Release Notes: 4/30/09

Hello! Yesterday we had another release -- v38, if you're counting -- but if you've been reading this blog, you'll know that lots has happened between the last Release Notes post and today. We launched our RealTime beta, a new look for the homepage, a destination for TV and movie content, and CaptionEditor in TestTube. We try to be nimble and push out new features or fixes as often as they're ready. Let us know what you think of these latest updates:



* New Options for Uploaders: In our continued effort to give you ultimate control over how your videos are presented, uploaders can now tweak the appearance of their video when played on YouTube or in an embedded player. Just insert any of the hint tags below into the tags field of your video and voila!



yt:crop=16:9 (zooms in on the 16:9 area, removes windowboxing)

yt:stretch=16:9 (fixes anamorphic content by scaling to 16:9)

yt:stretch=4:3 (fixes 720x480 content that is the wrong aspect ratio by scaling to 4:3)

yt:quality=high (default to a high quality stream, depending on availability)



* HD Browsing Goes Global: Add Australia, Brazil, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain and U.K. to the list of countries where you can browse the most popular HD videos in the region.



* AudioSwap Adds Recommendations: If your video contained an audio track that was not authorized for use on YouTube, the Recommended Tracks feature in AudioSwap will help you quickly find fully licensed songs to replace your original audio track. Recommendations are based on a combination of popularity and, for audio-matched videos, similarity to the original track. The three tracks being used most often are "Bodies" by Drowning Pool, "Bring Me to Life" by Evanescence, and "Paralyzer" by Finger Eleven.



* Subscription Tab in More Places: We added a new "Subscriptions" tab to the top of the page a few weeks ago for anyone with an account who sets his or her country preference to "Worldwide." Starting today, the Subscriptions tab is available on any of our English-language sites, and we'll add it for other languages soon, too. Why is this important? Simple -- we hope to build stronger connections between video creators and their audiences by making subscriptions more prominent on YouTube. Please let us know if this change has positively impacted your viewership.



* Subscription Suggestions: Building on our new subscriptions tab, users without any subscriptions who visit the subscription center will now see some channel suggestions (a random set of popular channels) to help them get started using this key YouTube feature. If you already have some subscriptions, you can see the suggestions, too -- just click on "About Subscription Center" in the upper-right corner of the subscriptions center.



* Username Alternatives: YouTube is a big place these days and many channel names are taken. But starting today, if your desired username is already in use when you sign up for an account, we'll offer some alternates, hopefully reducing the head-scratching that can come from trying to figure out a handle that you like and is available. Right now this is in test mode, but we expect it to go 100% soon.



* A Tooltip to Help With Precise Seeking: If someone tells you to check out their video at two minutes, now it's easy to find that precise point. As you drag the thumb (what we call the little circle) back and forth, a shiny new tooltip will tell you exactly where you are in the video.




Always,

The YouTube Team

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Your Chance to Contribute Ideas to the Energy Bill

Time was, Congress wrote legislation inside the bubble of Washington, DC, and tried their best to get back to their home states and districts to get citizen feedback. Now, your Senators and Congressmen can solicit your feedback instantly online -- which is just what Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND) is doing this week in his "Senator of the Week" feature on the YouTube Senate hub.









Head over to the Senate Hub and let Senator Dorgan know your ideas for the Energy Bill. As his video explains, the energy issue is critical to the long-term sustainability of the U.S. economy and to national security. Dorgan is committed to hearing your ideas and getting back to you, so submit your thoughts now and vote on the others that are there.




Yours,

Steve Grove

YouTube News & Politics

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Leaders Respond to Swine Flu Pandemic on YouTube

In these early days of the swine flu outbreak, governments and global leaders are responding to the pandemic on YouTube - using video to reach citizens with information and instruction about the spreading virus. On our homepage today we're featuring some of the videos that have been making their way around YouTube, as citizens share clips with each other on how to handle the threat of the flu virus in their communities.




The Center for Disease Control's YouTube channel, which we featured a few days ago, has come out with a new video from Dr. Joe Bresee - this one outlines how to recognize the symptoms of swine flu. The Mexican Government is working hard to educate citizens as well, with PSAs like this one that help citizens understand how to prevent the spreading of the virus. In the U.K., Prime Minister Gordon Brown has been joining the international conversation, as has Ban Ki Moon, the Secretary General of the United Nations, who delivered this statement on the United Nations' YouTube channel, outlining the UN's work to fight the flu.




Stay tuned to these channels (and more) as governments and citizens keep each other informed with the latest information on the swine flu pandemic. You might also want to take a look at Google.org's experimental flu trends tool for Mexico, which is tracking the development of the flu based on search queries within Mexico.




Yours,

Olivia Ma

YouTube News & Politics

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Insight Data: Any Way You Want It, That's the Way You Need It

We launched YouTube Insight a year ago to help you better understand your viewers and how they engage with your videos. Along the way, we've introduced features like Demographics, Hot Spots and Community to give you sophisticated ways of analyzing viewer data. Whether you want to know how old your audience is, how many times your most viewed video was rated last week, or which minute of your clip is most engaging, YouTube Insight can give you the answer. As we add functionality, we're careful to preserve YouTube Insight's clean and easy-to-use look and feel.



Throughout this process, we've realized that there are limitless ways viewing data can tell fascinating stories about your audience. As you continue to post videos, we will continue to make viewing data transparent and accessible for you.



Today, we have added a link that allows you to export your Insight data into CSV files. CSV files are open format files that organize data so it can be moved and analyzed using common spreadsheet software such as Google Docs and Microsoft Excel. Now you can view and manipulate your data any way you like.



Looking for ideas? Try comparing the view count for different videos side by side, mapping out where your viewers are coming from over time, or comparing discovery sources by country. As always, tell us about the interesting fun facts you learn in the comments below!



Cheers,

Tracy Chan and Kenny Stoltz

Product Managers

The YouTube Team

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