Upload to YouTube with Verizon Shortcode

Verizon customers now have an easier way to post video to YouTube — they can send MMS messages to a shortcode 98823 (YTUBE) rather than an email address. Simply register your mobile number with your YouTube account at YouTube’s mobile page.

logo_main.gifThis makes YouTube more accessible in a number of ways. First, some phones don’t support sending MMS to email addresses — and many others make it exceedingly difficult (even just typing out an email address on a T9 keypad is a chore). I’m a big fan of shortcode services, ranging from Google mobile search to posting Twitter messages.

Last December, Verizon added select YouTube clips to its V Cast mobile video service. But since YouTube’s exclusive contract with Verizon is over, hopefully the site will make it even easier still for mobile users by enabling the shortcode on other carriers — a two-way video client like the one that might be in development for LG would be a start. YouTube worked with Apple to deliver iPhone-compatible clips and a client, but since there’s no video camera on Apple’s mobile device, any upload options would be pointless.

This is a step in the right direction towards bridging the “digital divide.” While the democratization of publishing is regularly hyped in the online video space, video phones don’t require expensive computers and broadband. The World Wide Web Consortium, citing data from the World Bank, reports GSM covers 80 percent of the world’s population, and more than 2 billion people have access to a mobile phone.

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