YouTube has been getting a lot of backlash since introducing its new Google+ powered comment system earlier this month. Despite some very vocal users not exactly liking the change, Google provided an update on the new comment system last night and confirmed it’s here to stay. In a post on its YouTube Creators Blog, the company explains that it’s working to combat spam in comments and will soon introduce new bulk moderation tools for creators.
Since we launched the new comments experience on YouTube two weeks ago, we’ve received a lot of feedback from creators on the increase in comment spam. While the new system dealt with many spam issues that had plagued YouTube comments in the past, it also introduced new opportunities for abuse and shortly after the launch, we saw some users taking advantage of them.
To combat the users “taking advantage” of the new system, YouTube is implementing the following updates to help with spam: Expand Expanding Close
We haven’t yet seen too many apps that can stream content to Chromecast dongles, but all that is likely to change over the next month or two as Google has scheduled a Chromecast ‘hackathon’ at its Mountain View HQ next month, reports Engadget.
Google has invited several developers including CyanogenMod / AirCast dev Koushik Dutta and Thomas Kjeldsen to a hackathon on December 7th and 8th in Mountain View. An opportunity to test drive the “upcoming release” of the Cast SDK is promised, plus an opportunity to talk with Google engineers about what it can do … Expand Expanding Close
Update: YouTube is back online for most users and is now functioning properly. The outage lasted for around 30 minutes. Google issued the following statement concerning the troubles and apologized:
Some people encountered errors, or a slower than normal experience on YouTube today. We worked quickly to address the issue and fixed the problem. We’re sorry for any inconvenience this caused.
YouTube appears to be down for almost everyone. The site is giving a “500 Internal Server Error” message, followed by a string of code. In addition to affecting the desktop site, Youtube’s mobile apps are also inaccessible for some due to the outage. The site has been down for about 20 minutes now…
Google issued the following statement to us regarding the outage:
Some people are encountering errors, or a slower than normal experience on YouTube today. We’re working to fix the problem as soon as possible.
The Moto G news train continues this morning with the very first commercial already hitting YouTube showing off the customizable backs, display, processor, and Android 4.3 with “guaranteed upgrade.” In total, the sixty-second spot doesn’t show us a whole lot we don’t already know and only mentions “exceptional price” without mentioning the actual dollar amount.
YouTube announced an interesting new feature for creators today that will allow them to promote their channel across YouTube free of charge. Normally Google charges companies to place those ads that are often displayed at the beginning of YouTube videos, but for YouTube creators, Google will now display video ads for free through a new tool called ‘Fan Finder’.
YouTube is asking creators to submit a channel introduction video ad to Fan Finder, much like the example video ad from Rainn Wilson’s Soulpancake channel in the instructional video below. Once you’ve submitted the ad, Google will automatically turn it into a TrueView video ad and display it across YouTube for users it thinks might enjoy your content. Like normal YouTube ads, users will be able to skip the channel ads after 5 seconds:
We’ll turn your video into a TrueView video ad, which gives viewers the option to skip after 5 seconds. We’ll show your ad for free across YouTube to connect you with brand new fans. Fan Finder takes into account the interactions that viewers have with millions of YouTube channels in order reach the people who are most likely to engage with your channel.
Google today has released Chrome 32 beta for Windows, Mac, and PC. The update includes several new features. Arguably the biggest, however, is the ability to track down which tab is the one playing a video and/or making sound. This feature was rumored way back in February, but only now is it making its way to the Chrome beta channel. In Chrome 32, tabs that are playing sound will now show a small speaker icon. Chrome has been doing this for YouTube videos since August, but it will now work with any site. Tabs that are using a webcam or microphone will also now display icons, as will tabs that are being cast to a TV with a Chromecast.
Also new in Chrome 32 beta is a new design for Windows 8 Metro, the automatic blocking of malware files, and a plethora of stability and performance improvements.
Tab indicators for sound, webcam and casting
A different look for Win8 Metro mode
Automatically blocking malware files
A number of new apps/extension APIs
Lots of under the hood changes for stability and performance
You can download Chrome beta to give these features a try. The update should be released in the main channel early next year.
