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  • How to Improve YouTube Video Quality
  • YouTube Updates - Contextual Help and Character Counter
  • The Vlog Era Has Arrived
  • YouTube Will Add Live Video in 2008
  • Quarterlife’s Creators Says the Show isn’t Big Enough for TV
  • Pakistan Breaks YouTube
  • Google Begins Pushing Adsense for Video Again
  • How To Vlogs Gaining in Popularity
  • DailyMotion High Definition Video
  • China Simultaneously Cracks Down and Lightens Up on Video Sharing Sites
  • Political Vlogs Go European
  • Video Tutorial for Revver Wordpress Plugin
  • The 10 Most Popular Videos on YouTube for 2007
  • Tips for Shooting Video in the Snow
  • YouTube Gives You a Slew of Upgrades
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  • YouTube Partner Program Now Open to the General Public
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There are a few YouTube updates some may be interested in - a contextual help icon (and corresponding information, of course) and a character counter that lets you know how many characters you have left when writing a comment.

Check them out in the video above.

Live video, or live vlogs, will be coming to YouTube in 2008. Straight from the horse’s mouth, in the video above, you can see Steve Chen of YouTube say that they are moving in that direction.

While there are already a number of places where you can vlog live, when YouTube jumps into the pool, you can be assured that the millions upon millions of vloggers they bring with them will change the live vlogging landscape.

Will we look back at 2008 as the year live vlogs went big? No doubt there’s a good chance.

See NewTeeVee for the original post of this video.

YouTube went down for nearly two hours recently due to the Pakistani government’s move to block the video sharing site from its citizens. But the outage extended far beyond Pakistan’s borders to the U.S., Germany, China, Russia, Australia, and the U.K.

Upon taking offense to content they deemed insulting to Islam, the Pakistani government ordered PCCW, the main ISP in the country, to block the whole site. PCCW went about this task by by hijacking a YouTube web server address.

Because they were able to hijack the server address and didn’t simply block the site, other countries were affected as well.

Upon discovering the source of the problem, YouTube was able to convince PCCW to cease the hijack.

There are some interesting numbers about the increasing numbers of “how to” searches and “how to” videos in a recent article at TVWeek.

According to the article, which references the internet marketing research firm Hitwise, 2.6% of searches in the U.S. are related to the “how-to” genre.

Video is cropping up in search results more and more. As well, a video how-to would seem to be the perfect answer for many how-to queries. The result, naturally, is more traffic being driven to video results.

The TV Week article states:

Of the top 10 how-to search queries, about 5% of Internet traffic from those queries goes to video sites, almost exclusively to YouTube, Mr. Tancer said. “There is definitely a market,” he said. “There is a desire to find information on the Internet, and the video portion is nascent.”

According to Hitwise (via TVWeek), the top “how-to” searches for the four-week period ending 1/26/08 were the following:

1. How to tie a tie
2. How to …
3. How to have sex
4. How to get pregnant
5. How to write a resume
6. How to win the lottery
7. How to kiss
8. How to lose weight fast
9. How to lose weight
10. How to solve a Rubik’s Cube

The how to / instructional video market is now taking off like gang busters. We are seeing more players in the space every day.

Some of the more popular video how-to sites are the following:

YouTube’s How-To Section … of course. It is also labeled “Style” for some reason and seems to be filled with with porn, semi-porn, Filipino soap operas, and political tripe. Maybe one day, when YouTube realizes the value of instructional information, they will seperate out the how-to from the … um, style.

ExpertVillage

VideoJug

Some Newer Players Gaining Ground:

Howcast

MonkeySee

WonderHowTo

Other related links:

The TV Week article

Hitwise

At the very top of the post is a How-To Vlog about, well, how to vlog from YouTuber Blade376

DailyMotion has recently opened up their high-def capabilities to a wider audience.

At least that’s what it seems like.

Not having followed exactly what they were offering before and to whom, it’s a little difficult to figure out exactly what’s news.

