Make Way for youtu.be Links

It's all the rage: link shorteners to ensure that those useful URLs you're sharing don't take up too much precious character count while also giving you an inkling of what you're about to click on. Well, we've just launched youtu.be as a shortener for YouTube video links -- and nothing but YouTube links -- so you can rest assured that when you see a link with this URL, you are indeed about to click on a YouTube video. (Also, because the link contains the ID of the video you're going to see, developers can do interesting things like show you thumbnails, embed the video directly, or track how a video is spreading in real-time.)

To see this feature in action, use AutoShare to link up your YouTube account to social networks like Twitter and Google Reader. Then, whenever you favorite a video on YouTube, for example, that action will get syndicated out to your network, who will see this shortened edition of the video's URL.

To use youtu.be manually, simply take a URL like http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdeioVndUhs and replace the "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=" with "http://youtu.be/" to get: http://youtu.be/FdeioVndUhs Plug that shorter URL into a browser, and you'll see it redirects to that video.

Vijay Karunamurthy, Engineering Manager, recently watched "Suzy Snowflake" again, thanks to Diablo Cody.

Diablo Cody Curates Today's Homepage

Entertainment Weekly columnist Diablo Cody stopped writing for a minute (she's also a scribe on Showtime's The United States of Tara and penned Juno) to share her favorite YouTube videos with the world. Here she reveals which videos make her laugh, cry and feel all nostalgic.



"Dog and Elephant":This CBS News report never fails to make me cry. We're talking ugly,ragged sobs. It actually replaced "Christian the Lion: Reunion" as mygo-to animal weepfest.

"Valentine for Perfect Strangers":Though it's a few years old, this bizarre short is still my all-timefavorite thing on YouTube. I wish Otto had made a sequel, but perhapsit's best that he wasn't subjected to "Chocolate Rain"-styleoverexposure.

"Alternate Duck Tales Intro":Truly sick (and from a production standpoint, truly slick.) Those of uswho always suspected Scrooge McDuck was evil will be vindicated afterwatching this. Warning: disturbing content.

"Love in this Club, by the Rock-afire Explosion":If you grew up with the Showbiz Pizza Place chain in your area, youmight remember the "house band"-- a gang of animatronic singinganimals. Today, Rock-afire fan Chris Thrash reprograms the robots toplay modern club bangers. Funny and impressive.

"Suzy Snowflake":I remember watching this vintage stop-motion short on Chicago's WGNevery Christmas. I hope to show it to my kids someday. It's easy toforget that YouTube isn't just a time-suck, it's an archival tool.

For more celebrity playlists, click here.

Mia Quagliarello, Community Manager, recently watched "Norah Jones and Jimmy Kimmel Sing YouTube's 12 Days of Christmas."

Happy Solstice!

In honor of the shortest day of the year (at least here in the northern hemisphere), we've changed our homepage logo today to have a wintry feel. Happy holidays!

The YouTube Team

Facebook Feeds Begin Showing Up on YouTube's Homepage

You might have noticed that YouTube's been getting a lot more social lately. We've launched several features in the last few months that let you better connect with the platforms that matter most to you (and discover new videos you're likely to love in the process). In addition to linking your YouTube account to social networks like Twitter and Facebook via AutoShare, friend suggestions and easier private sharing options, you can easily find the YouTube accounts belonging to your friends on Facebook, Yahoo! and Gmail. Then, once you've subscribed to someone, you might start seeing their public actions (things like favorites, ratings and comments) in your Recent Activity module on your homepage (assuming they've set these preferences).

This week we've added another launch to the "social feature" list: a feed that pushes the YouTube videos your friends are embedding on Facebook back to your YouTube homepage. This feature is in test mode right now, but there is a way for you to experiment with it while it's being worked on: visit this page and connect to Facebook in the area that says "Where do I share my activities?" (If you've already hooked this up, you may need to disconnect and reconnect accounts to enable.) You can choose to "Disable AutoShare" right afterwards if you don't want your YouTube actions to be syndicated out to Facebook. But if you do want your YouTube-related Facebook activity to be syndicated back to YouTube, the key is that you just stay connected to Facebook. Alternatively, you can search for your friends using the friend finding module on the homepage, and that will also connect you to Facebook. Once hooked up, it might take a little while for videos to start appearing on your homepage during this experimental phase.

We see the YouTube homepage as only the start of your video journey. It's where you should be able to get a snapshot of the "YouTube Zeitgeist" at any moment -- that is, those videos that are most relevant to you and to the times. Sometimes those videos are served up by algorithms that offer recommendations based on your viewing history or the channels you're subscribed to. By adding the videos your friends are embedding on Facebook into the mix, we're hoping to close a loop with regards to how videos are shared and consumed these days. Take a look at these stats to see just how much YouTube content is viewed off the site:

• Facebook: 46.2 years of videos watched a day
• Orkut: 12.7 years of videos watched a day
  
• MySpace: 5.6 years of videos watched a day
• Hi5: 1.2 of years of videos watched a day

Pretty amazing, right? These kinds of numbers underscore the need for us to more tightly integrate social platforms with YouTube, because at the end of the day, we hope YouTube becomes your portal to video on the Web, particularly the social Web that has become so integral to our lives.

Chris Testa, Software Engineer, recently watched "I'm Yours(ukulele)," which his friend Jason posted into his Recent Activity via Facebook.

