Thứ Ba, 19 tháng 7, 2011

Auto-Captions now available in Japanese

Cross Posted from the YouTube Japan Blog.

Last March we offered everyone the ability to automatically create captions on your videos, and the response has been exciting to see: auto-captions have been generated on nearly 40 million videos, and the number of manually-created caption tracks has more than tripled. We’re eager to see more videos captioned in more languages, so we just rolled out this feature to a new language — Japanese.

Now on any video with a clear Japanese speech track, a red “CC” button will appear at the bottom of the player, where you can click it to generate automatic captions from the speech. We’re also working closely with the the Japan Federation for the Deaf to improve this technology and make it more useful.

Here’s an example of how it works from our partner ANN News Channel:



And if you really want to get multilingual with YouTube videos, when these auto-captions are combined with our auto-translate feature, you’ll be able to generate subtitles into more than 50 languages.

Keeping up with our Japanese partners just got that much easier.

Brad Ellis, Product Manager, YouTube Japan, recently watched “手話あいらんど手話教室入門コース.”

Music Tuesday: Portugal. The Man and vintage global sounds

Summer music festivals are in full swing here in the States. Music fanatics gathered in Chicago this past weekend to attend the Pitchfork Music Festival, and to celebrate, we rounded up videos from some of the best acts appearing there. Last week we also took a look at parodies of Tyler, The Creator’s “Yonkers” video. The unofficial head of the Odd Future hip-hop crew is controversial, but it’s clear his aesthetic has pushed a lot of buttons—and the results are hilarious. And if you need a little mindless fun, we threw up a playlist of ‘80s Summer Party songs for your (guilty) pleasure, which leads us into this week’s heavy dose of retro music.

Portugal. The Man’s sci-fi obsession
People label the enigmatically-named Portugal. The Man an indie rock band, but take one listen and you’ll hear these guys are drawing straight from the classic rock songbook, whether it’s The Beatles, Mark Bolan or Led Zeppelin. That grounding in musical history gives a sense of warmth and even inevitability to their songs—this is sweeping music that frequently sounds bigger than its years. The band also happens to be huge film buffs, which translates into a body of videos which range from the epic to the strange, and which are always visually arresting. Today they take to the homepage to celebrate their new album In The Mountain In The Cloud and to share their two major obsessions: kung fu and sci-fi, with a heaping helping of Wu-Tang Clan thrown in for good measure.



Global Retro
A music movement is afoot. The sound is vintage psychedelic, funk and soul recordings from remote corners of the globe. The labels are Analog Africa, Soundway Records, VampiSoul...the list goes on and on. In the past few years crate-digging for undiscovered music from countries like Ghana, Nigera, and Colombia has been raised to the level of an art form—and the gems these label unearth have given music lovers a new cause for celebration. Now the labels are making videos to introduce us to the often psychedelic radness that went on in other countries while the rest of us were listening to The Beatles...or were more likely not even born.



Joe Clausell “Hammock House”
Continuing in the vintage vein: New York dance music DJ Joe Claussell was recently given unlimited access to the vaults of the classic salsa label Fania Records. Fania was home to the titans of New York salsa, from Celia Cruz to Hector Lavoe. Faced with such riches, Claussell dug deep, remixing a melange of Latin soul and salsa cuts for his new album. We’re psyched to premiere a new, extended video that features the DJ in his native habitat, playing music that still defines the city that never sleeps.



Sarah Bardeen, Music Community Manager, recently watched “Tinariwen - TENERE TAQQIM TOSSAM.”

Thứ Sáu, 15 tháng 7, 2011

This week's Trends: contraptions, rainbows, and Harry P

Each weekday, we at YouTube Trends take a look at the most interesting videos and cultural phenomena on YouTube as they develop. We want take a moment to highlight some of what we've come across this week:
Check back every day for the latest about what's trending on YouTube at: www.YouTube.com/Trends Kevin Allocca, YouTube Trends Manager, recently watched "Clark Retirement Community LipDub" for like, the 20th time.

