Watch Lady Gaga’s exclusive Q&A with Google

Google went totally Gaga yesterday, when the indomitable artist otherwise known as Stefani Germanotta clicked onto the Mountain View,  CA, campus in her impossibly tall black boots.

The diminutive superstar wowed a capacity crowd in a venue that was (literally) packed to the rafters with adoring Googlers. In a wide-ranging interview that saw Gaga taking questions from fans via Twitter and Moderator, the musician spoke about everything from bullying to Rebecca Black, the creative process and her upcoming album. She took questions from the audience—hugging several Googlers in the process—and even became a judge when a gaggle of Gaga-alikes flooded the stage.

True to form, the singer was by turns funny, thoughtful and inspiring. But don’t take our word for it — you can watch the entire Q&A now on YouTube.



Sarah Bardeen, Music Community Manager, recently watched “Lady Gaga - Born This Way.”

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Enjoy videos about some of the greatest artworks in the world

Earlier this week, Google unveiled the Google Art Project—a new site that lets you explore hundreds of artworks from 17 of the world’s most acclaimed art museums in extraordinary levels of detail, as well as take 360 degree tours of the museums using Street View technology.

With this project comes the launch of many of the museums’ very own YouTube channels -- along with an array of new videos about the artworks featured in the project. On the Google Art Project site you can explore 1000+ pieces of artwork at an amazingly high resolution levels. While zooming into a work of art you can also watch YouTube videos about it, as well as reading more about a particular artwork and its artist. More than 170 works of art in the project have accompanying videos; learn about a professional snowboarder’s perspective on an alpine landscape, the 20+ locations of Rembrandt’s ‘Night Watch’ , the preservation process for Van Gogh’s ‘The Bedroom’ or even the live reaction of a pair of identical twins to a 17th century painting of twins.



You can browse a selection of the featured artwork videos on the Art Project’s YouTube channel, where you can also see behind the scenes footage of the project.

This project began as a 20% project for a group of Googlers who are passionate about making art more accessible online. We hope you enjoy these videos and maybe deepen your understanding of some of the world’s most famous works of art.

Anna de Paula Hanika, Project Manager, Google Art Project, recently watched “Art Project preview.”

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Dashing through the snow...with NORAD, YouTube and Google

Every Christmas Eve, children all over the world ask themselves—and their parents—questions about Santa’s magical journey. How does Santa visit so many children in one night? Will he eat the cookies I left out? How does he fit all those presents into his sleigh? These childhood mysteries are part of what makes the Santa tradition so special.

There’s one timeless question that we’re proud to say we can help answer: Where in the world is Santa at this very moment? Thanks in part to recent advances in warp-speed GPS technology and some very clever elves (elveneering?) NORAD Tracks Santa is once again prepped and ready to go.

Starting tomorrow, December 24 at 2:00 a.m. EST, visit www.noradsanta.org to follow Santa as he journeys around the world delivering presents to children in more than 200 countries and territories. There are a few different ways to find the jolly man in his unmistakable red suit over the course of the day, so feel free to track him using any of the following methods:

• Subscribe to his YouTube channel: Santa’s home on YouTube is at http://www.youtube.com/noradtrackssanta. That’s where you can find videos from his journey throughout the night. This “Commander's Holiday Message” offers a peek of what to expect:

• See Santa on a Google Map: On your home computer or laptop, visit www.noradsanta.org and choose your preferred language. You’ll see a large Google Map on the page displaying Santa’s current location and his next stop. Click the video icons to watch “Santa Cam” videos, and click the gift icons to learn more about each city.

• Watch Santa fly with the Google Earth Plug-in: From www.noradsanta.org, click on the link Track Santa in Google Earth. You'll see Santa steering his sleigh right on the webpage. If you don't have the Google Earth plug-in, you can get ready by downloading it ahead of time.

• Follow Santa on your phone: Track Santa from your mobile phone by opening Google Maps for mobile and searching for [santa]. Or, visit m.noradsanta.org on your phone’s browser.

Get real-time information about Santa’s location: Use Google’s Realtime Search to get updates from social networks, news and micro-blogs like Twitter at @noradsanta, and keep up with news about his journey on this Facebook page.