Back in May Google rolled out new contextual quick action buttons in Gmail that appeared next to messages in your inbox allowing users to, for example, quickly RSVP to an invitation or check-in to flights. Today Google announced on its Gmail blog that it’s rolling out even more quick action buttons in Gmail. One of the new buttons will allow users to rate and review restaurants and save Google Offers with a single click:
For example, you can rate and review restaurants you ordered from on Seamless and even modify OpenTable reservations—all without opening an email. And for the deal lovers out there, you can conveniently save a promotion from Google Offers with one click, making it easy to find and buy it when you’re ready.
Another new quick action button will allow YouTube and Vimeo uploaders to click a “View video” button next to emails in their inbox to jump right to viewing their finished uploads (pictured below). The same button will also appear for Dropbox, Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides. Expand Expanding Close
Netflix and YouTube between them account for more than half of American traffic on the Internet, according to data from broadband company Sandvine, totalling 50.31 percent of peaktime downstream usage.
The numbers need to be viewed with a certain amount of caution, measuring data transmission rather than number of people watching. For example, Netflix sits well above YouTube not because it attracts more eyes, but because people watch longer, higher-quality videos on Netflix.
By this measure, companies would also be penalised for more efficient data-transmission protocols – squeezing more video into the same amount of data, so it’s possible that Amazon Video and Hulu are a little more than the also-rans they appear here – but with those kinds of numbers, the overall picture is clear.
YouTube’s share may further increase this month when offline viewing is introduced.
As news spread this morning that one of the original YouTube founders, Jawed Karim isn’t fond of Google+ YouTube comments, it begs the question what others think. The introduction of the new comment system led Karim to post his first comment on the site in 8 years:
“Why the fuck do I need a google+ account to comment on a video?”
Now, at first glance I’d say I agree with him, it just seems like another opportunity for Google to push its social media service right under a nose. On the flip side, there’s little argument that YouTube’s comment section is a black hole of the internet. If there’s even a remote possibility that Google+ can improve the quality of the conversation on YouTube, I say hell yes.
It remains unclear is Karim is truly the man responsible for the comment or if someone hacked his account. With the news that Feedly suddenly backtracked using Google+ authentication based on initial feedback, the question remains whether or not Google is making the right move pushing their service on YouTube?
So what say you, is Google+ the right comment system for YouTube? Would you like to see them spread to a blog like this one?
Earlier this week Google officially started rolling out a new commenting system on both the desktop and in its Android app. The new system is integrated with Google+ with the goal of finally creating a “better commenting” system on YouTube with more relevant comments and new moderation tools for creators. A revamp of YouTube’s commenting system was a long time coming, but YouTube’s own co-founder isn’t too happy about the change.
Posting his first comment in nearly eight years to the same account that uploaded the first video ever to the service, YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim is wondering why he needs a Google+ account to comment on the service he helped create:
“Why the fuck do i need a google+ account to comment on a video?”
It’s unclear if Karim is truly behind the comment, or perhaps it’s a joke from someone that got a hold of his account. Either way, Karim is not the only one that isn’t too happy about having to link a Google+ account to YouTube in order to continuing commenting. Expand Expanding Close
There’s little question we all would love to see an improvement in the quality and flow of YouTube video comments. That’s why the introduction of a “better commenting” system is beginning this week is cause for hope. Diving right in, we’ll take a look at what Google suggests as the three main takeaways with this comment system:
Comments you care about move to the top: You’ll see posts opportunities the top of the list from the video’s creator, popular personalities, engaged discussions about the video, and people in your Google+ Circles. You can still see the most recent comments by switching from “Top Comments” to “Newest First.”
Join the conversation publicly or privately: You can choose to start a conversation so that it is seen by everyone, only people in your Circles, or just your bestie. Like Gmail, replies are threaded so you can easily follow conversations.
Easily moderate comments: If you also post videos on your channel, you’ll have new tools to review comments before they’re posted, block certain words or save time by auto-approving comments from certain fans. Expand Expanding Close
Following last night’s first ever YouTube Music Awards, YouTube has posted some highlights from the event and below we have a full list of winners for each of the six major categories from the show.
Unfortunately the broadcast, hosted by Jason Schwartzman and Reggie Watts and featuring live music video-like performances from Eminem, Lady Gaga and others, didn’t manage to attract many viewers during its live stream last night. According to Time, YouTube’s award show was able to capture only around 250,000 simultaneous viewers. That’s compared to around 1.9 million for the live YouTube stream of the Coachella festival each year and 10.1 million viewers for MTV’s latest VMAs award show.
