YouTube

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.

YouTube

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

Jordan Kahn Nov 11 2014 - 11:36 am PT

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

Mark Hearn Nov 11 2014 - 7:25 am PT

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.

Google launches official YouTube app for PlayStation 4 w/ 1080p viewing and gameplay sharing

Dom Esposito Oct 29 2014 - 8:48 am PT

Google has finally made a PlayStation 4 version of its YouTube app available for download. The app can be downloaded for free via the PlayStation Store and enables features that most YouTubers/gamers have been waiting for…

Google’s new open source project lets developers add live YouTube streaming to their Android apps

Mark Hearn Oct 28 2014 - 1:44 pm PT

With the new YouTube WatchMe for Android project, developers can now integrate live streaming into their apps. Thanks to this new open source project, more third-party devs will be able to offer video streaming features similar to Sony’s Live on YouTube by – Xperia and HTC’s upcoming RE camera.

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

Mike Beasley Oct 27 2014 - 10:31 pm PT

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 Plus and related services are currently experiencing an outage (Updated)

Dom Esposito Oct 22 2014 - 12:48 am PT

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It appears that Google Plus and related services are down at the moment. This issue was recently discovered by 9to5Google and has been confirmed by several users on Twitter. Because Google Plus is down, it seems to be affecting any other connected services such as Hangouts and even YouTube comments…

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

Ben Lovejoy Oct 20 2014 - 6:14 am PT

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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Live stream: Watch HTC’s Double Exposure event right here at 4PM ET

Chance Miller Oct 8 2014 - 12:00 pm PT

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQzqjPx-50Y

After months of rumors and speculation, HTC is finally holding its Double Exposure press event today in New York City. Thankfully, for those of you not attending the event itself, the company will also be live streaming it for everyone to see on YouTube.

European Union tells Google combining user data across services without opt-out is illegal

Ben Lovejoy Sep 26 2014 - 4:07 am PT

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

Chance Miller Sep 18 2014 - 5:10 pm PT

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.

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

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

Mark Hearn Aug 29 2014 - 3:07 pm PT

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.

A week after Apple launches iPhone 6, ZTE has a NYC launch event

Seth Weintraub Aug 29 2014 - 6:03 am PT

Probably ill-advised timing but why not?

[protected-iframe id=”05f27370503ceb18ee2654366fc676bc-22427743-13611283″ info=”https://vine.co/v/OBBtIW7EnD9/embed/simple” width=”600″ height=”600″ frameborder=”0″]

Sony teases trio of Xperia 3 devices ahead of next week’s official launch

Ben Lovejoy Aug 28 2014 - 5:43 am PT

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kajjMuZx8nY]

It’s no great surprise that Sony is now teasing three new Xperia 3 devices in a short video on its YouTube channel, pointing to their official announcement at the IFA next week …
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Google+ users can now import videos to their YouTube account

Mark Hearn Aug 27 2014 - 10:13 am PT

[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.

YouTubers will soon be able to import videos from Google+

Mark Hearn Aug 26 2014 - 7:35 am PT

YouTube subscribers will soon be able to import videos from their Google+ accounts. This features will be available as an additional option listed above YouTube’s “Create Videos” option. This new functionality was discovered by Google+ subscriber, Nedas Petravicius, but still doesn’t appear to be available to everyone.

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

Ben Lovejoy Aug 25 2014 - 7:31 am PT

[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.

Chromecast extension causing auto-playing YouTube videos in Chrome, fix coming today

Jordan Kahn Aug 19 2014 - 9:58 am PT

Wondering why all the YouTube videos in Chrome seem to be auto-playing on their own all of a sudden? It turns out the problem seems to be a bug with YouTube and the Chromecast extension for Chrome installed by users of Google’s $35 HDMI stick.

AndroidPolice point us to the issue being reported to Google and a note from the YouTube team confirming a fix is rolling out today:

The YouTube team confirmed that there was a bad push yesterday which caused this issue to be triggered. There is a fix being qualified and that is scheduled to be pushed today that will correct this issue… Closing this issue for now, since there’s not a Chrome issue here in any event. Thanks to everyone for reporting this issue.

In the meantime, you can remove the Chromecast extension (Window>Extensions) to temporarily disable the auto playing videos until the issue is fixed.

Report: YouTube Music Key is Google’s upcoming subscription service w/ concerts, remixes, free Play Music Key

Chance Miller Aug 18 2014 - 3:01 pm PT

We’ve been hearing rumors of a YouTube streaming music service for quite a while, but now Android Police has published a report detailing Google’s streaming music plans. The report claims that Google will soon launch a new service called YouTube Music Key, as well as rebrand Google Play Music All Access to Google Play Music Key.

YouTube unveils new TV layout for easier browsing on media boxes

9to5 Staff Aug 14 2014 - 10:27 am PT

YouTube today announced on their blog that they’re officially rolling out a new UI for YouTube on TVs, which will allow for easier navigating on the big screen. The update will roll out to all media devices connected to a television, such as Android TV, Roku, possibly Apple TV, and game consoles in the coming weeks, but YouTube is saying that Xbox One users will start to see the new UI today.

The channels you subscribe to and videos you care about will be a click away with a guide on the left side that’s just like the guide you see on YouTube on your computer, phone, and tablet. When you sign in, you can jump to all the latest videos from your subscriptions and recommendations in the What to Watch section, or pop on a playlist you’ve liked such as Blogilates’ Cardio AB Attack and turn your TV into a workout buddy.

YouTube for Android reportedly offering 1440p playback options for the LG G3

Mark Hearn Aug 7 2014 - 4:21 pm PT

Google could be testing 1440p video playback on its YouTube for Android app. The folks at Droid-Life have successfully enabled the higher resolution on an LG G3, however we tested the software with three separate devices (Korean LG G3, Verizon LG G3 and an Oppo Find 7) and weren’t so lucky. So perhaps Mountain View is slowly deploying this new feature.

YouTube

YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley auctioning lunch in Beverly Hills for charity

Zac Hall Aug 7 2014 - 6:56 am PT

CharityBuzz has listed a new auction this morning for lunch in Beverly Hills with YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley on September 18th. In Hurley’s case, the funds raised from the auction will benefit CAA Foundation.
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Google acquires mobile video startup Directr, adds talent to the YouTube ads team

Mike Beasley Aug 6 2014 - 1:18 pm PT

YouTube has acquired a startup called Directr according to a post on the company’s website, as noted by the Wall Street Journal. Directr is a startup that makes two iOS apps for video creation—one focused on everyday users, and the other designed with small business marketing videos in mind.

The company says that for now, “everything you love about Directr is staying the same.” Directr’s current employees, however, will be joining the YouTube video ads team. Neither party has said how much the buyout cost yet, but Directr has confirmed that despite the change of ownership, it will continue to offer its current apps, which will now be available for free.