YouTube highlights – 10/7/2010

Welcome to the first in a regular series of YouTube updates. We’ll keep you informed every couple of weeks about new product features, interesting programs to watch, and tips anyone can use to grow your audience on YouTube. Just look for the label “YouTube Highlights” and subscribe to the series. – Ed.

YouTube is where the world comes together to share stories—people around the world upload 24 hours of video every minute and watch more than 2 billion videos every day. We’ve been busy keeping up and adding new features and the last two weeks are no exception. Here are our recent updates:

Farm Aid live stream
This year, Farm Aid broadcast its 25th anniversary concert live on YouTube in HD. If you couldn’t make it for the live event in Milwaukee or online, you can still catch performances from Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp, Neil Young, Dave Matthews, Norah Jones, Band of Horses, Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy and others. Farm Aid was founded with the mission to raise awareness about America’s family farms, and to date, it’s raised more than $37 million to better connect urban food lovers with food grown on family farms.


Willie Nelson & Steven Tyler - One Time Too Many (Live at Farm Aid 25)

Video editor enhancements and more languages
We’ve recently announced a handful of new releases to make creating great video content even easier and to bring YouTube to more audiences around the world.

We’ve enhanced our video editor, which lets you combine and trim your videos right on YouTube.com, without installing any software. Now you can rotate your videos via the editor and add transitions, like cross-fades and wipes, between video clips. Just select the transitions tab in the media picker, drag the transition and drop it between any two videos in the storyboard.


YouTube is also now available in seven new languages (Arabic, Bulgarian, Lithuanian, Romanian, Slovenian, Ukrainian and Vietnamese). Welcome!

See details of these and other enhancements in our monthly release notes.

Tips for videomakers
How do you get as many video views as some of our top partners like Fred? Make it easy for viewers to find and watch more of your video content by using annotations and playlists. We recently shared this handy tip you can use to easily let your viewers know what to do or where to go next.

If you’re looking to be the next Quentin Tarantino, the Howcast Filmmakers Program can help address your biggest fears and answer your most burning questions about being a filmmaker in the digital age.

Advertisers and agencies get inspired
With so much popular content on YouTube, many businesses large and small have discovered the cost-effective reach of online video advertising. From Old Spice to Dynomighty, advertisers have found their audience when it comes to marketing their products on YouTube. Find out what makes a successful online campaign and how to appeal to the masses with our latest installment of YouTube Show & Tell, a documentary series featuring the creative minds behind Old Spice, Dynomighty, Axe and Show & Tell itself.

We hope you’ve enjoyed our first roundup of YouTube news. For more information about what we’re up to at YouTube, visit our blog.

Posted by Serena Satyasai, Marketing Manager, The YouTube Team