Reviews of how the show went seem to be mixed, but we’ll post the full video of the show as soon as its available here. Head below for the full list of winners and hit the playlist above for more videos of last night’s performances: Expand Expanding Close
Jason Schwartzman and Reggie Watts are hosting the new event which is meant to take on the big players in the music industry. Spike Jonze is directing and Lady Gaga, Eminem, Avicii and Arcade Fire will be making appearances.
YouTube is planning to launch a subscription-based video-focused music streaming service, according to Billboard. Like many other streaming music services, YouTube’s program will have both free and paid accounts. Unlike other services, however, YouTube plans to integrate video into their platform by allowing users to stream music videos along with regular audio tracks.
Paid subscribers will reportedly an ad-free listening experience, on-demand access to any song or video in the service’s catalog, and unlimited streaming. Offline listening is also being considered, allowing subscribers to download songs to their mobile devices for playback even without an Internet connection.
While from the outside, the most recent YouTube update looked rather minor, Android Police has done some deep digging and discovered a couple of very interesting tidbits regarding future features coming to the app. First off, the APK file makes several hints at background audio support. This means that you will be able to start a video within the YouTube app and navigate to another app and not have your content disrupted. Currently, leaving the YouTube app makes your video automatically pause. Android Police notes that the feature should work when the device’s screen is off, as well.
Within the YouTube app now, the settings option for background audio is hidden, but Android Police managed to reveal the options for a very brief period of time. Regarding the upcoming offline feature, the APK teardown also revealed some of the dialogue messages users will be presented with, though they’re all pretty standard.
Background audio support will be huge for listening to music via YouTube, in addition to other things, such as podcasts and videos. It’s unclear when the feature will launch, but between this and offline video support, YouTube for Android is about to get a lot more useful. Expand Expanding Close
Following a report back in July showing that Google+ gets only 2 percent of social sharing, new figures from Shareaholic (via Marketing Land) reveal that the service drives an average of 0.06 percent of all referral traffic. This contrasts with Facebook at 8.11 percent, Pinterest at 3.24 and Twitter at a surprisingly low 1.17.
Google+ traffic is also growing at a far slower rate than other social media.
Shareaholic also says that Google+ is growing the slowest as a referral source at just 6.97 percent over the past year. Referrals from Facebook (58.81 percent), Pinterest (66.52 percent), Twitter (54.12 percent) and YouTube (52.86 percent) all grew more than 50 percent since September 2012.
Viewed against a backdrop of Google’s aggressive promotion of the service, making it virtually impossible not to have a G+ account by linking it to every product the company has, it does make me question whether Google+ has a long-term future … Expand Expanding Close
Brierly was disconnected from his family at the age of five in a turn of tragedy, and decades later saw Google Earth as an avenue to search the streets he recollected in fragments for answers of his origin. Check out the compelling video below: Expand Expanding Close
Google has announced that Hulu has added Chromecast support to its Hulu Plus app, enabling online shows to be viewed on the big screen – something it promised back in July.
Now you can easily enjoy your favorite shows, such as “Modern Family,” “New Girl” and “Parks and Recreation,” on your big-screen TV by casting from Hulu Plus on your mobile phone or tablet. It’s the same intuitive, remote-free experience you’ve come to enjoy with the other Chromecast-supported apps, and is as simple as pressing the Cast button which will now appear in the app … Expand Expanding Close
Google announced today that it is rolling a new version of Gmail for Android that introduces a new and improved conversation view, improved multi-select functions, and other improvements.
The cleaner conversation view is pretty self explanatory from the screenshot above, and does a good job of making it easier to see email threads that get grouped together. You can also now tap profile images of senders within the conversation view to select multiple emails in the conversation.
As for the improved multi-select functionality, Google noted that the app also now includes “checkmarks for multiple message selection so you can easily see what messages you are about to move, archive or delete.”
You’ll also now be able to see if Account Sync is disabled directly in your inbox.
YouTube announced today on its YouTube Partners & Creators Blog that is launching a new Audio Library that will provide YouTubers with access royalty-free instrumental audio tracks to use in their YouTube videos and elsewhere. The new Audio Library tool is available via a link in the YouTube video manager and currently provides access to over 150 tracks grouped by genre, instrument, and mood that can be downloaded as 320 Kbps MP3s.