For any techie questions you might have, we’ve also put together some helpful tips and tricks about all the cool ways you can experience Santa’s journey. And now that you know how to follow Saint Nick on Christmas Eve, it’s our tradition to tell the story of how this all started...

NORAD (North American Aerospace Defence Command) first began to track Santa in 1955 when a misprinted advertisement in a Sears & Roebuck catalogue mistakenly led callers expecting a Santa-hotline to the NORAD commander-in-chief's telephone. Embracing the spirit of the season, NORAD used its satellite and radar capabilities to offer callers sleigh-location updates, and has tracked Santa's whereabouts on Christmas Eve ever since. Then in 2004, Google started tracking Santa on Google Earth as a 20% project, which in 2007 grew into a partnership with NORAD, adding the mapping technology of Google Maps and Google Earth to the NORAD experience. Over the years, other Google teams have also joined in the holiday fun (YouTube, Google Voice’s www.SendACallFromSanta.com and Google SketchUp).

As we approach this year’s Christmas Eve adventure, Santa was able to take a break from the preparations to visit the New York Stock Exchange this past Monday. His helpful elves kept everything at the North Pole on schedule while folks from Google and NORAD attended the Closing Bell ceremony, and stood alongside Santa from Macy’s going over last minute details about tomorrow’s big ride:

Santa with NORAD, Google and members of the Marine Toys for Tots Foundation 

that’s me, the tall guy in the back row clapping)

So don’t forget to visit www.noradsanta.org tomorrow morning starting at 2:00 a.m. EST when Santa embarks on his flight. From all of us here at Google and YouTube, happy holidays and here’s to a very happy New Year!

Brian McClendon, Original Google Engineering Elf, recently watched “Picasa 3.8 Face Movie.”

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Slamming the boring, old tech demo

Tech demos. They’ve been around as long as... well, technology. They’re helpful. They’re useful. They’re also a little boring. That’s why tech demos often go overlooked by so many people. Unfortunately, it’s generally the people who could benefit most from them that never even see them.

So we figured, what tech demos need is a fresh start. A few creative minds willing to take a shot at making them worth watching and sharing. And maybe, just maybe, make tech demos so cool, that they’ll inspire others to make their own.

That’s why we created Demo Slam. It’s a platform that allows you to put a new twist on sharing tech goodness. Demo Slam rests on the belief that the world’s creativity is all it takes to turn boring, old tech demos into entertaining, exciting awesomeness. For example, watch Zach Miller do a 20-foot search:



The YouTube community has shown the world time and time again, just how incredibly far a little imagination can go. We’d love to see that same YouTube magic become a part of Demo Slam. If you triumph, you’ll be featured in the Demo Slam Hall of Champs. That also means you’ll get exposure elsewhere online, courtesy of Google. Best of all, it’s a way to help a lot of people discover something cool.

There’s just too much great tech out there for everyone to go on not knowing it exists. And now, with the help of people like you, the whole world will have a place where they can find out about it. So be different, be crazy, be unique, and submit a demo. All it takes is one to teach millions something new.

Let the slamming begin!

Robert Wong, Creative Director, Creative Lab, recently watched "Demo Slam: 20ft Search."

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Trip Report: Google and YouTube in Iraq

Earlier this month, a small team from Google and YouTube spent a week in Iraq on a trip arranged by the Department of Defense’s Task Force for Business and Stability Operations (TFBSO). Our goals were to explore opportunities for Google in Iraq, to understand the landscape of Internet access and connectivity in the country during this critical transition period, and to bring top-voted questions from YouTube to Iraqi leaders in a series of interviews. We met with students, private sector companies, NGOs and Iraqi leadership in the Kurdish city of Erbil in the north, and in Baghdad.


Pictures taken by the Google/YouTube team in Iraq: Harry Wingo (Policy), Carrie Farrell (Google.org), Debu Purkayastha (Corp Dev), Olivia Ma (YouTube), Mary Himinkool (Business Development), and Steve Grove (YouTube).