Here’s what they say:

For more than a year-and-a-half we have offered High-Quality video encoding, but with the rise of HD digital video cameras we have seen more and more Creative Content submitted in High Definition. This is why, from today on out, all HD video uploaded by MotionMakers will be automatically re-encoded in 720p High Definition for playback on the site.

I guess I can’t decifer this because I don’t really know what a “MotionMaker” is. Is it anyone uploading video onto DailyMotion, or is it some special group with special privileges?

In any case, the time-lapsed video above is an HD video of the Paris skyline from 5 a.m. to 11 p.m.

I am assuming that the embedded video here will play in high definition as it does on the DailyMotion site.

LINKS:

The DailyMotion High Def Video Channel

News out of the Chinese vlogging world points to signs that seem to be both hopeful and discouraging. Recently-enacted laws meant to crack down on videos that would portray the country in a negative light would make it mandatory for video-sharing sites to be state-run. An exception has been made, however, for those companies that were already in business before the law came into effect.

The Chinese government, with the ever-important PR behemoth known as the Olympics on the horizon, went into overdrive recently in order to do something about negative videos coming out of the country’s exploding online video market.

While Chinese video-sharing sites generally censor themselves, unflattering videos do still make it through from time to time.

So the good news here is that some private ownership is still possible. The bad news is that a crackdown is still on the way. More good news, however, is that industry analysts believe that the government is reluctant to bring too heavy a boot down onto the vibrant video sector.

Gauging from China’s history in controlling the country’s online activity, I would not be so bullish on the idea of a lenient hand — not until the Olympics have come and gone, in any case.

According to the China Post, the country’s most popular video sharing sites claim as many as 100 million visitors a day, “a scale that rivals China’s state TV channels.”

As for revenus, also according to the Post, we have the following numbers:

The government-sanctioned Internet Society of China is forecasting total revenues this year of 160 million yuan (US$22 million; €15 million) this year - nearly double the 2007 level. It says revenues will increase to 290 million yuan (US$40 million; €27 million) in 2009.

The eight top companies in the field have taken in US$190 million from private investors since 2005, according to BDA China Ltd., a consulting firm.

LINKS:

Some of the more popular Chinese video-sharing site:

Tudou

56.com

Youku

Some articles on the topic:

From the Wall Street Journal

From the China Post

Political vlogs (a la YouTube’s “You Choose”) are going European. The You Choose ‘08 platform from YouTube will take on different accents and different languages when it moves its concept across the pond to the U.K. and Spain.

(See the video above for a message from U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown.)

The major political parties will get an official YouTube channel where they can put out videos and where everyday YouTubians can “interact” with the politicos.

“Interact” comes with quotation marks because, well, LOL and “you suck,” while technically interjections of interaction, don’t really advance the conversation much. But then again, long-winded, self-righteous drivel doesn’t much either. C’est la vie.

Political vlogs and the introduction of user-generated video questions via YouTube for the coming U.S. presidential election were some of the more major movements in the video blogging world last year. No doubt this year will see a major explosion in the form.

LINKS:

The UK Political Channel

The Spanish Political Channel

According to YouTube, the 10 Most Popular videos of 2007 were the the following below. The only problem with the YouTube Top 10 is that they have only listed 9 videos. …. Umm, but maybe that’s appropo for YouTube: not quite what it should be or could be.

All right, that’s not exactly fair. YouTube has changed a large corner of the internet and certainly many people’s lives. We’ll give them a break.

These videos seem not to be limited to the “most views.” As YouTube says, the list is ” based on view counts, most shared, most discussed, top rated and general popularity.”

So here’s the list:

1. Battle at Kruger

2. “Chocolate Rain” Original Song by Tay Zonday

3. Chris Crocker - LEAVE BRITNEY ALONE!

4. me (Esmee Denters) singing “what goes around“ Justin Timberlake

5. “NORA: Practice Makes Purr-fect”

6. “I Got a Crush…On Obama” By Obama Girl

7. Otters holding hands

8. PARIS IN JAIL: The Music Video

9. Soulja Boy Tellem - How to Crank That - INSTRUCTIONAL VIDEO!

And Number 10? Well, You Decide

YouTube has come out recently with a slew of improvements. You can see some in the video above.