Google also noted that it teamed up with a number of musicians to record the original tracks:
As you can see, this project was a whole lot of fun. We searched far and wide for musicians to create tracks for us and ended up finding co-conspirators in multiple places: an acquaintance down in LA, music houses across the country and a well-known music producer in Brooklyn. And it turns out the latter produced albums for Phish and Sean Lennon. So, we’re basically rock stars now (or we felt like them for awhile).
You can check out the new Audio Library for yourself here. Musicians that are interested in submitting music to be considered for the audio library can do so here. Unfortunately, in exchange for offering up your tunes royalty-free forever, Google does not seem to be crediting artists for their contributions in the Audio Library. Expand Expanding Close
As we are all well aware of, YouTube comments are often some of the oddest things on the web, but as announced in a blog post today, Google is finally looking to improve the quality and relevance of comments. On the Official YouTube Blog, the company has announced that starting this week, all comments on channels with the discussion tab will be transitioned to Google+ discussions. All videos on YouTube will receive Google+ comments later this year.
This means that you will now see comments and discussions that are most relevant to you at the top of the page. For example, comments from people you know, follow, or engage with on Google+ will be shown first. This also somewhat enforces a “real name” policy on YouTube.
This also means that you will be able to create a discussion in the comments section of a video, but only with a limited circle of friends from Google+. These discussions and comments will only be visible to who you choose to share them with, not the public.
Comments you care about move to the top: You’ll see posts at the top of the list from the video’s creator, popular personalities, engaged discussions about the video, and people in your Google+ Circles.
Join the conversation publicly or privately: You can choose to start a conversation so that it is seen by everyone on YouTube and Google+, only people in your Circles or just your bestie. Like Gmail, replies are threaded so you can easily follow conversations.
Better ways to moderate comments: You have new tools to review comments before they’re posted, block certain words or save time by auto-approving comments from certain fans. These can help you spend less time moderating, and more time sharing videos and connecting with your fans.
Google+ powered comments will rollout to channel discussion tabs this week and all videos later this year.
Yesterday we reported that Google-owned YouTube was finally planning to offer a way to watch videos offline, but at the time, very few details of the service were available. AllThingsD has now, however, obtained a copy of an e-mail sent out by YouTube to its content “partners”.
Essentially, you will be able to save YouTube videos to your mobile device using the YouTube app for up to 48 hours. Should your device be offline for more than 48 hours, the videos will be unavailable until you reconnect to a network. The videos will still contain ads and you must use the app to watch them, not YouTube.com or any other platform.
YouTube also notes that this feature will not apply to the TV shows and movies it has available for rental. Also worth noting is that YouTube does not make any mention of music videos being supported. Given its tense relationship with most music labels, I’d be very surprised if music/lyric videos were made available to save offline.
If you are a video producer and do not want want your content being saved offline, you do have the ability to disable the functionality, though it will be enabled by default.
The offline functionality is set to launch in November. Read the full memo after the break. Expand Expanding Close
YouTube
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.
YouTube working to fight spam in new Google+ comments, bulk moderation tools coming soon
YouTube has been getting a lot of backlash since introducing its new Google+ powered comment system earlier this month. Despite some very vocal users not exactly liking the change, Google provided an update on the new comment system last night and confirmed it’s here to stay. In a post on its YouTube Creators Blog, the company explains that it’s working to combat spam in comments and will soon introduce new bulk moderation tools for creators.
To combat the users “taking advantage” of the new system, YouTube is implementing the following updates to help with spam:
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Expect more Chromecast apps soon as Google schedules hackathon
We haven’t yet seen too many apps that can stream content to Chromecast dongles, but all that is likely to change over the next month or two as Google has scheduled a Chromecast ‘hackathon’ at its Mountain View HQ next month, reports Engadget.
