December YouTube Site Updates

YouTube instituted a bunch of minor changes to its site in December. Here's what's new and different:

UPDATED VIDEOS TAB

The Videos tab now includes two new viewing options. The "Most Active Today" section displaysthe current day's most buzz-worthy titles, while the "Previously Popular" section displays the most-viewed videos from one week ago or one month ago.

EXPANDED SEARCH RESULTES

YouTube search results now include both videos and channels. When you enter a query, relevant channels may be displayed at the top of the results page.

NEW MUSIC SUBCATEGORIES

YouTube's Music caegory is now broken down into genres such as Rock, Pop, Rap & Hip-Hop, and Classical.

RSS LINKS ON VIDEO BROWSE PAGES

To stay up to date on the searches you check frequently, you can subscribe to video browse pages by clicking the RSS link located beneath the categories list.

NEW PROFILE PICTURE

You can now choose any image you want to represent your channel, instead of a video still. To do this, just click the "Upload an image" option on your Account page.

COMMENTS VOTING NOW OPTIONAL

You can now choose whether or not you want to allow users to vote on comments made on your videos. This option is under a new "Comment Voting" section in both the Upload and Edit Video and sharing sections.

YouTube Video Bar on Your Web Page

Google now lets you easily embed a vertical or horizontal bar of video thumbnails on your own web page. You can select videos from up to four channels to show in the bar; your site visitors can click on any thumbnail to view the video. Click here to generate the HTML code.

New Video Viewing Page

It's been in beta testing for some months now, but YouTube has finally moved to its new video viewing page. It's basically a redesign of the old page, with a larger video player screen, better organized features, and the like. You should be happy with what you see.

Ads in YouTube Videos

Google has finally figured out a way to serve video ads in YouTube. For videos from selected partners, YouTube now displays an ad overlay that appears about 15 seconds into the video. The overlay takes up the bottom half of the screen; you can click to close the overlay, or it will disappear on its own after 10 seconds. To view the associated ad, just click the appropriate part of the overlay.

Right now, these ad overlays are added only to videos from YouTube's major content partners, and Google shares the ad revenue with those partners. You don't have to worry about Google popping an ad onto your own personal video. (At least not yet, anyway.) The response to this development is divided -- advertisers love it, while the YouTube community hates it. At least it's better than being forced to watch a pre-roll full-window ad -- isn't it?

Video Blogging for Business

I've received a lot of publicity about a relatively small part of my YouTube 4 You book, specially that part dealing with using YouTube to promote your business. Building on that interest, I've just launched a new blog, called Video Blogging for Business. It's a series of video blog posts designed to help any business, large or small, use YouTube to create their own video blogs and webcasts. Check it out -- I add a new post each week.

New Custom Embedded Video Player

YouTube has always let you embed their videos in your website. But now you can embed a custom video player, complete with your choice of videos, color theme, layout, and the like. To create the code for a custom player, go to your My Account page and click the Custom Player link.

More Product Placement

A reader has pointed out to me another firm offering product placement for YouTube videos. WePlace is the name of the firm, and it looks like they work with larger companies for their product placement needs.

YouTube Product Placement

If you're interested in making money from your YouTube videos, you may be interested in a new company called Brandfame. This is a product placement service that connects advertisers with video producers. You use Brandfame to find companies that will pay to have their products placed in your videos, just like the big boys in Hollywood do.

Michael Miller on BlogTalkRadio

On June 28th I did an hour-long interview with Wayne Hurlbert on the Blog Business Success Internet radio program on BlogTalkRadio. The interview was all about YouTube, and my book YouTube 4 You. You can listen to a podcast of that blog here.

YouTube on iPhone, Changing Video Format

Apple announced that YouTube videos will be available for download onto the upcoming new iPhone. Buried in the release was the fact that these videos won't be in the tried-and-true Flash format. Instead, YouTube is switching to the more-advanced H.264 format. YouTube expects all their videos to be converted to H.264 by the fall. What this means in terms of third-party downloading and conversion remains to be seen, but you won't need those Flash players anymore!

YouTube Updates

YouTube has made some major and minor changes throughout the site. Changes include:

• At the top of the home page, a strip of videos currently being watched by other users
• A new beta version of the video viewing page, complete with larger video player window (click the Try the NEW Beta Version of This Page link to check it out)
• A new video upload page with a Google maplet that lets you geotag where you shot your video
• YouTube Remixer, a proprietary version of Adobe Remixer, for editing your videos before you upload; try it out here
• Ability to view your search results by grid or list

Check them all out!

Mobile YouTube

YouTube has launched Mobile YouTube, a version of YouTube for mobile phones. The mobile interface lets you search for, download, and view videos on your web-enabled mobile phone. (Just make sure you have a fast mobile Internet service -- and a fully charged battery!) To try it out, point your phone to m.youtube.com.

YouTube to Pay Most Popular Users

YouTube has announced a kind of revenue-sharing plan for its most popular video posters. It is elevating high-profile posters to the "partner" level, and then sharing advertising revenue with them. How do you become a YouTube partner? It's unclear, but seems to be based on traffic. Generate enough traffic to your videos (and thus to YouTube itself), and YouTube will get cozy with you.

YouTube 4 You Now Shipping!

The book YouTube 4 You is now shipping from the publisher's warehouse. Look for copies in your local bookstore or online any day now!

Put YouTube Videos on Your Blogger Blog

New feature in Blogger -- the ability to add YouTube videos as a sidebar element to your blog. Use the Blogger Dashboard to go to the Template tab, click Add a Page Element, and then select Video Bar. This lets you add a vertical bar of YouTube video clips, based on defined search elements.

Claim Your Content Coming -- and More on Viacom

YouTube is almost ready to launch a new software tool that will enable copyright holders to find and report infringing content on the YouTube site. The tool is dubbed Claim Your Content, and it will be available to any content provider -- not just official YouTube partners.

BTW, Google CEO Eric Schmidt commented at the Web 2.0 conference that he thought Viacom's lawsuit against the YouTube division was essentially a negotiating tactic in the ongoing discussions between the two firms. Of Viacom, Schmidt said "[y]ou're either doing business with them or being sued by them ... we chose the former, but ended up the latter."

Copyrighted Videos No Big Thing on YouTube

According to a study by tracking firm Vidmeter.com, less than 10% of videos on YouTube were uploaded without the permission of copyright holders. This means that the bulk of YouTube videos are homegrown. It doesn't mean, however, that those homegrown videos are the most popular videos. Nor do the numbers totally reflect reality, as that 10% number reflects only those videos that have been identified by copyright holders; there may be more infringing videos on YouTube that haven't yet been identified, or that copyright holders haven't complained about. Still, it's an interesting bit of data.

Welcome to YouTube 4U: The Blog

This blog is in support of the upcoming book, YouTube 4U, from me, Michael Miller. The book will be published by Que Publishing in April 2007 -- look for it at your local bookstore, then return here for updates and new information.