The Davos Debates 2010: Your Pitch To The World

This year’s iteration of The Davos Debates is up and running, offering one YouTube user the opportunity to attend this year’s World Economic Forum meeting in Davos to put forward the cause they are most passionate about at a specially convened panel.

Our candidate will get the opportunity to engage and debate with the world’s leaders and take the opportunity that Davos offers to elevate the cause that is closest to their heart. As you can imagine: we’re looking for someone a bit special. Someone like you? See below for more details:




What sort of person are we looking for?

The winner of the Davos Debates will be someone with knowledge and passion for a public cause, who can demonstrate they're able to interact with the world's leaders. We want to hear real stories from people working on local issues, with a view to offering the opportunity to make these concerns global. Maybe it's fighting for human rights, or the environment, or against poverty? Maybe it's world fishing, education, or political freedoms? Whatever it is, we're looking someone who isn't afraid to get their voice heard, and give them the chance to be at Davos.

How does it work?

From today until the January 4, we're asking YouTube users to submit their video entries. Five finalists will be selected by a judging panel comprised of Paolo Coelho, Arianna Huffington and Muhammad Yunus. These finalist videos will then go to public vote on January 8, with a winner announced on the January 19.

Beyond that, and the information at the World Economic Forum channel, it's up to you. So get filming, rally some support and Make Your Pitch To The World.


Steve Grove, News & Politics, recently watched “CNN/YouTube Climate Debate"

“The Beautiful Life” Makes Its YouTube Premiere

 Update (5pm PT): Wondering which YouTube videos inspire the creator of TBL? Watch Ashton's celebrity playlist here.


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Today we are teaming up with Katalyst, a studio for social media co-founded by Ashton Kutcher, and HP to bring previously unaired episodes of Katalyst’s television drama "The Beautiful Life" to YouTube at www.youtube.com/TBL.



The TBL series is being presented without commercial interruption by HP in connection with its Create Change program. As part of "The Beautiful Life" experience on YouTube, Katalyst and HP have asked the show’s stars and viewers to participate by recording, tagging and posting video commentary about how they will create positive change in 2010.

We're excited to bring first-run original programming like this to the YouTube community. The first two episodes of the series, originally aired on the CW, will debut today, followed by the remaining three episodes beginning on December 21. We're sure devout TBL fans will enjoy this holiday treat, and we think the show is likely to find many new fans through YouTube.

George Strompolos, Strategic Partnerships, recently watched "The Beautiful Life - Episode 2."

What You Watched and Searched for on YouTube in 2009

This year has been the biggest yet for online video, and for the first time we're sharing our official Most Watched lists and some of the fastest-rising search terms on YouTube. Some moments were big (President Obama's inauguration), some small (a Minnesota wedding party erupts into dance), some expected ("New Moon"), some surprising (Susan Boyle) — but all of them inspired, entertained and connected millions of people around the world via YouTube.

For these lists, we looked at view counts of YouTube's most popular videos this year (in some instances we aggregated views across multiple versions of the same video):

Most Watched YouTube videos (Global):
1. Susan Boyle - Britain's Got Talent (120+ million views)
2. David After Dentist (37+ million views)
3. JK Wedding Entrance Dance (33+ million views)
4. New Moon Movie Trailer (31+ million views)
5. Evian Roller Babies (27+ million views)

Most Watched music videos on YouTube (Global)*:
1. Pitbull "I Know You Want Me" (82+ million views)
2. Miley Cyrus "The Climb" (64+ million views)
3. Miley Cyrus "Party in the U.S.A." (54+ million views)
4. The Lonely Island "I'm On a Boat" (48+ million views)
5. Keri Hilson "Knock You Down" (35+ million views)

Then, to determine the fastest rising search terms for each month, we examined the billions of queries that people searched for on YouTube (through December 15):

Fastest Rising YouTube search terms by month (Global):

January: inauguration

February: christian bale

March: the climb

April: susan boyle

May: pacquiao vs hatton

June: michael jackson thriller

July: michael jackson

August: usain bolt

September: kanye west

October: paranormal activity

November: bad romance

December: tiger woods

Fastest Rising YouTube search terms by month (U.S.):

January: obama inauguration

February: on a boat

March: watchmen

April: susan boyle

May: pacquiao

June: michael jackson thriller

July: wedding

August: send it on

September: kanye west

October: paranormal activity

November: adam lambert

December: tiger woods

There are a lot of interesting nuggets in here. The fastest rising U.S. search term in July was [wedding], clearly related to "JK Wedding Entrance Dance," the third Most Watched YouTube video of the year. And while [michael jackson] was Google's fastest rising search term in 2009, [michael jackson thriller] was the faster rising search on YouTube. Movie trailers ("New Moon," "Watchmen," "Paranormal Activity") and inspirational moments (Susan Boyle, Usain Bolt) were popular, as were sensational celebrity scandals (Christian Bale, Kanye West and, most recently, Tiger Woods).

We hope to expand these lists in the future, so if there are any "Most Watched" categories you'd like to see in 2010, let us know by leaving a comment below.

Jamie Davidson, Associate Product Manager, recently watched "Top 10 quirky science tricks for Christmas parties."

*Note: Some music videos may be unavailable in your country due to copyright restrictions.