YouTube experiencing outage, down for many users
Update: YouTube is back online for most users and is now functioning properly. The outage lasted for around 30 minutes. Google issued the following statement concerning the troubles and apologized:
YouTube appears to be down for almost everyone. The site is giving a “500 Internal Server Error” message, followed by a string of code. In addition to affecting the desktop site, Youtube’s mobile apps are also inaccessible for some due to the outage. The site has been down for about 20 minutes now…
Google issued the following statement to us regarding the outage:
LG G Flex “self-healing” tech demoed in new hands-on video
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-W66HINFLg&w=640&h=360]
We’ve already had a look at LG’s official video showing off the G Flex “self-healing” technology but this time around we’re getting a true hands-on. Recognizing that LG’s official video happened in the most optimal conditions using the very best in camera angles…this new video video courtesy of YouTube star Marques Brownlee shows off “self-healing” in the real world.
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Motorola’s first Moto G commercial hits YouTube
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VunSqD1MOjE&w=520&h=420]
The Moto G news train continues this morning with the very first commercial already hitting YouTube showing off the customizable backs, display, processor, and Android 4.3 with “guaranteed upgrade.” In total, the sixty-second spot doesn’t show us a whole lot we don’t already know and only mentions “exceptional price” without mentioning the actual dollar amount.
Expand
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YouTube will run free video ads for channels w/ new ‘Fan Finder’ tool
YouTube announced an interesting new feature for creators today that will allow them to promote their channel across YouTube free of charge. Normally Google charges companies to place those ads that are often displayed at the beginning of YouTube videos, but for YouTube creators, Google will now display video ads for free through a new tool called ‘Fan Finder’.
YouTube is asking creators to submit a channel introduction video ad to Fan Finder, much like the example video ad from Rainn Wilson’s Soulpancake channel in the instructional video below. Once you’ve submitted the ad, Google will automatically turn it into a TrueView video ad and display it across YouTube for users it thinks might enjoy your content. Like normal YouTube ads, users will be able to skip the channel ads after 5 seconds:
You can learn more about using the new Fan Finder tool here and check out Google’s instructional video for the new ads below:
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Google releases Chrome 32 beta, includes ability to quickly find tabs playing sound
Also new in Chrome 32 beta is a new design for Windows 8 Metro, the automatic blocking of malware files, and a plethora of stability and performance improvements.
You can download Chrome beta to give these features a try. The update should be released in the main channel early next year.
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Gmail adds action buttons for Offers, restaurant reviews, & YouTube, Dropbox, & Drive uploads
Back in May Google rolled out new contextual quick action buttons in Gmail that appeared next to messages in your inbox allowing users to, for example, quickly RSVP to an invitation or check-in to flights. Today Google announced on its Gmail blog that it’s rolling out even more quick action buttons in Gmail. One of the new buttons will allow users to rate and review restaurants and save Google Offers with a single click:
Another new quick action button will allow YouTube and Vimeo uploaders to click a “View video” button next to emails in their inbox to jump right to viewing their finished uploads (pictured below). The same button will also appear for Dropbox, Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides.
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Netflix and YouTube account for over half of America’s Internet usage
Netflix and YouTube between them account for more than half of American traffic on the Internet, according to data from broadband company Sandvine, totalling 50.31 percent of peaktime downstream usage.
The numbers need to be viewed with a certain amount of caution, measuring data transmission rather than number of people watching. For example, Netflix sits well above YouTube not because it attracts more eyes, but because people watch longer, higher-quality videos on Netflix.
By this measure, companies would also be penalised for more efficient data-transmission protocols – squeezing more video into the same amount of data, so it’s possible that Amazon Video and Hulu are a little more than the also-rans they appear here – but with those kinds of numbers, the overall picture is clear.
YouTube’s share may further increase this month when offline viewing is introduced.
Poll: Do you like Google+ comments on YouTube?
As news spread this morning that one of the original YouTube founders, Jawed Karim isn’t fond of Google+ YouTube comments, it begs the question what others think. The introduction of the new comment system led Karim to post his first comment on the site in 8 years:
Now, at first glance I’d say I agree with him, it just seems like another opportunity for Google to push its social media service right under a nose. On the flip side, there’s little argument that YouTube’s comment section is a black hole of the internet. If there’s even a remote possibility that Google+ can improve the quality of the conversation on YouTube, I say hell yes.
It remains unclear is Karim is truly the man responsible for the comment or if someone hacked his account. With the news that Feedly suddenly backtracked using Google+ authentication based on initial feedback, the question remains whether or not Google is making the right move pushing their service on YouTube?
So what say you, is Google+ the right comment system for YouTube? Would you like to see them spread to a blog like this one?