Regardless of your feelings about the Iraq War, it’s immediately evident upon arrival just how completely the country missed the Internet boom during Saddam Hussein’s regime. Internet penetration rates in Iraq are among the lowest in the Middle East—somewhere between one and eight percent. Only 15 percent of Iraqis say they use the web, and the largest percentage of them live in Baghdad. There are no commercial data centers in Iraq and much more fiber connectivity is needed to meet consumer needs. Most connections are via satellite, and those who do have connections pay dearly for it—we heard estimates of up to $150 U.S. dollars per month for a 512kb connection. To incentivize and enable private companies to lay more fiber in Iraq, a complex set of roadblocks must be addressed—from security concerns to regulatory frameworks to licensing structures. As the country is still struggling to form a government more than seven months after its last election, much of this progress has been stalled.

There are signs of progress, however. Mobile penetration has skyrocketed in Iraq in the past seven years, from effectively zero percent in 2003 to over 70% today. And the Iraqi people are highly educated. We met with dozens of computer science students at Salahaddin University in Erbil and at Baghdad University, and though they lack equipment and resources, they’re highly motivated to innovate and believe the web is a critical component of their economy’s future.

Many young people in Iraq and around the world submitted questions in Arabic and English for three interviews we conducted in partnership with Middle Eastern news agency Al Arabiya. Google Translate enabled anyone to vote on their favorite questions regardless of language, and we brought the top five questions to current Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, the Prime Minister of the Kurdish Regional Government in Erbil, Dr. Barham Salih, and Iraqi politician and once the interim Prime Minister of Iraq, Ayad Allawi. Here is the television special that Al Arabiya produced showcasing their answers:



The Iraqis we met consistently expressed their desire for increased access to the web and for more access to content and tools in both Kurdish and Arabic. We believe access to information and high-speed connectivity to the cloud will be key to the future of the country. The power of the web to change people’s lives grows the further one gets from Silicon Valley, and we look forward to continuing our work with companies, governments and citizens in Iraq and other countries in transition.

Mary Himinkool, New Business Development, and Olivia Ma, YouTube News & Politics, recently watched "Voices: Conversation Between Iraqi and American Students."

More about → Trip Report: Google and YouTube in Iraq

New additions to the YouTube team

Whether you’re looking for a video of your kid’s first day of kindergarten, instructions on how to dance the waltz, the latest upload from a hot YouTube star, or a favorite Hollywood movie or a global sporting event, we’re committed to growing our content library and global footprint to make more of the world’s video available to you.

Today, we’re pleased to welcome two new additions to our leadership team who will help us continue to expand our offerings for users. These new leaders will have many external touchpoints, so we wanted to take the unusual step of using our blog to announce them.

Dean Gilbert is joining us as YouTube’s new Global Head of Content and will oversee our global content team as we work to expand our existing relationships and forge new ones. A veteran of the cable industry, Dean’s leadership roles have included serving as Executive Vice President and General Manager of @ Home Network. Over the last four years, Dean has provided leadership at Google across across a wide range of media products, including Google TV, YouTube and Google TV Ads.

Robert Kyncl is joining us as our new Global Head of TV and Film Entertainment. Robert comes to YouTube from Netflix, where he was Vice President of Content Acquisitions, spearheading the company’s content acquisition strategy for streaming TV shows and movies over the Internet. He was also instrumental in transitioning Netflix’s business from DVD-by-mail to streaming. In his new role, Robert will build our content partner presence in Hollywood, overseeing our content partnerships across the studios, broadcasters, cable networks, talent agencies and new media companies. Chris Maxcy will continue his executive leadership role as Global Head of Music and Games, focusing on our global music business.

The means of creation, consumption and distribution have permanently changed, giving rise to the most diverse set of faces and voices ever seen or heard in human history. By expanding our content partnerships worldwide, we’ll ensure that YouTube remains the best place for our users to see, hear and discover this richness of talent. These leadership additions will help to pave the way.

Salar Kamangar, Co-Head of YouTube

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Instantly zap YouTube videos to your Android phone with Chrome to Phone

Ever wanted a way to quickly and easily send YouTube videos and other information from your desktop or laptop to your phone to view on the go? The new Chrome to Phone extension adds a button to your Google Chrome browser that instantly sends the current YouTube video, web page, map, or selected phone number or text to your Android device running Froyo (or Android 2.2).

Suppose you're mid-way through a scintillating 15-minute video and you have to run to an appointment. Simply click the extension icon in your browser to send the video’s link to your phone and the device's browser will automatically open the link, ready for you to view on the go. 






