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YouTube

1,659 'YouTube' stories May 2011 - December 2014
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YouTube is Google's massive video streaming platform, accepting videos from creators large and small

YouTube is a major video platform owned by Google — and it has grown to be one of the most famous social media destinations on the web.

Gangnam Style video so popular it forced YouTube to upgrade its viewing counter

Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Dec 3 2014 - 6:04 am PT
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[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bZkp7q19f0]

A Gangnam Style video posted on the officialpsy YouTube channel has proven so popular, YouTube has been forced to upgrade its viewing counter from 32- to 64-bit, as the company explained in a Google+ post.

We never thought a video would be watched in numbers greater than a 32-bit integer (=2,147,483,647 views), but that was before we met PSY. “Gangnam Style” has been viewed so many times we have to upgrade!

At the time of writing, the video was showing around 5 million views above the old limit. YouTube has marked the achievement by creating a little mouse-over animation on the number.

If you want to see which video might be next in line to break the old viewing limit, Google Trends now shows the most popular videos of the day.

YouTube also recently allowed channel owners to create custom URLs to match their channel names, after a number of popular ones rebranded as they expanded their content or chose a new focus.

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YouTube is now offering creators custom URLs that match their channel names

Avatar for Jordan Kahn Nov 25 2014 - 9:00 am PT
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YouTube will now let creators get a hold of a custom channel URL that matches their channel name. The company noted in a blog post that many YouTubers have a channel name, which is often the user-facing brand of their channel, that doesn’t match the original URL they received when first signing up for YouTube. Users that want to change their URL to match their channel name will soon have the ability to do so:

When Tati joined YouTube, her username was GlamLifeGuru, which made her channel’s URL youtube.com/GlamLifeGuru. But as her channel grew, her fans embraced “Tati” as her brand. So her channel web address — often the quickest way back for her fans to watch more of her content — didn’t match her channel name and branding… To make sure creators like Tati and all of you have a consistent place for new and existing fans to find you, we’re introducing an easier way to pick custom URLs that match your channel names and branding.

YouTube is reaching out to creators with more than 500 subscribers starting this week allowing them to claim a custom URL. The company says it will offer several URL choices that are “based on your channel’s description, Google identity and associated websites.”

It doesn’t look like users can initiate the process manually yet, but instead will have to keep an eye out for the “Get a new custom URL” notification in YouTube’s Creator Studio.

YouTube has full instructions and more info in a support document here.

PSA: Google Play Music now comes with access to YouTube Music Key

Avatar for Mark Hearn Nov 20 2014 - 11:52 am PT
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Last week, we found out that YouTube’s new music streaming service dubbed YouTube Music Key would be accessible to Google Play Music subscribers, however the company didn’t provide an exact date. Today, via Google Play’s official Twitter account, the search giant announced that the service is now available to Music customers at no additional charge.


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YouTube Music Awards set to return in March 2015

Avatar for Mark Hearn Nov 20 2014 - 11:16 am PT
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After a bit of a hiatus, YouTube announced today that it’s bringing back its Music Awards for a second showing. The event is set to take place sometime in March with the Google-owned company dishing out awards to recording artists selected by its viewers. In addition to having a say-so in who receives top honors, fans will also have some type of creative influence over the content being streamed.
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Google says Play Music subscribers automatically get access to YouTube Music Key starting next week

Avatar for Stephen Hall Nov 14 2014 - 9:27 am PT
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When YouTube Music Key was announced earlier this week, we were left with many details about the service unexplained. Of these, was the question of whether or not current Google Play Music subscribers were going to have access to the service automatically. While the announcement said that subscribers of Music Key would be getting All Access subscriptions included, it wasn’t exactly clear whether or not it worked the other way around. Now we have the answer:

Starting next week, as a Google Play Music subscriber, you’ll get free and complete access to the YouTube Music Key beta, a new service from YouTube where you can watch ad-free music videos, and keep the music playing in the background or when you’re offline. The Google Play Music app will also include ad-free music videos alongside select tracks. Stay tuned for more information.

