YouTube UK Blog
YouTube UK Goes Fratelli
Saturday 28 June 2008
They asked you to cover their tracks. You obliged. This is the result: Fratellis Weekend on YouTube UK.
More than
100 versions
of the Glasgow three-piece’s output were submitted for the band’s perusal, and – after some typically rock ‘n’ roll delays (which we are going to put down to their current tour) – a winner, a runner-up and eight honourable mentions were selected by the men themselves.
So, let’s congratulate
OMGMhazzRocks
on her victory, clink glasses with the
MannyNH
players (who managed to pick a tune Jon Fratelli had forgotten he’d written) and reward everyone else by watching their efforts on the homepage along with some live footage of the “real” Fratellis playing Camden Crawl.
Huge thanks (and no little respect) to everyone who took part.
Have fun,
The YouTube Team
New Personalised Homepage and Improved Email Notifications
Tuesday 24 June 2008
The new features included in our most recent site update are geared toward a more personalised experience for you. Here is a quick rundown...
NEW PERSONALISED HOMEPAGE
Our goal is to give a simple answer to the question, "What should I watch today?" with a personalised, customisable homepage that makes it easy to find the videos and the people that you care about. After reviewing results from our beta test and feedback from the community, we're happy to now release the new personalised homepage to all logged-in users. Since launching the beta version in February, data has shown an increase in the number of users visiting the homepage, the frequency of visits and the number of subscriptions users make over time. So, this optimised version of the homepage not only means a customisable experience for you, but more exposure for your YouTube videos and channels (Note: if you are logged out or do not have an account, you won't be able to access personalised homepage and will default to our former incarnation).
IMPROVED EMAIL NOTIFICATIONS
The email messages you receive from YouTube have been updated with a new layout. In addition to a streamlined design and many wording changes, any comments or messages are now included directly within the body of the email, helping you keep track of your conversations over time.
We're eager to hear your feedback, so please
let us know what you think
of this latest round of updates.
The YouTube Team
The YouTube Screening Room: Now Playing
Friday 20 June 2008
Today, we're pleased to announce the launch of
the YouTube Screening Room
, a platform for films from around the world to find the
audiences they deserve.
Every year, tens of thousands of films are produced, but many of them
never get a chance to be seen by a wide audience. Until now.
The YouTube Screening Room will connect films and audiences in the
world's largest theatre, not only providing filmmakers with a
much-needed showcase, but also helping you find new high-quality
content every two weeks.
While some of these films have played at film festivals around the
world, others will be showing to a wide audience for the first time.
Our debut shorts include an Academy Award nominee from the United
States, an Academy Award winner from Norway, the world's first
animated opera from Sweden, and a poignant short from indie favourites
Miguel Arteta and Miranda July, also from the United States.
In the next few months, you'll see films from the UK, Canada, Germany,
Ireland, Australia, Austria, France, Kenya and more. Every Screening
Room film is displayed in our High Quality player, and has been posted
with the filmmaker's involvement. So be sure to rate, share and leave
comments. This is your chance to not only watch great films from all
corners of the globe, but also to converse with the filmmakers behind
them.
And if you're a filmmaker interested in playing in the YouTube Screening Room, send an email about your film to
ytscreeningroom@youtube.com
. We look forward to hearing from you!
The future of film on YouTube starts now,
Sara P.
YouTube Film
Now We Are One: Edit Us
Thursday 19 June 2008
Believe it or not, YouTube UK is one year old today. We know… we know… we don’t look it, but it’s true. The localised homepage launched on June 19, 2007, with the stated aim of increasing the visibility of local talent – of which, happily, there is clearly plenty. One element of which turns out to share our birthday and seems set on celebrating the occasion with cardboard friends taped to lolly sticks:
However, one side-effect of this surfeit of fine film-making has been that finding an appropriate way to reflect a year in the life of the UK site has proved extremely tough. Which – as regular readers of this blog will know – is usually when we turn to you for support. This is no exception.
So, if you are interested in presiding over a UK homepage takeover designed to sum up the past 52 weeks, keep reading. We are looking for a user to generate a full set of 12 video selections to reflect UK user activity over the 2007/2008 season. Pick a theme, select videos month-by-month, make your decisions based on horoscopes – the choice is yours. All we ask is that you mail your selections (together with a short explanation) to
editor-uk@youtube.com
by July 5, with a view to sharing the results on July 19. Remember: reading, understanding and adhering to YouTube’s
Community Guidelines
will greatly enhance your chances of success.