By the way, it’s good to see that they have included screencasts in the video to illustrate things (as, ahem, someone suggested).

The improvements come in the following areas:

• NEW VIDEOS TAB
• MOST ACTIVE & PREVIOUSLY POPULAR
• CHANNEL RESULTS IN SEARCH
• MUSIC SUBCATEGORIES
• RSS LINKS ON VIDEO BROWSE PAGES
• PROFILE PICTURE
• SUBSCRIPTIONS UPDATE
• COMMENTS VOTING OPTIONAL

You can check out a text update of what they’ve done on the YouTube blog.

YouTube recently announced that they were opening their advertising “Partner Program” up to the general public. The program is currently open to those from the U.S. and Canada with international implementation coming “soon.”

YouTube says the following about what a “partner” is:

These partners decide which of their videos they would like to generate revenue on YouTube, and in turn, they receive a portion of the revenue generated from ads that run next to those videos.

I notice that they say “from ads that run next to those videos.” I assume this means that the ads that actually show up on top of the videos are not included.

According to YouTube, to become a partner, you should meet the following criteria:

• You create original videos suitable for online streaming.
• You own the copyrights and distribution rights for all audio and video content that you upload — no exceptions.
• You regularly upload videos that are viewed by thousands of YouTube users.
• You live in the United States or Canada.

LINKS:

YouTube Partner Program Sign Up Page

YouTube Terms of Use Page

DailyMotion unveiled a new video player recently. You can see it in action above.

Metacafe Message Center - video powered by Metacafe

MetaCafe has recently added the ability to send and receive messages, including videos. There are some other updates as well. Check out the video above, or check out the MetaCafe blog.

There is an interesting article over at Adweek about how universities are leveraging YouTube by putting PR videos, classes, and even entire semesters of classes online at the video sharing site.

The article concentrates mostly on the efforts of UC Berkeley, which has set up its own channel. Under the current agreement, YouTube has agreed not to put ads on the Berkeley channel. Instead, they have traded the space for the extra cachet they hope to gain.

While there is no “outside advertising” on the channel, and there is indeed a lot classroom material, the Berkeley channel is obvious meant to be one giant advertisement for Berkeley itself.

In the article, Ben Hubbard, co-manager of Berkeley’s Webcast program, explains: “You can put together a one-minute spot that markets the university in a certain way, but there is nothing like showing the real thing.”

And so, is it working?

The article states:

Within three weeks of launching the YouTube partnership last month, Berkeley had 1.3 million views on the three channels it runs on its page. “When you really boil it down, the size of the YouTube audience is mind-blowing and it shows how hungry people are for this type of content,” he (Hubbard) says.

In somewhat related news, YouTube has just announced the addition of a few new video categories:

- Education
- Nonprofits & Activism
- Science & Technology

The new categories, however, won’t be available via the video tabs until they are more fully populated.

In case you haven’t heard, YouTube Canada has launched.

Well, not much to say other than it exists. I suppose it will be more Canadian-centric, which can be nice for Canadians. But I imagine many will also be constantly toggling over to the regular YouTube to make sure they haven’t missed anything they might otherwise want to see.

It’s not exactly like we’re talking about a local version in a completely different language , eh?

LINKS:

YouTube Canada

YouTube recently announced what they’re calling a Community Council. Essentially, it’s a group of five volunteers from the YouTube commnunity who will be providing feedback about the site and its features over the next six months. When the six months is up, another group rotates in.

What makes this even more interesting for the average user is you can take your own ideas to the members of the group, and they will get your feedback to YouTube.

As YouTube says:

You can approach any of our councilors with your thoughts, gripes — anything at all — over the next six months, and they will fast-track your feedback to us.

