CTIA 2007 — YouTube will launch its mobile website in June 2007 for U.S. users, according to a spokesperson. The mobile YouTube site will go live once the exclusivity clause on the company’s mobile video deal with Verizon Wireless expires. The service will be live for European users in May. YouTube has been already working closely with mobile carriers, and handset makers such as Nokia on the mobile version of their video service.
In response to my question if YouTube is developing a mobile client, the spokesperson said that the company had been talking about it, but had no information to share at this time. Check out a preview of the blocked mobile site or this demo site: http://m.youtube.com/?client=ytdemo which you can see from some mobile phones (let us know if your phone can access it).
The mobile site when it goes live will have around 800 “editorial picks” of videos to choose from. It’s kind of an experiment to see how well things go and how good of a response the company gets, the spokesperson explained to us. Though, the end goal is to create a truly mobile YouTube experience with eventual access to the entire video catalog.
Too sad!
All the Youtube links in your article don’t work. Every page says “This page is not available”. I was really courious to see Youtube on my Nokia E61. Neither the Nokia browser nor Opera mini show me a movie.
Does anybody know how the built in Flash Player works? It seems to play only downloaded Flash animations. But who has that? Flash is normally embedded in websites like Youtube.
Markus
they work on some mobile phones. this is a wap only service it seems.
They’re certainly hiring for it.
http://www.linkedin.com/jobs?viewJob=&jobId=282171&fromSearch=7&sik=1175016860358
i got nothing. “this page is not available”
bb peal 8100
I was able to view it on my Nokia 6680. You can see a screen capture here -
http://kempmullaney.com/blog2/2007/03/youtube_togo_surfaces.html
It isn’t much, but the page is definately formatted for mobile devices.
[…][…] YouTube Mobile – YouTube’s mobile site will go live in June 2007, once the exclusivity clause on the deal with Verizon Wireless ends. (via) […][…]
Is this just for the US?
There already are plenty of websites available to watch or download videos from a mobile device. Exclusivity wont help YouTube gain any paid gains for its mobile site.
On related note, Gmail has been down for hours today. Infact, the Gmail website also doesn’t respond. It seems Google is having problems with scalability.
Yakito, the site will be live for US users in June and earlier for users in Europe. Im not sure for other areas. I actually went back to the booth and double checked with the YouTube spokesperson on the different months for different geographies because I thought it was surprising — spokesperson said the site will be blocked for the US until the exclusivity of the Verizon Wireless deal runs out.
For commenters who aren’t able to access the mobile YouTube site — that’s because it hasn’t launched yet. The demo link (http://m.youtube.com/?client=ytdemo)
is something that was unearthed by some bloggers over the past few weeks and it seems like only select phones have been able to access it. I don’t think YouTube meant to leave that link unblocked, and I’m not sure of the phone criteria for access of it. If I learn more about it, I’ll update the post.
Would be great to have them join the party. You can already search for and play videos from YouTube and many others at blueapple.mobi. Let us know what you think. Thanks!
It would be a natural move for YouTube to go mobile…if fact if it does not I would think it has missed out on the much bigger opportunity.
Now only if internet browsing on my cellphone wasn’t so expensive… :S
numa numa just feels so right on a 1 inch screen!
very good
My phone doesn’t work with it.
Text “youtube ” to 44636 (4INFO). You’ll receive a response with video titles and links, but very few phones offer the flash support needed to display the full YouTube page at present. This is a 4INFO open platform service (http://open.4info.net) that took all of ten minutes to set up, but is clearly of limited utility now. Once YouTube Mobile is online it should be more interesting (for those YouTube junkies that prefer the speed of SMS search before initiating a WAP session, at least).
– M
Damned comment bracket/markup mix-up — try texting “youtube [search string]” to 44636.
– M
The demo site (m.youtube.com/?client=ytdemo could refer to Helio’s phone YT (http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.03/helio_pr.html) which would give you a clue as to why it doesn’t work for some phones and does for others: it was made to show Helio what the site can do for the high end market that Helio is targeting.
my cingular v3i (unlocked) picked it up, but i used my opera mini browswer instead of the standard wap browser…
About time !
cool web-stuff for youtube colics
thanks gigaom !
comments not working? anyways check out dodgeball.com to see what they’be been up to with social networking and mobile phones.
The Nokia E61 and many mobile devices can play mp4 files.
I think you have to convert U-tube ones but goole video has a save as mp4 option.
mp4 is psp format maybe its ipod format ?
The info’s is here.
http://stmcgill.wordpress.com/2006/09/08/google-video-100s-of-clips-for-your-e61/
The page won’t display on my Nokia 7710 back in Belgium, bugger!!! Anyway, for some technology news in Dutch, check out our website http://www.nettaggers.com.
Should be cool. It’s about time youtube expanded with those newfound billions.
This should be interesting, cant wait for the New and Improved Youtube
Hi guys,
Its the quite old news, more about altogether with the screens and video you can find at below links.. .
http://www.symbian-freak.com/news/007/02/youtube_mobile_on_nseries.htm
http://www.symbian-freak.com/news/007/02/youtube_on_nseries.htm
Cheers,
Teo
The Helio Ocean can view the blocked site- no problem.
Youtube really have no choice but to do this. If they really want to remain ahead, getting into the mobile market now instead of later is the obvious and best choice. I applaud their vision, and hope they get on with it quickly.
Not only will it allow for youtube to be accessible, but it will probably contribute to technology in a wonderful way helping us all to become more mobile, and opening up the opportunities for more technologies and companies in the mobile market- or to use the mobile market. My mind has a lot of ideas here, but we will see what youtube can pull off.
Thanks for the update.
they work on some mobile phones. this is a wap only service it seems
i do not blame them for trying to raise revenue but sure do wish i could watch it on my windows based device.
This would be great new for those people on the go and at the same time they are able to watch their fav youtube videos on the mobile or PDA. Great!
hey i just got an iPhone, and i have heard that they are installing flash from MANY websites. i be this is part of the plan! I read on one site that apple was interviewed, but they didnt answer many questions. If they put flash on it (my phone does not have flash) then i bet i will be able to use it. since yesterday, i went to google.com on my phone, and it was also a mobile version. sounds cool!
By tapping on the mobile market now, they are able to generate more revenue for google considering the fact they have establish themselve on the home pc. Youtube Rocks!
I think it’s interesting how everything is become more and more mobile, such that we’ll all be connected to the Internet at all times. Think of Amazon’s Kindle, which allows you to connect to Sprint’s mobile network to download books at an instant. And now YouTube’s mobile version. I think mobile information technology is where it’s all headed.
If they release a mobile plan where access to Youtube is uncounted I think it could be very successful, the data charges on most plans at present would really make it too expensive to use.
This looks like a great idea. A lot of sites whose services are like that of You Tube are working in partnership of other companies to boost their popularity. Imeem, for example, has partnered with Friendster.
It’s already 2008, what happened to this plan? Was this pushed through?
I’d like to see youtube moving to mobile, or acquiring one of the existing players in the vedio/mobile space.
Lets see the joy with youtube, in the world of mobile
I think that is pretty good news, youtube being available on many platforms, this is one more way to share information or to use when bored. Now if they could start making good games for mobiles :)
I think before they start adding new features, they should fix the bugs first. Fo serious.
Lets see the joy with youtube, in the world of mobile…