Ones to Watch (CES Edition): Gadget Reviewers

The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is in full swing right now in Las Vegas, and that means that gear enthusiasts are getting their fill of the hottest devices coming to the market. In anticipation of all this electronics buzz, the folks at phonedog created a tutorial video last month sharing everything you need to know about being a successful gadget reviewer on YouTube. They then asked all you budding tech reviewers out there to try your hand at making gadget review videos, with the promise that a few of you would be featured on our homepage.

Well, we've arrived at that moment: phonedog's selected the three new reviewers -- samkeem, modview and kbradnam -- who grace our homepage today, talking about products dear to them. (OK, kbradnam's is a spoof, but he definitely captures the passion and attention to detail required to be a tech reviewer.) Honorable mentions go to AlexMarckReviews, vizbug, gadgetexperts, tehkseven, techHazardVideos, akatsukigaraa, elSerg3000 and BeforeandAfterTV for submitting insightful, thorough videos reviewing phones, cameras and even an app. Of the entries, Noah from phonedog says: "I was impressed with so many of them, and it was hard to choose. The winners combined product know-how with eye-appealing visuals and even humor, making for videos that kept me watching. Thanks so much for participating and keep it up! You provide an important service by telling people about products they may want to buy."

Mia Quagliarello, Community Manager, recently favorited "Julian Smith - Techno Jeep (Original)."

Countdown to Super Bowl XLIV

One of our most popular advertiser-supported programs is AdBlitz, which asks you to vote on the year's best Super Bowl commercial. For 2010, we've beefed up the channel with extensive NFL playoff coverage, travel videos for those going to Miami for the big game, Super Bowl party planning tips and recipes, and more. The AdBlitz Pre-Game channel, brought to you by Kia Motors, features videos from a diverse array of partners, including Fox Sports, Yardbarker, JR Sport Brief, Fitzy, The Dallas Cowboy Show, CowboyTD, The Travel Channel, Foodwishes and The Food Network.

Here are just a few examples of what you'll find:







Check back regularly for updated coverage and prediction videos. Once the Super Bowl begins on February 7, return to view and vote on all the ads, which are always a main topic of conversation in the days following the event.

Andrew Bangs, Sports Manager, recently watched "Griner Dunks Twice."

Nexus One Offers Seamless YouTube Experience

The YouTube mobile experience on Nexus One, the newest Android-powered phone, is smoother and faster than ever before. You can shoot a DVD-quality video and upload it to YouTube with just a few taps, as well as search millions of YouTube videos and watch them in seconds.

For example, the day I received my very first CD-ROM game, “Star Wars: Rebel Assault,” is one of my more vivid childhood memories. Today my nostalgia was satisfied in exactly 17 seconds: with just three clicks I was able to watch "Rebel Assault gameplay video" on the 3.7 inch AMOLED display of my new Nexus One -- that's less time than it used to take to load the game on my PC. I simply tapped 'Search' on the new YouTube home screen widget, hit the microphone icon and said "star wars rebel assault" -- the first video found was the very same video I had seen at a computer expo back in 1993.

To learn more about Nexus One, visit google.com/phone or head to the Nexus One YouTube channel. You can watch a preview of YouTube on Nexus One here:



Andrey Doronichev, Product Manager, Mobile, recently watched "Star Wars: Rebel Assault - Gameplay part 4" on his Nexus One phone. 

Wanted: Creative Content to Support the Arts on YouTube

With awards shows like the Golden Globes, Grammys and Oscars just around the corner, it will soon be the season to celebrate some of the world's most high-profile artistic achievements. But on YouTube, many of you celebrate the arts every day -- for example, you might favorite a video that features a grade-school chorus, watch a film in the Screening Room, or upload a video of your recent dance performance.

At the same time, organizations that support the arts -- from museums to orchestras, ballet companies to musical education programs -- are sorely in need of funding and promotion. That's where you can help. YouTube Video Volunteers and guest curator Dr. Phil want you to create a video that shines the spotlight on an organization that advances the arts in your community or on the national stage. The top three video creators will see their name in lights on the YouTube homepage at the end of the month. Watch this video to learn more and hear how Dr. Phil is supporting the arts himself:



We hope you'll use your artistic talents to help your favorite organization. You could write a song in favor of your city's modern art museum or make a short film about a nonprofit that supports music in schools. Use your creativity to make sure that the arts continue to flourish.

Submissions are due on January 23 and can be entered at www.youtube.com/videovolunteers.

Ramya Raghavan, Nonprofits & Activism Manager, recently watched "Good Transparency: Cost of Food."

New Year, BetterYou!

The new year can mean change and a fresh start. It's when many of us hit our reset buttons and commit to resolutions we hope will transform our lives -- even if just for a few months. Often these revolve around getting healthy: losing weight, eating better, and going to the gym more often are common pledges made. The BetterYou channel, sponsored by Pfizer, is brimming with videos from partners like Livestrong, Diethealth and Exercise TV to help you meet those goals. Here are just a few examples of what you'll find there:















Browse the channel for videos with a hefty dose of instruction and motivation; the collection is geared toward helping you power through the year.


