Didyou know that we released more features in 2009 than in 2007 and 2008combined? This made it the busiest year on record for the YouTubeproduct and engineering teams. Some of these launches, like support for1080p, 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 pausebefore the new year begins to review the things that hopefully made thebiggest 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 XLoptimizes YouTube for large screens. In addition to offering largertext and simplified navigation, XL has a continuous play feature,allowing you to search for a topic, hit "play" and then kick back foran uninterrupted viewing experience.
- VEVO - VEVO.comis a partnership that blends Google and YouTube's technology with musicvideos from a broad catalog of artists from Universal Music Group, SonyMusic and EMI. The site hopes to redefine the way people watch andengage with music online, as well as change the way the digital andmusic industries do business with each other.
- Feather - Featheris a stripped-down version of the page on which any video plays.Without all but the basic features, the page loads more quickly andvideos 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 onYouTube 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.
Hunter Walk, Director, Product Management, and John Harding, Engineering Manager