The Chrome to Phone extension is available in English for now, but we hope to expand to other languages soon. Check out the help center if you have further questions.

To get Chrome to Phone, install the Chrome to Phone extension in your Google Chrome browser and the Android application on your phone, and you’re ready to go.

Dave Burke, Engineering Manager, recently watched “Asturias-John Williams.”

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Connecting a Google Account to your older YouTube account

Following YouTube’s acquisition by Google in 2006, new YouTube signups were given the choice between two different account systems to power their YouTube experience: the original YouTube account system (built in 2005) or the Google Account system.

In May 2009, we started requiring all new YouTube usernames to be powered by Google Accounts.

Now, we’re gradually asking all remaining pre-May 2009 users still using the older YouTube account system to connect a Google Account to their YouTube username. For now, it’s an optional step, but eventually it’ll be required in order to continue using your YouTube username.

Before we go any further, we should clarify three important facts:

• YouTube usernames themselves aren’t going anywhere. No matter when you signed up for YouTube, or if you’re currently associated with a Google Account, you’ll still be “LifeOfTheParty29” (aka “your username”) on YouTube.
• A Google Account is not necessarily a Gmail account. You can create a Google Account with any email address through many different Google products, just like you can create a Twitter or Facebook account with any email address. Of course, you can choose to use Gmail as the email address for your Google Account.
• Connecting your existing YouTube username to an existing Google Account doesn’t start sharing your YouTube activity to your Buzz followers; it’s only an account connection behind the scenes, and it’s still up to you to decide whether or not to bring YouTube into the rest of your Google life.

So what’s the point of asking people to connect a Google Account to their older YouTube account? Here are the main reasons:

• Improved account security. The Google Account system is robust and will help reduce spam across the site; users will get a slew of security and safety features that Google has spent the past decade developing.
• A single account system. This may not mean much to anyone outside of the YouTube engineering team, but behind the scenes it’s extremely complicated to support two different account systems. Having all users on the same account system not only simplifies matters, but more important, it makes it much easier to use Google technologies to keep the site running smoothly (over two billion views a day and counting), as well as introduce new functionality.

If you have an older YouTube account and you’d like to link to a new or existing Google Account today, just visit this page and choose to link to an existing Google Account or a brand new one. You can also visit our "Linked YouTube/Google Accounts" topic in the Help Center for more information on common questions and problems.

And, as a reminder, if you’d like to review all of the services and data associated with your Google Account at a glance, visit the Google Privacy Dashboard.

Brett Hobbs, Software Engineer, recently watched "The World's Reaction to Landon Donovan's Game Winning Goal."

More about → Connecting a Google Account to your older YouTube account

More choice for users: unlisted videos

Melinda teaches high school in the Bay Area and recently reached out to us with a problem. Her students just finished a video history project that she wanted to share with their parents and classmates. But she was concerned about posting the videos publicly because she didn’t want the whole world to find them (frankly, neither did her students). Melinda told us YouTube’s private sharing options -- a 25-person cap that’s limited to other YouTube users -- didn’t work for her. She needed a better option to privately share her students’ talent.

Later today, we'll be rolling out a new choice that will help Melinda and other people like her: unlisted videos. [Update: Unlisted videos are now available.]

With this feature, you can mark your videos as "unlisted." This means only people who have the link to the video will be able to watch it. It won’t appear in any of YouTube’s public pages, in search results, on your personal channel or on the browse page. It’s a private video, except you don’t need a YouTube account to watch it and there is no limit to the number of people who can view it. You’ll get a link when you upload the video and then it’s up to you to decide who to share it with. Unlisted is the perfect option for that class project, video from last summer’s family reunion or your secret Broadway audition tape.

Just remember, the video can be viewed by anyone with the link, so only give it to people you trust! For more information, check out our Help Center page.

Jen Chen, Software Engineer, recently watched “8-Bit Dr. Horrible (Act 1)”

More about → More choice for users: unlisted videos

Your interview with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper

[Cross-posted from the Google Public Policy Blog]

It’s not every day that you get to ask your country’s leader questions about issues you care about. But that’s exactly what Canadians did this afternoon when Prime Minister Stephen Harper sat down with YouTube.

