Google says it blocked viewers in Egypt and Libya from seeing a controversial video clip on YouTube, after the video was allegedly linked to violence in both of those countries. But should Google be censoring content without even a request from a government or court? Read more »
My two-month Chromebook experience has been so great, I use the Google laptop as a primary device. But one flaw I found last month bothered me: No Google Play video support. The latest ChromeOS update, available now, fixes the problem and I’m happy again. Read more »
Twitter seems to be at a crossroads, and according to a recent GigaOM survey, its prospects for the next five years are promising. Key challenges in the near future will be establishing a revenue model and survive the backlash from developers. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Browsing YouTube for the latest music, downloading, converting and uploading to back to Google Play is the updated version of listening to the radio, hearing a song for the first time, and adding it to your music collection directly from the radio. Read more »
Quality production value and a star-studded cast have propelled the YouTube channel WIGS to the top of the scripted content charts in a short period of time — and proven that there is an audience for adult drama online. Read more »
In the battle to get its new youth-targeted YouTube channel filled with cable-esque reality shows heard over myriad other channels offering similarly targeted content, having the resident celebrity co-founder do a little on-camera work probably doesn’t hurt uniques. But Katalyst insists it won’t over-use its boss. Read more at paidContent »
With the L.A.-based video production company’s millennial-targeted YouTube channel already delivering 10 million video views since launching in mid-June, investors including MK Capital make a commitment. Read more at paidContent »
So long YouTube; Apple has pulled the app from the latest iOS 6 beta. Of course, you can still watch YouTube in Safari and Google is reportedly writing a YouTube app for the iTunes App Store. Maybe we see a better YouTube experience as a result. Read more »
YouTube is going to teach 16 of its site’s up-and-coming comedians the skills of producing and marketing their wares to the online audience with its new YouTube’s Next Comic program. Grooming talent like this makes sense, as the biggest YouTube success stories have been homegrown. Read more »
As YouTube plans to expand its premium content initiative into the U.K. and France, some existing channel partners say additional production funding is needed in the U.S. “We’re not really funded enough to win,” said one channel operator. Read more at paidContent »
What happens when a creator uses a highly-anticipated web series to launch a new website? The creators of Video Game High School found out when the highly-anticipated web series debuted on Rocket Jump — bringing millions of views to a platform they fully controlled. Read more »
There’s an unprecedented amount of digital video coverage for this year’s Olympic Games and yet analysts suggest that the TV will easily trump viewing on other screens again. The numbers look low because of our time- and place-shifting mentality: Share your viewing plans in our poll. Read more »
YouTube is in charge of the streaming for NBC’s ambitious online coverage of the 2012 London Olympics, delivering some 3,500 hours of live coverage from the event on the web and through native apps. Here’s an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at this cooperation. Read more »
Thousands of people are now making six figures on YouTube, the company revealed during its Q2 earnings call Thursday. YouTube had previously put that number in the hundreds. Google’s Chief Business Officer, Nikesh Arora, said that the company has found its model for YouTube. Read more »
In a surprise move, the National Cable and Telecommunication Association used the results of today’s FCC report on broadband quality to congratulate cable … and to acuse Google and Netflix of slowing down the user experience. Here’s what’s behind its crazy claims. Read more »
YouTube is sending golden play buttons to any partner that has surpassed one million subscriber on his YouTube channel. The company is also honoring partners with more than 100,000 subscribers, and released some interesting new stats about these audience magnets. Read more »
Papagei.tv wants to use movies and other video entertainment to help people learn new languages — and it’s doing well out of the gate, with at least €10m to extend its immersive language-training courses and a role as the official language trainer for Germany’s Olympic team. Read more »
YouTube is starting a series of educational workshops this week that aims to teach video makers how to produce better clips – and it wants to reach as many of them as possible: YouTube’s new summer workshops are held as Hangouts on Air, viewable by anyone. Read more »
Cloud-based storage and cross-device syncing of media content are two of the most competitive areas in consumer IT. Apple, Google and Amazon see cloud-based media services both as a way to increase attachment to their platforms and a means to extend and amplify their broader strategic goals. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
It’s easy to embed a wide variety of music players on your website, but hard to get them singing from the same hymnsheet. Musicplayr’s trying to fix that with a newly-revamped player it calls ‘eye-candy for the ears’ Read more »
Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz likes his coffee black and his politics nonpartisan. Last year, in a move to break gridlock in Washington, he launched a campaign urging CEOs to boycott political donations. Now he’s leading “Indivisible,” an initiative focused on job creation. Read more at paidContent »
As Android improves, so too does YouTube. Google updated its video application for devices running Android 4.0 or better by focusing on subscriptions and channels in the mobile interface. And you can now pre-load certain videos to help reduce the amount of buffering while mobile. Read more »
In a move that suggests Google is coming to see itself as a content owner, the company is threatening legal action against sites that let users strip audio from YouTube videos and play them as stand-alone audio clips. Read more at paidContent »
New data released by Google shows that US government requests to remove search results, YouTube videos and other content has increased by 103 percent. Information from around the world show countries targeting everything from social network profiles to a citizen peeing on a passport. Read more »
The rule of thumb used to be that web content shouldn’t be longer than five minutes an episode — a rule that’s pretty much dead here in 2012, with the spread of longer runtimes into least-suspected places, such as YouTube. Read more »
Anecdotal evidence suggests over-the-top video is a booming trend. But it takes technical skill, state-of-the-art broadband connections and the willingness to shell out money for both bandwidth and content subscriptions to fully integrate OTT into a household, much less consider trying to use it to cord cut. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Google’s Susan Wojcicki defended the search giant Thursday against the newest claims from the content industry that it has amassed a fortune partly on the back of pirated content, made the previous night by “superagent” Ari Emanuel at the D: All Things Digital conference. “I think […] Read more »
The adoption of tablets, social media and new interfaces and the changing nature of the TV itself mean the digital living room will continue on its path of rapid change, thanks to new ways of creating, viewing, bundling, distributing and selling content. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Philip DeFranco’s new YouTube channel Sourcefed clocked 100 million views since it launched three months ago as part of YouTube’s new channel roll-out. But with YouTube focusing on professional content, smaller producers could be left behind. That’s why DeFranco wants to share the stage with them. Read more »
Sanford Bernstein senior analyst Todd Juenger doesn’t believe digital media companies like YouTube, Yahoo and AOL can entice advertisers into committing huge portions of dollars all in one buying session, a la TV’s traditional upfront market. Read more at paidContent »
Eric Wahlforss, the co-founder of sound-sharing platform SoundCloud tells GigaOM where the company is going — including a new mobile-friendly version and the potential for TV integration — and explains what it’s like being an impromptu ambassador for the Berlin startup scene. Read more »
YouTube users are now uploading three full days, or 72 hours, of video every minute. That’s 24 hours more than just a year ago. The Google entity announced the new milestone to celebrate its official launch as a video sharing website seven years ago. Read more »
The Fine Brothers have a long-established reputation for trying new things with web content, and this year, they’re using YouTube’s money to create not just a show, but a fully immersive social media experience and a full line-up of shows surrounding it. Read more »
Aggressive investments into professional-grade (and semi-professional-grade) video content have dramatically increased the average amount of time viewers on YouTube and Yahoo spend watching shows each month. The competition, meanwhile, has seen its usage decline in a big way. We crunch the comScore video numbers. Read more at paidContent »
Ikea’s Uppleva TV solution, which combines a Smart TV with living room furniture, will launch in select retail locations in Europe next month. Some of the apps available on the device at launch will offer access to services like YouTube, Vimeo, Dailymotion and TuneIn radio. Read more »
Think reality TV is saturated with product placement? Meet Escape Routes, which uses large amounts of screen time to sell you on the Ford Escape. But there is some interesting digital innovation involved — in the structure of the show and in the casting. Read more »
With digital companies like YouTube and Yahoo making aggressive pitches for cable ad dollars, one of cable TV’s stalwart programmers, Discovery Communications, rendered a bold response Thursday, purchasing top digital program provider Revision3 for $30 million. Read more at paidContent »
Closing out the NewFronts alongside A-list talent ranging from Jay-Z to Virginia Madsen Wednesday night, top Google execs including Eric Schmidt and Robert Kyncl showed advertisers yet more premium YouTube channels. They also unveiled an ambitious TV-like promo campaign to let everyone know they’re around. Read more at paidContent »
Google is doing everything it can to integrate the Google+ social network into all of its properties, so that it can become a “social layer” across the entire company. But that same behavior is irritating users like actor — and prominent Google+ user — Wil Wheaton. Read more »
It wasn’t that long ago that Google branded Demand Media a content farm and targeted it with its algorithmic pesticides. But the launch of eHow Pets on YouTube Wednesday shows that Demand has grown into one of Google’s more useful video content partners. Read more at paidContent »