A few questions spring to mind right away:

1. Do these people know what they’re getting themselves into?
2. They are tagged “volunteers.” Are they “paid volunteers?” (I hope so. See Question 1.)
3. Does YouTube really need “volunteers” for this? It’s nice that they want feedback from users, but don’t they have the money for people who can do nothing but communicate with their huge user base and “fast-track” that feedback to where it needs to go?
4. Do these people REALLY know what they’re getting themselves into?

In any case, the council members are below. They anxiously await your bitching, whining, moaning, and complaining.

bgirl5
bradofarrell
sarrycrey
tlg847
visiblemode

A video of the volunteers at YouTube headquarters:

It looks like Oprah is doing YouTube. And vice versa.

Oprah’s show today (November 6) is dedicated to everything YouTube. Being Oprah, of course she gets all the biggest names, including the founders of the site, P. Diddy (who found his personal assistant on the site), that “dance guy” (who happens to have the most watched video ever on the site), and Tyson, the skateboarding dog.

Where would YouTube be without skateboarding dogs? (And why does everyone always have to say something like that?)

In addition, it looks like Oprah is now getting into the vlogging game. She has her own channel on YouTube where she will be posting video blogs that she’s made herself. Something tells me those duties will proabably get pawned off to a production assistant in short order, but, well, for a while anyway it looks as if it’ll be Oprah behind the camera.

LINKS:

The Oprah channel on YouTube

It looks like electronics retailer Best Buy is jumping into the video hosting game with the help of the UK-based firm Mydeo.

While it would seem the last thing the world needs is yet another video sharing site, Best Buy is looking to go after the market that wants to control who sees their videos. They plan to sell subscriptions to the service which starts at $6.97 a month. That price is for 100 minutes of video (with a maximum length of 30 minutes per video).

Best Buy already has partnerships with other companies such as Kodak (for photo sharing), Sirius and XM Radio, DirectTV and others. As the largest U.S. electronics retailer, they can pull people into their services with special offers that come with the equipment their customers buy.

Best Buy sells approximately one-third of all the video cameras purchased each year in the U.S. Many of the buyers of these cameras are not the YouTube crowd, of course, and the last thing in the world they want is millions of people seeing their personal videos. This service may be just the ticket for them.

LINKS:

Best Buy’s Videosharing Site (current resolves to Mydeo - don’t know if this will continue or not)

Best Buy’s Homepage

Mydeo Homepage

It looks like YouTube has already reversed its decision to splatter a garish red all over their pages after negative feedback from users.

No sooner had we posted about the changes than YouTube decided the ugly red in their video page redesign was a bad decision. You can see the new design above - which, frankly, leaves much to be desired as well.

Gray? Just gray? That YouTube sure is a fun place. It almost makes me pine for those lovely few hours hideous red.

Maybe they’ll have the guts to reverse themselves once again.

Below is a look at the new YouTube design coming soon. They have cleaned the left-side navigation from the page and upped the red factor. The page navigation in the new design happens via drop-down menus at the top. The red looks a little garish, in my opinion, but time will probably dull that effect.

Below is a look at the present (and soon to be old) design. Notice the more cluttered look with the left-side navigation.

While there’s lots of talk around about advertising and vlogs, many people still wonder — Can you really make money with your video blogs?

Well, yes.

As you can see from the graphic above, Metacafe likes to promote the fact that people are, indeed, making dough from their videos. Some are making quite a lot.

Metacafe is very smart in the way they promote this fact. Not only do they show the all time top earners, you can also see the top earners for the week and even how much an individual video has made.

Clicking around Metacafe, in fact, you have dollar signs popping up everywhere.

While this might come off as crass to some, it seems it is something that would definitely attract the attention of vloggers who are serious about their video blogging. And these are exactly the types of people you want posting videos on your site, of course.

The vlogs of the top earner on the list above, Kipkay, are mostly in the Technology & Science / How To vein.

An example of one of his videos is below. When embedding, you have the option of showing how much money the video has made so far, and so I have included that.

Chill A Coke In 2 Minutes! - A funny movie is a click away

LINKS:

You can check out Kipkay’s channel on Metacafe here.

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