Roughly 170,000 votes were cast through Google Moderator for nearly 1,800 questions -- giving voice to thousands of Canadians. And don’t think that these were softball questions. Canadians asked their Prime Minister questions on a wide variety of important topics: from the deficit to Canada’s role in Afgahistan, from child care to protecting pensions. We tried to select questions that represented the most popular topics and would solicit conversation. (We also minimized duplicate questions so we could cover a range of issues.) Neither the Prime Minister nor his office knew in advance which questions he’d be asked.

You can see the Prime Minister respond to your questions in this video:



Prime Minister Harper is the second world leader to answer your questions in a YouTube Interview. It’s your appetite for political discussion on YouTube that creates these opportunities to access public leaders in this format, and we look forward to conducting more YouTube Interviews soon.

Posted by Jacob Glick, Google Canada Policy Counsel

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Serious Threat to Web in Italy

By now, you might have heard about the ruling in Italy, whereby three Google employees were convicted of violating Italian privacy laws for a video posted to Google Video in 2006. Because this is an issue of critical importance to all of us here at Google, particularly at YouTube, we wanted to direct readers of this blog to the Official Google Blog post on the matter: "Serious threat to Web in Italy."

The YouTube Team

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The White House Answers More of Your Questions

As we announced earlier this week, the White House agreed to answer more of the top questions you submitted for our YouTube Interview with the President on Monday. Today, we hosted a live chat in which three administration officials - Heather Higginbottom from the Domestic Policy Council, Brian Deese of the National Economic Council, and Ben Rhodes of the National Security Council - answered additional questions submitted in response to the President's State of the Union address on January 27. Macon Phillips, the White House New Media Director, moderated the discussion and also took some of your questions in real-time, using our Moderator platform on CitizenTube.

Here's the video of the chat, just posted to the White House YouTube channel.



We appreciate all the feedback we've received this week in response to our interview with the President, and we look forward to incorporating your suggestions into upcoming programs. We'll be announcing more events soon that will allow you to connect with your leaders via YouTube, so stay tuned to CitizenTube for more details.


Steve Grove, Head of News and Politics, recently watched "Presidential YouTube Interview - behind the scenes"

More about → The White House Answers More of Your Questions

Celebrating free expression 20 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall

In 1989, the fall of the Berlin Wall became a striking symbol for free expression far beyond the borders of Germany. Just 20 years later, Iranian citizens used online tools like YouTube and Twitter to share firsthand accounts of the brutal government crackdown waged against protesters disputing the country's election results. Many Iranians risked their lives to document the violence, despite the government's attempts to expel journalists and stifle any voices of dissent.

The democratizing power of the Internet has enabled individuals to share their stories with a global audience in ways never before possible, and given a voice to those who wouldn't otherwise be heard.

To commemorate the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, we're launching a YouTube channel — youtube.com/GoogleFreeExpression — to highlight and celebrate free expression around the world, and we want to hear from you.

This channel is designed to feature your stories and reflections on free expression. Tell us about how you or someone you know has taken a stand for free expression. Perhaps you've protested against something you didn't agree with, taken action when someone else's free speech was being suppressed or been inspired by someone who has stood up for the right to speak out. Make a short video sharing your experience, upload it to YouTube, and add it as a reply to this one:

We'll be featuring the best submissions on the Google Free Expression channel, so be sure to check back in the weeks to come. We look forward to hearing from you.

Annette Kroeber-Riel, European Policy Counsel, recently watched "Getting past the 'Barbed Wireless'"

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Blogs Move to Blogger

For a long time our blog hasn't used the latest blog technology -- not only was publishing posts a time-consuming process, but you couldn't search through our archives or find posts grouped by subject. Well, we're finally catching up and have migrated over to Blogger, a more flexible blogging platform that heeds the call for better navigation and organization. (But be aware that if you want to comment on a blog post, you'll need an OpenID, or a Google account, to do so. Connecting your YouTube account to your Google account should make the process pretty seamless.)

We're still fixing a few things here and there, and a few posts with large numbers of comments are still migrating over, but overall we hope you will find this to be a better blog-reading experience.

Posted by Mia Quagliarello, Community Manager

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