In an email sent out to Google Play Music subscribers this morning, the above snippet of text explained that those who already subscribe to Google’s music service will be getting access to the Music Key beta starting “next week.” The service promises ad-free listening to music on YouTube, offline playback, and the ability to listen to music in the background on your mobile devices.

If you’re not a Google Play Music All Access subscriber and you still want to get access to the Music Key beta, head over to the Music Key splash page and hand over your email address.

YouTube launches Music Key streaming service for $10/mo: no ads, offline playback, full albums & Play Music access

Avatar for Zac Hall Nov 12 2014 - 10:21 am PT
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Google today officially announced its highly rumored YouTube music subscription service and its calling it YouTube Music Key. YouTube’s Music Key service with be available for a monthly subscription of $9.99 and unlock ad-free music, offline playback and video viewing, and the ability to play music in the background when using other apps.

The service is rolling out as a beta next week with a promotional price of $7.99/month, and early adopters will be able to request access from YouTube.com/MusicKey. YouTube’s Music Key beta service will be available through the YouTube apps on Android and iOS and through YouTube.com.


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Google Trends updated to show top YouTube videos of the day

Avatar for Stephen Hall Nov 11 2014 - 12:58 pm PT
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Google Trends is a great place to go if you want to know what the web is up to on any given day; it does a great job of showing you trending search terms—and charts that put a ranking on basically everything—from almost any country in the world. Today, the functionality of this website has expanded, with Google announcing that they’ve added a new “Trending on YouTube” section which shows some of the most popular YouTube videos of the day.


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YouTube reaches deal with indie labels, plans to launch subscription streaming service “within weeks”

Avatar for Jordan Kahn Nov 11 2014 - 11:36 am PT
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According to a report from The Financial Times, YouTube has made a deal to license music from a long list of independent record labels for its much rumored upcoming music streaming service.

Reports that Google has been working on a new YouTube music streaming service have been popping up for over a year, but FT says the company is finally ready to launch it as it makes a deal with the rights agency representing thousands of independent labels:
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YouTube launching its second weekly SiriusXM satellite radio show on November 21st

Avatar for Mark Hearn Nov 11 2014 - 7:25 am PT
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A few months back, YouTube launched its own weekly radio show on SiriusXM and today the Google-owned video sharing company announced a follow up program that will start airing on November 21st. Furthering its partnership with the satellite radio heavyweight, YouTube EDM 15 will run on BPM, the broadcasting outfit’s electronic dance channel.


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YouTube CEO once again confirms a music service is on the way as company investigates paid video subscriptions

Avatar for Mike Beasley Oct 27 2014 - 10:31 pm PT
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Susan Wojcicki, YouTube’s CEO, said tonight during Re/code’s Code Mobile conference that the video site is still working on a subscription music service that was originally said to be debuting later this year, although the company may or may not end of meeting that estimate as it continues to hammer out the details of the offering.

YouTube confirmed in June that the service was on the way, so Wojcicki’s admission doesn’t come as much of a surprise. The service will reportedly be called YouTube Music Key and tie in with Google’s existing Play Music service.

Wojcicki indicated that the company is still trying to work out all of the details, but says she’s “optimistic” about a near-future launch, although she wouldn’t give any specific dates. The service has been under construction since 2013, and YouTube is apparently in final stages of figuring out how exactly to price it.

The CEO also said that YouTube is considering other ways to make money, perhaps by offering users the choice of a paid subscription that would eliminate ads from the site. From her remarks it seems that this isn’t something that will be launching any time soon, but is an interesting idea that’s currently being toyed with.

Google’s latest moves to fight pirate sites “will visibly affect rankings of most notorious sites”

Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Oct 20 2014 - 6:14 am PT
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Google has updated its How Google Fights Piracy report with details of its latest moves to remove pirate sites from its search results. A key element is improved automated demotion of sites that have received high numbers of DMCA takedown notices.