Sadia Harper, Howto Manager, recently watched "How to Diet Like a Man."

YouTube Blogging in 2009

Following the tradition of our Google brethren,we'd like to share our blog highlights and thank you, our loyal blog readers, for making this the most successful year ever for the YouTube blog.

This is our 284th post of the year, which is 13% more than in 2008. In addition to more posts, we have more readers now -- 79% more, to be exact. The number of unique visitors jumped from 7.7 million last year to 13.7 million in 2009.

We posted about new products, the evolution of our social features, a slew of live streamed events and much more, but what generated the most buzz was What You Watched and Searched for on YouTube in 2009, a listing of the year's Most Watched videos and fastest-rising search terms, and announcements regarding the launches of 1080p and Shows & Movies. New Channels Coming Soon, another much-read item, topped our record for number of comments on any YouTube blog post -- over 50K.

We introduced several new series this year, including Release Notes, a periodic rundown of changes to the site; Curator showcases, highlighting people with a knack for finding great videos; and Video Volunteers, which is about mobilizing the talents of the YouTube community to help those in need. We used the blog to showcase your impressive achievements -- things like raising money to build wells in Africa, launching a label for YouTube musicians, and the historical milestone of the first user hitting 1 million subscribers -- as well as shed light on how YouTube is being used as a tool for free expression in Iran.. We took you behind the scenes to offer insight into the thought that goes into product development here, and we shared some stats that were hard even for us to wrap our heads around. Maybe we did a little trash talking, too.

We also launched three new blogs this year: the Biz Blog for partners and advertisers, a Spanish-language blog, and the Creator's Corner blog for anyone who makes videos. And we finally moved onto to the Blogger platform, bringing us into the 21st century when it comes to blog technology.

Whew. It was a busy year but we wouldn't have it any other way. Have a very happy New Year, thanks for reading, and see you in 2010!

Mia Quagliarello, Community Manager, recently watched "Bacon Candy Party Sticks."

YouTube's Top 10 Launches of 2009

Did you know that we released more features in 2009 than in 2007 and 2008 combined? This made it the busiest year on record for the YouTube product and engineering teams. Some of these launches, like support for 1080p, made sizable splashes, while others, like "trending topics" appearing at the bottom of the browse page, went out with less fanfare. With so much going on, we wanted to pause before the new year begins to review the things that hopefully made the biggest impact on your overall YouTube experience:

• Auto-Share - As part of our wider effort to integrate YouTube into the social and communication platforms you use every day, AutoShare automatically syndicates your YouTube activity to Facebook, Twitter and Google Reader.
  
  
  
• 1080p - In November, we unveiled support for videos in 1080p (aka "full HD"). Want to test it out? Check out this video.
  
  
• Auto-Speech Recognition - Google's automatic speech recognition (ASR) technology, coupled with YouTube's captioning system, makes videos more accessible to the deaf and hearing impaired. This same speech recognition technology can create machine-generated captions, which can then be translated into 51 languages.
  

• Mobile Website for Smartphones - Watching videos on -- and uploading videos from -- cell phones is more popular than ever. To meet this demand, we launched a new mobile website designed to make using YouTube on smartphones like the iPhone, G1 and Palm Pre a lot easier.
  

• YouTube XL - YouTube XL optimizes YouTube for large screens. In addition to offering larger text and simplified navigation, XL has a continuous play feature, allowing you to search for a topic, hit "play" and then kick back for an uninterrupted viewing experience.
  

• VEVO - VEVO.com is a partnership that blends Google and YouTube's technology with music videos from a broad catalog of artists from Universal Music Group, Sony Music and EMI. The site hopes to redefine the way people watch and engage with music online, as well as change the way the digital and music industries do business with each other.
  
  
• Feather - Feather is a stripped-down version of the page on which any video plays. Without all but the basic features, the page loads more quickly and videos play back faster. Give it a whirl in TestTube or click here.
  
  
  
• 3D - In July, one of our engineers used his free time to implement easier viewing options for 3D videos on YouTube. Here's a brief overview video.
  

• Real-Time Comment Search - In October, we released the ability to search YouTube comments in real-time. The comment appears on a continuously updated results page, and "trending topics" indicates the hottest topics of conversation on YouTube at that particular moment.

• Shows & Movies - In April, we rolled out a destination sporting hundreds of movies and thousands of full-length TV episodes. Offerings have included film classics like Taxi Driver, Ghostbusters and the Spaghetti Western Trilogy, as well as current TV shows from broadcasters like C4 and Channel 5 in the UK.

Which of these features is your favorite? Please use the poll in the top right corner of this blog to let us know what you've found to be most useful in '09, or leave a comment below if there's another feature that had an important impact on your YouTube life.

Hunter Walk, Director, Product Management, and John Harding, Engineering Manager