YouTube co-founder not feeling the new Google+ comment system
Earlier this week Google officially started rolling out a new commenting system on both the desktop and in its Android app. The new system is integrated with Google+ with the goal of finally creating a “better commenting” system on YouTube with more relevant comments and new moderation tools for creators. A revamp of YouTube’s commenting system was a long time coming, but YouTube’s own co-founder isn’t too happy about the change.
Posting his first comment in nearly eight years to the same account that uploaded the first video ever to the service, YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim is wondering why he needs a Google+ account to comment on the service he helped create:
It’s unclear if Karim is truly behind the comment, or perhaps it’s a joke from someone that got a hold of his account. Either way, Karim is not the only one that isn’t too happy about having to link a Google+ account to YouTube in order to continuing commenting.
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YouTube begins rolling out new comment system featuring Google+
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVGp8Z8Yb28
There’s little question we all would love to see an improvement in the quality and flow of YouTube video comments. That’s why the introduction of a “better commenting” system is beginning this week is cause for hope. Diving right in, we’ll take a look at what Google suggests as the three main takeaways with this comment system:
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Check out the winners and performances from last night’s YouTube Music Awards
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAVgwA9Gx1A&list=PLbpi6ZahtOH57d6L_q8YzZ0QwZeP_J4Fe&index=1
Following last night’s first ever YouTube Music Awards, YouTube has posted some highlights from the event and below we have a full list of winners for each of the six major categories from the show.
Unfortunately the broadcast, hosted by Jason Schwartzman and Reggie Watts and featuring live music video-like performances from Eminem, Lady Gaga and others, didn’t manage to attract many viewers during its live stream last night. According to Time, YouTube’s award show was able to capture only around 250,000 simultaneous viewers. That’s compared to around 1.9 million for the live YouTube stream of the Coachella festival each year and 10.1 million viewers for MTV’s latest VMAs award show.
Reviews of how the show went seem to be mixed, but we’ll post the full video of the show as soon as its available here. Head below for the full list of winners and hit the playlist above for more videos of last night’s performances:
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YouTube music awards streaming right now (6PM ET.)
Jason Schwartzman and Reggie Watts are hosting the new event which is meant to take on the big players in the music industry. Spike Jonze is directing and Lady Gaga, Eminem, Avicii and Arcade Fire will be making appearances.
Update: The show is over, see what you missed here.
YouTube reportedly planning to launch subscription-based streaming music video service this year
YouTube is planning to launch a subscription-based video-focused music streaming service, according to Billboard. Like many other streaming music services, YouTube’s program will have both free and paid accounts. Unlike other services, however, YouTube plans to integrate video into their platform by allowing users to stream music videos along with regular audio tracks.
Paid subscribers will reportedly an ad-free listening experience, on-demand access to any song or video in the service’s catalog, and unlimited streaming. Offline listening is also being considered, allowing subscribers to download songs to their mobile devices for playback even without an Internet connection.
Expand
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Latest YouTube update hints at upcoming background audio support
While from the outside, the most recent YouTube update looked rather minor, Android Police has done some deep digging and discovered a couple of very interesting tidbits regarding future features coming to the app. First off, the APK file makes several hints at background audio support. This means that you will be able to start a video within the YouTube app and navigate to another app and not have your content disrupted. Currently, leaving the YouTube app makes your video automatically pause. Android Police notes that the feature should work when the device’s screen is off, as well.
Within the YouTube app now, the settings option for background audio is hidden, but Android Police managed to reveal the options for a very brief period of time. Regarding the upcoming offline feature, the APK teardown also revealed some of the dialogue messages users will be presented with, though they’re all pretty standard.
Background audio support will be huge for listening to music via YouTube, in addition to other things, such as podcasts and videos. It’s unclear when the feature will launch, but between this and offline video support, YouTube for Android is about to get a lot more useful.
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Opinion: With results like these, does Google+ have a future?
Following a report back in July showing that Google+ gets only 2 percent of social sharing, new figures from Shareaholic (via Marketing Land) reveal that the service drives an average of 0.06 percent of all referral traffic. This contrasts with Facebook at 8.11 percent, Pinterest at 3.24 and Twitter at a surprisingly low 1.17.
Google+ traffic is also growing at a far slower rate than other social media.