In August 2012 we first announced that we would downrank sites for which we received a large number of valid DMCA notices. We’ve now refined the signal in ways we expect to visibly affect the rankings of some of the most notorious sites. This update will roll out globally starting [this week].

The “most notorious sites” are likely to include rapidgator.net, filestube.com and dilandau.eu, each of which has, notes Gizmodo, received at least 11 million individual takedown requests … 
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European Union tells Google combining user data across services without opt-out is illegal

Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Sep 26 2014 - 4:07 am PT
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Google has come under fire from European Union officials on a number of fronts already. It’s been accused of unfair search results, been criticized for the way it has implemented the controversial ‘right to be forgotten‘ ruling and asked to stop describing apps which offer in-app purchases as ‘free.’

Reuters now reports that the EU believes Google is breaking the law in combining user data across unrelated services like Gmail, YouTube and Google Maps without offering users an opt-out, and the way in which it has consolidated 60 separate privacy policies into one … 
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YouTube once again looking to help fund original content

Avatar for Chance Miller Sep 18 2014 - 5:10 pm PT
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YouTube announced this evening in a blog post that, once again, it plans to start funding original content. Two years ago, YouTube announced plans to spend more than $100 million to get content creators to create YouTube channels on which to share videos. With that plan, they focused on bringing in outside entertainers. With this new push, however, YouTube says it will focus on helping the self-funded and self-published stars on the site grow.


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Google shows off winning image-recognition system, likely to assist in autonomous car efforts

Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Sep 8 2014 - 4:17 am PT
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Google has shown off its winning entry in an annual computer vision challenge whose entrants include both academic institutions and industry labs, and made its work available to other researchers.

In this year’s challenge, team GoogLeNet tasks, doubling the quality on both tasks over last year’s results. The team participated with an open submission, meaning that the exact details of its approach are shared with the wider computer vision community to foster collaboration and accelerate progress in the field …

Google cites its self-driving cars as one of the obvious applications of the technology.
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YouTube now equipped with video queuing for Chromecast users

Avatar for Mark Hearn Aug 29 2014 - 3:07 pm PT
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Chromecast users rejoice! Earlier today, YouTube started rolling out a new feature for Google’s media stick that lets you use its website to queue videos in a single tab. The idea behind this update is to keep people from drowning in the video hub’s endless sea of content during a casual casting session. Also, YouTube announced that its watch page is in the process of getting a makeover, so don’t freak out when things start looking different.


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Google+ users can now import videos to their YouTube account

Avatar for Mark Hearn Aug 27 2014 - 10:13 am PT
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[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFl3duPPG0w]

People can now transfer videos from their Google+ profiles to their YouTube accounts. We recently saw that this was in the works, but Google has officially made it available to everyone. Imports can be saved as public or private just like any standard YouTube video, which this makes this a nifty way to create an extra backup of Google+ instant uploads from your smartphone or tablet.


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Samsung posts second ‘Ready to note’ teaser video ahead of next week’s launch of Galaxy Note 4

Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Aug 25 2014 - 7:31 am PT
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[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txa2wUO6fvg]

Samsung Mobile has posted to its YouTube channel a second teaser video for the Galaxy Note 4, due to be launched on 3rd September at IFA in Berlin, with satellite events in New York and Beijing. Both videos highlight the S Pen that sets it apart from other tablets.

The first video focused on the concept of saving handwriting from being a lost art, while this new one showcases some of the other uses of the pen, from annotating maps through playing games, editing photos to typing on a keyboard.

If an early posting on an Indonesian retail site is genuine, the Note 4 will have a 5.7-inch 1440×2560 Super AMOLED display, a quad-core Snapdragon 805 (with a second version substituting an Exynos 5433) and 4GB of RAM. A separate report says that it will have a 16MP camera with a capacitive touch shutter button.

We’ll find out for sure in nine days on 3rd September.