Have fun – we look forward to seeing what you come up with,
The YouTube Team
YouTube In Your Living Room
Monday 16 June 2008
We've heard many users say, "YouTube is the new TV!". Well, the YouTube Syndication team is excited to now offer a number of options to actually consume YouTube on your television sets. We're also proud to have helped many leaders in the consumer electronics space create YouTube experiences on TV.
Getting YouTube right on TV is extremely challenging from both a design and technology perspective. Each of our partners' engineering and design teams had similar questions:
- What would users, accustomed to a simple remote control interface for their TVs, expect given their typically much richer interaction options when surfing
youtube.com
?
- How could the YouTube experience be personalised for TV?
- How could the extra computing power and memory often required to make this work on their devices be added effectively?
- What were the most important YouTube features to retain, and how would they translate to a 10-foot user experience?
All these partners used the
YouTube APIs
to build their products. One partner's summary of their experience with the APIs: "The YouTube API was very simple, but powerful. It enabled us to develop our user interface flexibly and quickly." Music to our ears!
Here's a quick overview of some products that enable you to access YouTube from your living room...or anywhere else you may have your television(s)!
AppleTV
: In
June 2007
this became the first product to offer a way to watch YouTube on your TV.
Sony Bravia Internet Video Link
: Last week, Sony announced the general availability of YouTube content on their Bravia TVs via the Internet Video Link. Some clips from the YouTube team at the event are linked below.
Nice tie
, Brent!
HP MediaSmart
:
HP announced availability
of YouTube as part of the HP MediaSmart platform.
Panasonic: At
CES 2008
, Panasonic announced
VieraCast
, which allows you to
access YouTube
directly from your TV. The device will be available later this month.
Samsung: Samsung launched their IPTV device which supports YouTube (currently only available in South Korea) in early May.
TiVo
:
Announced that YouTube would be available
on their devices.
Verismo
: A start-up in the IPTV space, has
announced availability
of a YouTube-enabled device.
Videos from the Sony announcement in NYC:
We're excited that the YouTube APIs have enabled these products and look forward to sharing information about even more products, upgrades and innovations from our partners. We're determined to see more devices and applications
"Powered by YouTube"
so that our vision of YouTube Everywhere feels even more real to our users. Head over to the
API Blog
to read more about where you can expect to see YouTube other than
youtube.com
!
The YouTube Team
Video Annotations: New Beta Feature
Wednesday 4 June 2008
We're happy to announce a new way to add interactive commentary to your videos: Video Annotations. Using this new tool you can add background information on-screen, create branching ("choose your own adventure" style) stories or add links to any YouTube upload, channel, or search results page -- at any point in your video.
Uploaders have control over creating and editing an unlimited number of annotations on their videos. To start annotating, first make sure you have videos uploaded into your account. Log in, then go to view one of your videos. On the Video page, click the blue "Edit Annotations" button to the right of the video.
As you play your video, you can insert commentary by adding speech bubbles, notes and highlight boxes anywhere you want. You can also use the menu on the left to save a draft, delete commentary, edit start/stop times or add links to your annotations. Once you save the final version, click "Publish" to reveal your annotated video to other users. (Note: Video Annotations are shown by default, but the viewer can turn them off while watching a video through the "Menu" button on the bottom right of the video player).
Looking for some creative ways to use annotations? Check out these examples: a
shell game
,
skydiving adventure
and
magic trick
.
For more information on how to use annotations, please visit the
Help Centre
.
We're really looking forward to seeing how you decide to use this new facility and will add more fun tools and features soon!
Don't forget to
share your feedback
with us,
The YouTube Team
Labels
comments
design
live stream
music
partners
playlists
product update
ratings
Archive
2017
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
2016
Nov
Feb
2015
Dec
Nov
Jan
2014
Dec
Oct
Sept
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Jan
2013
Aug
Jul
Jun
Feb
2012
Dec
Nov
Sept
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Mar
Jan
2011
Dec
Nov
Oct
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2010
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sept
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2009
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sept
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2008
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sept
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2007
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sept
Feed
YouTube
on
Follow @youtube
Follow
Learn more in the
YouTube Help Center
.