Viewed against a backdrop of Google’s aggressive promotion of the service, making it virtually impossible not to have a G+ account by linking it to every product the company has, it does make me question whether Google+ has a long-term future …
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Google ad tells emotional story of lost Indian boy who found his family 25 years later
We first brought you the story of a 30-year-old man finding his lost mother and family using Google Earth earlier this year, and Google has posted an emotional video on YouTube of Saroo Brierley telling his story of technology leading to his reunion.
Brierly was disconnected from his family at the age of five in a turn of tragedy, and decades later saw Google Earth as an avenue to search the streets he recollected in fragments for answers of his origin. Check out the compelling video below:
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Hulu Plus app adds support for Chromecast for big-screen viewing
Google has announced that Hulu has added Chromecast support to its Hulu Plus app, enabling online shows to be viewed on the big screen – something it promised back in July.
YouTube announces music awards show “powered by you” (and not by Vevo)
YouTube has announced a crowd-sourced music awards show streamed live from New York on 3rd November, with the winning acts chosen by YouTube viewers.
Google rolls out new Gmail for Android app w/ cleaner conversation view and more
Google announced today that it is rolling a new version of Gmail for Android that introduces a new and improved conversation view, improved multi-select functions, and other improvements.
The cleaner conversation view is pretty self explanatory from the screenshot above, and does a good job of making it easier to see email threads that get grouped together. You can also now tap profile images of senders within the conversation view to select multiple emails in the conversation.
As for the improved multi-select functionality, Google noted that the app also now includes “checkmarks for multiple message selection so you can easily see what messages you are about to move, archive or delete.”
You’ll also now be able to see if Account Sync is disabled directly in your inbox.
The updated Gmail app is available now on Google Play.
YouTube launches Audio Library with more than 150 royalty-free tracks
YouTube announced today on its YouTube Partners & Creators Blog that is launching a new Audio Library that will provide YouTubers with access royalty-free instrumental audio tracks to use in their YouTube videos and elsewhere. The new Audio Library tool is available via a link in the YouTube video manager and currently provides access to over 150 tracks grouped by genre, instrument, and mood that can be downloaded as 320 Kbps MP3s.
Google also noted that it teamed up with a number of musicians to record the original tracks:
You can check out the new Audio Library for yourself here. Musicians that are interested in submitting music to be considered for the audio library can do so here. Unfortunately, in exchange for offering up your tunes royalty-free forever, Google does not seem to be crediting artists for their contributions in the Audio Library.
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Close
YouTube to transition to Google+ powered comments and discussions
As we are all well aware of, YouTube comments are often some of the oddest things on the web, but as announced in a blog post today, Google is finally looking to improve the quality and relevance of comments. On the Official YouTube Blog, the company has announced that starting this week, all comments on channels with the discussion tab will be transitioned to Google+ discussions. All videos on YouTube will receive Google+ comments later this year.
This means that you will now see comments and discussions that are most relevant to you at the top of the page. For example, comments from people you know, follow, or engage with on Google+ will be shown first. This also somewhat enforces a “real name” policy on YouTube.
This also means that you will be able to create a discussion in the comments section of a video, but only with a limited circle of friends from Google+. These discussions and comments will only be visible to who you choose to share them with, not the public.
Google+ powered comments will rollout to channel discussion tabs this week and all videos later this year.
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More details emerge on YouTube’s upcoming offline video functionality
Yesterday we reported that Google-owned YouTube was finally planning to offer a way to watch videos offline, but at the time, very few details of the service were available. AllThingsD has now, however, obtained a copy of an e-mail sent out by YouTube to its content “partners”.
Essentially, you will be able to save YouTube videos to your mobile device using the YouTube app for up to 48 hours. Should your device be offline for more than 48 hours, the videos will be unavailable until you reconnect to a network. The videos will still contain ads and you must use the app to watch them, not YouTube.com or any other platform.
YouTube also notes that this feature will not apply to the TV shows and movies it has available for rental. Also worth noting is that YouTube does not make any mention of music videos being supported. Given its tense relationship with most music labels, I’d be very surprised if music/lyric videos were made available to save offline.
If you are a video producer and do not want want your content being saved offline, you do have the ability to disable the functionality, though it will be enabled by default.
The offline functionality is set to launch in November. Read the full memo after the break.
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