Thứ Năm, 14 tháng 7, 2011

July’s On The Rise nominees: educators and artists

Each month, we identify four YouTube Partners who are growing their subscribers but haven’t yet reached the 100,000 mark for our On The Rise program. You vote for your favorite in the top right corner of this blog, and the winner will be featured on the YouTube homepage and the videos channel.

For July, we're bringing you two partners who combine education with entertainment, and two performance artists we think you’ll enjoy. Check out the nominees’ videos below, and then cast your vote by July 21 at 6pm PT. We’ll announce the winner on July 28.

HowToLiz
In 2010, Liz decided she would learn 52 things in 52 weeks, documenting her progress in weekly videos. She’s scaled back to learning 26 things in 2011, and her educational and entertaining videos include how to be nice, job interviews and Rubik’s cubes.



destinws2
Destin is from Alabama and is a rocket tester by trade, and he’s transformed his passion for the scientific method into his YouTube channel. Under the series title “Smarter Every Day,” Destin educates his viewers with Mythbusters-esque investigations into scientific phenomena.



VSOHOTT
Musician VSOHOTT has worked with major labels and even American Idol winners. This Michigander writes, produces, and engineers his own music; his first album is currently in production; and he recently started a reality web series.



jeremiahjw
“All kinds of awesomeness” is how Jeremiah Warren describes his channel, where he combines his skills as a filmmaker and videographer for a broad mix of content. Looking for traditional films, animation, documentaries and special effects? You’ll find it here.



On The Rise is all about giving a kickstart to the next generation of Partners who will go on to do big things on YouTube, and helping you discover new talent. Past winners like emilynoel83joshsundquist, and CuteGirlsHairstyles have seen lots of new viewers thanks to your support. If you’re interested in checking out more rising YouTube Partners, visit our On The Rise channel, which features nominees, trending partners and monthly blog winners.

Devon Storbeck, Partner Support, recently watched “2D Photography Rube Goldberg.”

Thứ Ba, 12 tháng 7, 2011

Music Tuesday: The Needle Drop, fresh faces and more

It’s been a busy few weeks on youtube.com/music. We celebrated the July 4 weekend in the U.S. with a playlist of music to BBQ by and took a look at the women of Americana. Last Tuesday we were wooed by indie rockers YACHT, who made a completely adorable video introducing their curation of the YouTube homepage. We also paid homage to the Latin Alternative Music Conference, a gathering for Latino buzz bands that took place in NYC last week. Then it was on to a haunting new genre of music, and a look at the latest in live performances on YouTube.

Introducing The Needle Drop
This week we debut a new monthly series from Anthony Fantano, the DJ and music critic otherwise known by his channel name, The Needle Drop. Anthony quickly became one of our favorite music reviewers on YouTube for his witty and perhaps nerdy insights into a broad range of music. Sure, he skews indie, but as he admits himself, that’s only when he’s not reviewing major label releases, hip-hop or metal. His serious engagement with the music is matched only by his entertaining screen personality, and this week he begins a monthly round-up for us of his favorite releases, complete with music videos and reviews.



Fresh Faces: July
Oodles of under-the-radar musicians find a home for their work on YouTube, and every month we feature four of them on the homepage. Today we profile four very different artists who bring strong, distinct perspectives to their work. Shankar Tucker is a young clarinetist who got obsessed by Indian classical music, with awesome results. Jayanti’s now-burgeoning career got started when a friend took a video of her singing a song at dinner one night. LaTosha Brown is a crazily talented singer who actually stopped performing eight years ago and now heads the Gulf Coast Fund, a social justice philanthropy organization. (San Francisco micro-label Porto Franco Records caught one arresting video of her singing recently, and we decided it deserved a feature.) And we just liked Faded Paper Figures’ style.



Kurt Vile “Baby’s Arms”
Vile’s deceptively simple song gets its power from its stripped-down aesthetic, and it’s bolstered by an extraordinarily lo-fi video which was shot entirely on a smartphone. This is the kind of one-two punch you have to love.



