Announcing the “I Want my Google TV!” contest

If you’re like most people, you probably love watching YouTube videos on your computer. But what if there were a full-screen, HD version of YouTube available a channel flip away on your TV? Now there is, made possible by Google TV.

Google TV brings television, apps, and the entire World Wide Web directly to your living room...so you can watch even more YouTube, only now on the biggest screen in your home. And because it’s the season of giving, the crew here at YouTube and Google are excited to announce a contest to give away 100 free 46” Sony Internet TVs powered by Google TV.



To enter to win, create and upload a video telling us and all your friends on YouTube why you’re pumped up about Google TV. Winning submissions will be selected based on originality, creativity, entertainment factor, technical execution, and how well you explain why you are excited about Google TV and watching YouTube on Google TV. View the contest rules and full list of judging criteria here.

Don’t forget to upload your video by December 22, and tag it with “ytgtv” so we can showcase your creations. Winners will be announced by January 20, 2011.

Good luck!

Camille Hearst, Product Marketing Manager, recently watched “Sony Google TV: Hands-On”.

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You and Leanback - This Time It’s Personal

When we launched Leanback in July we wanted to create a simple, easy-to-use YouTube interface for the big screen. Since then we’ve graduated Leanback out of TestTube, added the ability to place ads to bring in more partner videos, and launched a YouTube Remote that lets you control your YouTube Leanback experience from your Android mobile phone. In our latest iteration, we’re enhancing the video discovery experience in Leanback with a new feature called Personalized Channels.

Personalized Channels is built to tackle one of the big challenges for our users: what should I watch next? It's a bit like having your own personal video delivery butler, serving you relevant videos that reflect what you like, or find interesting. For instance, if you create a ‘fail’ channel, it will start out showing the best fail videos we can find, and then gradually start branching out to pranks, funny commercials and other related topics. It will also adjust itself based on how you interact with the videos shown and get better the more you watch and interact with them.

Here’s how it works. Start by signing in to your YouTube account and go to YouTube.com/leanback and select “Create Channels”. We’ll suggest personalized channels to you based on the videos you have watched in the past. To create a new personalized channel, choose from the suggested channels or just type in a topic, like “cooking.”

We’ve put together a short video introduction to Personalized Channels, below, to get you started.

Like all products we launch, we’re eager for you to try it out and then give us suggestions on how we can make it even better. This project is still in its early stages and your participation and feedback will help us improve it (you can let us know your thoughts in the forum). Have fun and share with us in the comments below the personalized channels that would reflect you the best.

Christina Ilvento, product manager, recently created a personalized channel around “meerkats”, and Ben Liebald, Software Engineer, recently created a personalized channel on “marathon training”.

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YouTube Leanback officially launches -- on Google TV

Back in July, we announced the launch of YouTube Leanback in beta. If you didn’t get a chance to check it out, Leanback is a new way to experience YouTube on a big screen. We named it “Leanback” so you could do just that: kick back and, with as little effort as possible, enjoy hours upon hours of YouTube videos. When you go to www.youtube.com/leanback, you’ll note that videos start playing immediately, are always presented in full screen and HD (when available), and you can easily browse using just the arrow keys on your keyboard.

Today, YouTube Leanback moves forward into a new role at the center of the YouTube experience on Google TV, which you’ll start seeing in U.S. stores this week. When you view Leanback on Google TV (or online), videos based on your subscriptions and viewing history will begin playing immediately. If those don’t pique your interest, Leanback offers 10 channels, updated daily, featuring popular and interesting videos in genres like Comedy, Entertainment, News, Science & Technology, How To & Style, and more. You can also watch full-length movies and TV shows rented from youtube.com in the highest quality.

Learn more about YouTube Leanback or visit www.youtube.com/leanback to try it out.

Camille Hearst, Product Marketing Manager, recently watched the “Best of YouTube” channel at www.youtube.com/leanback.

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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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Surf video all day long on TV and the Web, then tell your friends about it

As you could probably guess, we're really excited about the imminent launch of Google TV. You can learn more about this initiative here, but it’s basically a new way to watch TV by seamlessly integrating the Web and TV into one incredible viewing experience. Soon, you’ll be able to watch a lot more of those beautiful hi-def YouTube videos on your beautiful, hi-def TV.

Google TV will initially be available on devices manufactured by Sony and Logitech in the fall, with more partners to be announced later. Logitech has just come up with a nifty idea to publicize their device, the Logitech Revue with Google TV™ -- a contest to find the 'Host with the Most' in one of three fabulous cities within the U.S.



Check out this site for more details of ‘Host with the Most,’ but the gist is simple: if you can prove that you are a true social influencer with a passion for the new universe of TV and video that Google TV will offer, Logitech may select you to become a Logitech host and pay you to spend time in one of their lofts in New York, Los Angeles or San Francisco. Your mission will be to host a bunch of parties, show off the technology, and spread the word through your social circles. (See Logitech's OFFICIAL RULES for eligibility requirements and complete details.) Since nothing goes together better than YouTube and Google TV – and no group is more socially connected than the YouTube community – we thought we’d encourage you all to nominate yourselves for the role. We look forward to seeing what cool things the winning hosts will do with the Logitech loft experience – and maybe one of them will be you!

Peter Sherman, Product Marketing Manager, recently watched “What is Google TV?”

*NEITHER GOOGLE NOR YOUTUBE IS A SPONSOR OF OR AFFILIATED WITH THE LOGITECH 'HOST WITH THE MOST' CONTEST IN ANY WAY. EMPLOYEES OF GOOGLE AND YOUTUBE NOT ELIGIBLE TO PARTICIPATE.

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