up box will queue up videos related to your search.  And, if the auto-play option is turned on, the video player will automatically play the next video in the series as soon as the previous one is finished.  The video player itself hasn’t really changed much.  It includes the full screen and ‘make wider’ buttons, scrubbing controls with real-time time stamps, volume, and video quality options (360p to 1080p HD).  Other neat updates include Closed Captioning (which can be turned on in certain videos where you find the Annotations toggle) and a cleaned up comment section.

Overall, the YouTube facelift really enhances the user experience.  Everything is organized, tidied up, and looking better than ever.  If it weren’t for those pesky ads, the whole thing would be downright perfect.

[Via YouTubeBlog]

Google knows how to celebrate April Fools like no other

Hilarity, News, Technology, Video, , , , , ,

As I am sure many of you noticed today, Google changed its name to Topeka.  But why, you ask?  Well because the town of Topeka, Kansas changed its name to Google for the month of April.  Topeka, Kansas is one of many communities that have entered a pool of contestents to vie for a fiber-based 1 gigabit broadband network to be provided by Google sometime in the near future.  To get Google’s attention, Topeka Google’s Mayor Bill Bunten changed the town’s name and this is how Google pays it forward.  Though it’s quite a gesture of gratitude, Google has this to say: “We want to be clear that this initiative is a one-shot deal that will have no bearing on which municipalities are chosen to participate in our experimental ultra-high-speed broadband project, to which Google, Kansas has been just one of many communities to apply.”  And that’s why you see Topeka at www.google.com today.

“Google Translate for Animals” does just what you think an app with that name would do.  Check it out in action in the video above.

The latest addition to YouTube is TEXTp, a text-only mode way of watching (most) YouTube videos.  Once you flip the switch (found in the same place to select SD/HD modes) the YouTube video will playback in ASCII code, or a dumbed down jumble of letters and numbers.  It’s pretty neat!  The Lego Matrix stop motion video was made to be dressed in ASCII code, and Trololo (the Creepy La-La-La Guy) looks downright funky.

Google on the new addition: “TEXTp is the result of months of intense transcoding efforts by our engineers, who toiled for weeks to ensure that a large chunk of videos on the platform could be reduced to their most basic elements.”  “For every person who selects TEXTp and keeps it on while you watch a video, you save YouTube $1 a second, resulting in potentially billions of dollars of savings for us.”

Head over to YouTube to check out your favorites in TEXTp mode, or add append &textp=fool to the end of any video URL to enable the feature.  This better not be a one-day deal, Google!

And lastly there’s the new Google Wave wave notifications.  They’re real time, real life notifications from a human male in a lab coat who literally waves at you when your Wave account receives a new message.  To enable the new notification system, access the the drop down menu that appears in the Inbox Navigation panel.  There you can choose from four levels of loudness: Silent, Medium, Loud or Vibrate.  Now see what it’s all about in the video above.

[Via Google, here, here & here]

Colleges now accepting YouTube videos in applications

Education, News, Technology, , , ,

A number of colleges, including Tufts University and the University of Chicago, are now accepting YouTube videos from prospective students as part of their application.  At these select schools students have the option to include a YouTube video displaying their talent(s) along with the standard required essays.  Tufts asks for a one-minute video that “says something about you.”

Lee Coffin, the dean of undergraduate admissions, said the idea came to him last spring as he watched a YouTube video someone had sent him. “I thought, ‘If this kid applied to Tufts, I’d admit him in a minute, without anything else,’ ” Mr. Coffin said.

In the latest applicant pool for Tufts 1,000 of the 15,000 prospectives submitted a video.  And many of these videos are garnering a big following.  Amelia Downs’ video that combines “two of [her] favorite things: being a nerd and dancing” has over 77,000 views!  Though it’s something that might get her into college, it’s also an artifact I would not want others to see.  In the end, this is a surprising and exciting decision made by colleges; it gives students a visually creative way to express who they are outside the realm of those boring essays.

Though he may already forgotten his trip to the dentist, David is shoe-in for NYU Tisch, wouldn’t you say?

[Via NY Times; Gizmodo]

“Badder Romance” shot-by-shot re-creation impresses Gaga

Music, Video, , , , , , ,

Rabbid Lady Gaga fans and YouTubers  BINKproductionz created this shot-by-shot re-creation of Lady Gaga’s hit “Bad Romance.”  The parody is so true to the actual music video that Lady Gaga watched it and was so impressed by it that she shared it with all her fans via her Twitter page.  Her response?  “Holy s—.”

Warning: Many explicitives are used at the end of this video.

[Via EW-MusicMix]

YouTube celebrates the most memorable videos of the year

Hilarity, Video, ,

David After Dentist, Auto-Tune the News, (Do You Wanna) Date My Avatar, Improv Everywhere, Evian Roller Babies, Keyboard Cat, Susan Boyle.  You’ve seen ’em all and laughed ’till your stomach hurts.  Head on over to YouTube to relive the 31 most memorable YouTube videos of 2009.  IS THIS REAL LIFE?

Update: Looks like YouTube took down the page already!  Strange.  Anyway, you know how to find them.

VEVO launches (fans of the music video, listen up)

Music, News, , ,

What is Vevo?  It’s a destination provided by YouTube to find streaming music videos.  Though Vevo is being hailed as “an MTV for the digital age,” I agree with Vozick-Levinson at EW when he says it’s “more like Hulu for music videos.”  Sony, Universal, and EMI (where’s Warner Music Group at?) have teamed up to port all their artist’s music videos to Vevo.  The site sports a large, high-quality video player (with HD support coming next year) and contains an index of the latest music videos.  Take note that the current smorgasbord of videos is very limited; you’ll be hard-pressed to find older music videos, and forget about indie bands.  Though the selection is very sparse and sporadic at the moment, give Vevo some time to grow (it just launched yesterday).

Here are some additional details from the Vevo launch event: 85% of all music videos will go through Vevo, the rest will live on YouTube; Vevo includes synchronized and integrated lyrics; the player serves ads based on aggregate usage; Vevo will load any time you search for artists on YouTube; Vevo will be a destination for exclusive premieres, now including brand new videos from 50 Cent, Mary J Blige and Mariah Carey.

Why Vevo?  Three of the “big four” music labels believe that this new centralized location for music videos will result in ease for the user looking for music videos on the Internet, and, more importantly, high revenue from the slew of ads that play before (or dangle below) the majority of videos (again, think Hulu for music videos).  Will it work..for the customers and the labels?  Time will tell.  For now, check it out for yourself and see what it’s all about.

[Via EW; Mashable]

Concept: Microwave with built-in YouTube player

Design, Images, Technology, Video, , ,

The Castoven is designed by researchers at Japan’s Keio University.  Besides being a conventional microwave, the Castoven sports a 10.4 inch LCD screen on the door and internal speakers.  Crunchgear breaks it down for us:

The main idea is to display a YouTube video whose length depends on the time you need to heat up what’s inside the Castoven. Say, you want to prepare a lunch box that takes 3.30 minutes to be ready. The Castoven would then automatically pull a video from YouTube with that length and display it on the screen until the meal is finished.

So the future of microwaving a Poptart is watching YouTube videos, huh?  I’ll take it.  Additional images below and a video of this in action after the break.

[Via Gizmodo; Crunchgear]

Continue reading Concept: Microwave with built-in YouTube player →