Sarah Bardeen, Music Community Manager, recently watched “SBTRKT - Wildfire.”

Thứ Hai, 11 tháng 7, 2011

Pororo the Penguin and the other Korean pop sensations

In Korea, we’ve seen our pop culture get big in Asia over the last decade, and through YouTube we’re seeing this expand even further around the globe.

Tickets for the recent SM Town concert in Paris featuring hit Korean groups Girls Generation, TVXQ, and SHINee sold out in 15 minutes. Female pop group 2NE1’s new video “I AM THE BEST” got 5+ million views in one week, and their audience is spread out widely over six continents. The six-episode spin-off of Korean TV sitcom “Playful Kiss” has now seen 21+ million views, with channel comments in a half-dozen languages. And when we worked with TV show MBC Star Audition last fall to find the next K-Pop star, Canadian Shayne Orok, who had never been to Korea before the contest, ended up as one of the remaining three finalists.

On top of that, the Korean animation studio Iconix Entertainment opened the PororoTV channel on YouTube this week for its iconic children’s show "Pororo the Penguin." This computer-generated show about Pororo and his friends is already televised in 110 countries, but now you can watch it whenever you want on YouTube. Iconix has put up the first two seasons of the show, and the full 52 episodes of Season 1 are available in English.

Pororo is so famous in Korea that he is called “President Pororo.” Hopefully he can also take the role as “Ambassador Pororo” in spreading Korean animation around the world.

Brian Suh, Head of YouTube Partnerships, YouTube Korea, recently watched the Pororo episode “A Magic Can.”

Thứ Sáu, 8 tháng 7, 2011

This week's Trends: fireworks, verdicts, and lots of sand

Each weekday, we at YouTube Trends take a look at the most interesting videos and cultural phenomena on YouTube as they develop. We want take a moment to highlight some of what we've come across this week:



Check back every day for the latest about what's trending on YouTube at: www.YouTube.com/Trends

Kevin Allocca, YouTube Trends Manager, recently watched "Can't Hug Every Cat."

Thứ Năm, 7 tháng 7, 2011

YouTube in the Palestinian Territories

There are few areas in the world where the ubiquity of the web means more than in the Palestinian territories. In a place where conflict is a part of daily life, and land disputes prevent the kind of geographical freedom most of us take for granted, it’s platforms like YouTube that are allowing people to broadcast their ideas to the rest of the world—and to tell stories that aren’t being told by other media outlets.

A few weeks ago, as part of our efforts to broaden YouTube’s news content partnerships, I spent a week with some other Googlers in Gaza and the West Bank. I met with news organizations, bloggers, local officials, and young people—all of whom were eager to tell their stories on video. In the last month, over 16,000 videos have been uploaded to YouTube from the Palestinian territories, despite low access to 3G networks and broadband Internet. And of the more than 75,000 videos uploaded from the territories this year, 5,000+ were tagged as news and politics videos:

Sleepless in Gaza is an innovative 90-part (!) reality show on YouTube featuring six women who travel in the Palestinian territories and document their experiences. It drew such a following on YouTube that it’s now being optioned for TV series in the U.S.



  • The Maan News Agency, the top online Palestinian news site, has begun uploading its video reports to YouTube to share with the world.
  • Videos covering the March 15 demonstrations (which were held to demand unity between competing Palestinian political parties, Hamas and Fatah) saw many views on YouTube as conflict broke out between demonstrators and Hamas.
  • The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) has a YouTube channel they use to tell the stories of Gazans they work with in schools and other projects.
  • The Global Citizen Corps, a group of young bloggers organized by the international NGO Mercy Corps to do community service and media training, has a robust YouTube channel with videos made by young people telling the story of Gaza through their eyes.
  • The Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation, once the state media outlet of President Abbas’ Fatah, has recently decided to hire an independent board of directors and produce content outside the influence of the government (on a model that might end up quite like PBS).


