Disney has revealed a Star Wars-themed YouTube channel for kids set to feature the new Star Wars Galaxy of Adventures show. The show will consist of a series of short animations about the original Star Wars stories, making the historical pop culture hit accessible to potential young fans. In an announcement made on Star Wars’ official site, the company said that the show aims to “introduce the classic themes, pivotal moments, and iconic characters from the Star Wars saga to the next generation.” “Debuting on the all-new StarWarsKids.com and the Star Wars Kids YouTube channel on November 30, the first six shorts...
Now you can watch videos and browse through others simultaneously from your web browser using YouTube’s miniplayer feature. For a while now, the mobile YouTube app has had the feature, allowing users to continue watching videos on their smart devices in a little miniature screen while they look for more content. The miniplayer, which was first noted by Engadget, can be found next to the resolution settings at the bottom right of any YouTube video. All you have to do is click the little miniplayer icon and you’re free to browse. You still can’t multitask outside of the mobile app though, we’ve...
In the early hours of this morning YouTube, including its TV and Music services, went down around the world, preventing users from accessing content. The platform was fast to acknowledge the problem and tweeted that they was working on the issue. An hour later, it had been resolved. We're back! Thanks for all of your patience. If you continue to experience issues, please let us know. https://t.co/NVU5GP7Sy6 — Team YouTube (@TeamYouTube) October 17, 2018 Meanwhile many users showed off their panic, amusement and relief with a healthy influx of memes on Twitter under the hashtag #YouTubeDOWN. I survived the great #YouTubeDOWN of 2018 pic.twitter.com/0pGKsXjYMS —...
After launching YouTube Gaming in 2015, YouTube is now reintegrating it into the proper YouTube experience in the form of a channel. Simply called Gaming, the new channel also spells the end of the old YouTube Gaming hub, which is set to join Google Inbox shuttering next March. “We have a strong and vibrant audience on the YouTube Gaming app, but the amount of gamers we are able to reach is far bigger on YouTube,”the company revealed. Moving the Gaming channel into YouTube proper does have its merits though. “YouTube is where the world watches gaming. More than 200-million of you come to...
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...
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