YouTube is rolling out a new feature for creators called YouTube Giving. The suite is a set of features that creators or qualifying non-profit organisations can use to create various fundraising campaigns. Available in beta, creators can set up fundraisers on their channels and “allow fans to donate to creator-led campaigns directly on YouTube". This will be facilitated through a "Donate" button. The video platform's also encouraging Community Fundraisers, which allow creators and non-profits to team up and join each other for their causes. "The feature is designed so that a Community Fundraiser will appear on participating creators’ videos at the same time...
Ever wondered how much time you spend on YouTube? I’m sure you often feel like the answer is “too much” either way you look at it. But this week Google has rolled out more tools to make you face uncomfortable truths in the form of a digital wellbeing dashboard. “To give you a better understanding of how much you watch, we’ve built a profile that’s available in your account menu”, the company announced on its official blog. “This profile tells you how long you’ve watched YouTube videos today, yesterday and over the past seven days.” As is common with time tracking features across...
Vertical video is making quite the comeback in 2018. After Instagram launched its IGTV platform, YouTube's now accommodating users who upload and watch video in portrait mode. The company's web player now adapting to videos' aspect ratio automatically. According to a forum post unearthed by Android Police, the company released the update to the web to better mirror the experience on mobile. "Historically, for non wide-screen videos (not 16:9) like vertical and square videos, we would show black bars alongside the video, making the video really small," an official community manager's post reads. "This update moves away from the need for black bars....
Hold onto your hats, folks. Google's fixing what isn't broken again. Facebook did it. Instagram followed. Even Twitter's done it to an extent. So it was seemingly only a matter of time until Google gave YouTube the algorithm treatment. In a tweet this week, Team YouTube revealed that the company's "experimenting" with a non-chronological order for a select number of users' subscription feeds. "We are currently experimenting with how to show content in the subs feed," the company began. "We find that some viewers are able to more easily find the videos they want to watch when we order the subs feed in...
Google's taking a big gamble with its new YouTube Music streaming project. The company's lumping Google Play Music with YouTube's wealth of music in a new product aimed at Spotify and Apple Music. But many aren't happy with the news. (As a Google Play Music user, I certainly am not.) The company's wholly aware of this sentiment though, and on Tuesday published a list of features that will hopefully win over doubters. For one, it suggests that the library -- thanks to YouTube's wealth of music videos -- will be enormous. Users will have access to "official albums, singles, remixes, live performances, covers...
If something's not broken and doesn't need fixing, trust Google to provide a solution. The firm did this with its messaging services -- now boasting more than five actual messaging apps -- and now, Google Play Music is seemingly suffering the same fate. The company on Thursday announced a new music service, the free-but-ad-supported YouTube Music that lumps in music streaming and YouTube's host of videos and bespoke audio tracks. There's also a paid tier, which costs US$9.99, and gives users access to ad-free YouTube Music. For US$2 more, you can add ad-free "YouTube Premium" on top of that too, for...
YouTube this week announced its new music charts portal, which allows users -- and generally interested folk -- to gauge which tracks, videos and artists are most popular on the platform on a given week in 44 countries. It's awesome, and you should give it a gander at some point in the day. But if you don't have the time, and are looking for something hot to listen to right now, YouTube also has a few charts just for South Africa and the playlists to go along with them. These are the hottest tracks in South Africa this week: Trending in South...
YouTube might be a video streaming service first and foremost, but it's also the world's most popular music distribution tool. So with that in mind, the company today announced new YouTube charts specifically to showcase popular music. "At YouTube, we understand the importance of showcasing and celebrating the hottest artists, songs and music videos from around the world," the company wrote in a release. "The new charts are based purely on the number of views and are a reflection of the success achieved by artists on the world's most expansive music platform." The company claims that the charts will be the "new...
YouTube couldn't wait to tell people just how many videos of extremism and adult entertainment it removed from its platform late last year. Yeah, talk about an odd brand of excitement. Following its announcement to clean up its community earlier this year, YouTube revealed in its new Community Guidelines quarterly report that some 8-million videos were removed from the platform between October and December last year. "The majority of these 8-million videos were mostly spam or people attempting to upload adult content -- and represent a fraction of a percent of YouTube’s total views during this time period," the company wrote. Additionally, 6.7-million...
Okay, so I'm a bit of a mad cat lady. If you ever wanted me to pay attention to something, bury that information in a cat video and send it to me. That's probably why I've been watching pet company Whiskas's Kitten Kollege YouTube series for the past 20 minutes. Uh, yes, I'm totally working. The series takes the idea that anyone (and any species) can learn anything on the internet to heart. "Adopting a tiny kitten is a magical experience, it literally takes seconds after introducing the curious little feline to your home that you realise two things: firstly, cats are...
Three people were wounded on Tuesday after a shooting broke out at YouTube's California headquarters. The shooter later committed suicide. According to a statement, the San Bruno Police Department received 911 calls "reporting gun fire at the YouTube campus located at 901 Cherry Avenue in San Bruno". Officers then arrived at the headquarters minutes later. "Arriving officers encountered numerous employees fleeing the building. Officers encountered one victim with an apparent gunshot wound to a lower extremity at the front of the building," the statement continued. A "deceased female inside with a possible self-inflicted gunshot wound" was then found. She was...
YouTube will ban videos that promote guns, gun accessories and educational videos on firearms, the company announced in a relatively silent update. The company rewrote its policies regarding content featuring firearms, meaning that content creators will now have to think twice about uploading gun-related videos to the service. YouTube will now prohibit videos that "intends to sell firearms or certain firearms accessories through direct sales" or attached links within the video itself. These accessories include automatic gun conversion kits -- like bump stocks or gatling triggers -- and high capacity magazines carrying in excess of 30 rounds. The Google-owned video giant will...
Popular YouTuber Casey Neistat has been very vocal about the company's failings in cultivating a healthy platform for users and creators. He's made multiple videos addressing the unfair demonetisation of videos (dubbed the adpocalypse), as well as the Logan Paul scandal, which saw another popular YouTuber under fire for posting a video with a recent suicide victim. Neistat and YouTube's chief business officer talk removal protocols, trending algorithms, and more Now, Neistat has interviewed YouTube's chief business officer, Robert Kyncl, to discuss the way forward post-Paul. The interview, which took place twelve days pre-upload, does not address Paul's recent suspension for disturbing content...
A boxing match between YouTuber rivals KSI and Joe Weller, livestreamed Saturday night, was at its peak watched by 1.6-million viewers. Two days later, the recording has over 15.4-million views. In August last year, KSI challenged Weller to a fight after the latter beat another YouTuber, Theo Baker. I can confirm negotiations for the boxing match between myself vs KSI are underway. #WellerKSI 🥊 — Joe Weller (@joe_weller_) August 14, 2017 The two had shared friendly banter and collaborated on YouTube prior to the declaration, but their relationship soured -- or they realised there was more money to be made in animosity. In the...
After a tumultuous 2017, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki has published a blog post highlighting the company's five priorities for 2018 -- but the post is littered with vague promises that don't tie the company down to tangible policy changes. The first priority, Wojcicki writes, is "transparency and communication". YouTube was met with criticism last year for its silence over issues like unexplained demonetisation and "Elsagate", which saw apparent kids videos depict violent imagery like suicides and self-harm. YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki has offered up vague promises for 2018 To fix it? YouTube will be doing much of the same. Wojcicki says that, along with blog...
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