Meeting with bloggers in Ramallah


Meeting with bloggers in Gaza

It’s in Gaza (the part of the Palestinian territories that are run by Hamas) where media freedoms have a ways to go. Journalists told us they’d been jailed for writing articles critical of Hamas, and one news organization had their office broken into and computers stolen when their pages held criticism of the government. And, after growing to 1,200 members, the Global Citizen Corps caught the attention of the government and was disbanded by the organizers for a while to protect members.

But the people of the Palestinian territories want desperately to tell a story of the region that gets beyond stereotypes. The images we see in Western media, of a place fraught with conflict and despair, doesn’t tell the real story of the territories, they told us. Some Palestinian entrepreneurs even created a new travel website, highlighting the best there is to see in the region.

It’s been said before, but it’s true: it’s the young people in the Middle East who will make change. Seventy percent of the people in Gaza are under 30. In Israel, 30 percent of the population is under 14. Several bloggers told us they had relationships with Israeli youth on the Internet; their hope is that YouTube and other platforms will help them communicate beyond the seemingly intractable political battles between their leaders and start conversations that will lead to new opportunities for peace.

Steve Grove, Head of YouTube News and Politics, recently watched “Sleepless in Gaza, part 1.”

Check out Cosmic Panda, a new experimental experience for videos, playlists and channels

With nearly 8 years of video uploaded and 3 billion views logged every day on YouTube, it’s clear you like to watch and share YouTube videos. While you’re watching your favorite or new videos, we at the ‘Tube are obsessing night and day over how those videos are presented. Our team is constantly experimenting, tweaking and playing with new ways to make your experience exactly what you’re looking for.

Today, we’d like to invite you to play along with us by participating in one of our latest
TestTube experiments: Cosmic Panda. To take this experiment for a test drive go to http://www.youtube.com/cosmicpanda and click “Try it out!”

Once you're in the experiment, much of YouTube will look different, including videos, playlists and channels.

Here’s what browsing a channel in the experiment looks like:



And here’s what the playlist viewing experience looks like in the experiment:



We’re eager to hear your feedback as it’s a great chance for us to incorporate your ideas into future designs for YouTube. To give us your thoughts, click on the blue flag on the left hand side of the page labeled “Feedback.” We'll be making changes to the experiment regularly, so check back to see if some of your suggestions have made it onto the site or to give us more feedback on the latest updates. You can go back to the older design by returning to
Cosmic Panda and selecting to go back to the “older version.” For YouTube Partners, we're especially excited to hear your feedback, so stay engaged throughout these experiments!

We look forward to seeing your feedback and hope you enjoy hanging out with our Cosmic Panda.

Noam Lovinsky, Product Manager, recently watched “
Radiohead - Lotus Flower,” and Alex Nicksay, Software Engineer, recently watched “White Arrows - 8050 (Too Fast Too Slow)."

Thứ Sáu, 1 tháng 7, 2011

Let’s get ready for some GOOOOOAAAALLLLLLLLLSSSS!

Last month we promised you access to the Copa America, and tonight it all kicks off.

Today, South America’s biggest international tournament, the Copa America, begins live on YouTube. Tonight’s opening game starts at 5:45pm PT / 9:45pm ART and pits Argentina against Bolivia. Here’s a full schedule of the first round of the tournament:


The Copa America will be broadcast in HD on YouTube in 50 countries at www.youtube.com/copaamerica. If you’re on the move, you can follow the matches on your mobile phone at m.youtube.com/copaamerica. Commentary of the matches will be broadcast in both English or Spanish depending on what country you’re tuning in from.

We hope you enjoy the beautiful game.

Ricardo Blanco, YouTube Latin America, recently watched “Copa America Live on YouTube.”

This week's Trends: cool covers, summer tunes, and little metal fans

Each weekday, we at YouTube Trends take a look at the most interesting videos and cultural phenomena on YouTube as they develop. We want take a moment to highlight some of what we've come across this week:



Check back every day for the latest about what's trending on YouTube at: www.YouTube.com/Trends

Kevin Allocca, YouTube Trends Manager, recently watched "Major League Savings."