Adopt a Feature v2

You may remember the inaugural edition of Adopt a Feature, for which you made videos about AudioSwap, Country Pulldown, Insight, Playlists, Quick Capture, and Subscriptions. These videos generated 818,698 views (they're all collected here) and a bunch of them even got featured on our homepage. At the end of the two month run, thecomputernerd01 was crowned the Adopt a Feature king, thanks to his zany explanation of how the country/language pulldown menus work -- a video that accounted for a third of all of the program's views. He also got this awesome T-shirt.

Josh took a break from ribbing his grandpa to tell you why you should get involved with Adopt a Feature v2.



In case you're still buzzing from Josh's high-energy onslaught, here's what you need to know: Make a video about any or all of the features on the list below (click on the name of the feature to get more information about it). Include the name of the feature and "adoptafeature" in the tags -- this is important; it's how we'll locate your video for inclusion on our channel and possibly on the YouTube homepage.

* Annotations
* Customize Your Homepage
* Tags
* Quicklist
* Mobile Upload

(By the way, for folks waiting to hear more about the roll-out of new channels, we should have an update in a few days.)

Posted by Hunter Walk, Director, Product Management

More about → Adopt a Feature v2

Use Action on YouTube to Drive Action Off YouTube

For a few months, we've been testing a feature for partners that lets them add "Call-to-Action" overlays to their YouTube videos to help them drive traffic to other websites. Many have used the feature in creative ways, such as collecting signatures or driving song downloads.

Today we are making Call-to-Action overlays more broadly available by launching the feature as an option for anyone who uses Promoted Videos. Just go to ads.youtube.com and you'll quickly and easily be able to both increase views of your content and drive traffic to an off-YouTube website at the same time.

For more information, check out our recently launched YouTube Biz Blog.

Posted by Thai Tran, Product Manager

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Helping You Report the News

Ever captured a natural disaster or a crime on your cell-phone camera? Filmed a political rally or protest, and then interviewed the participants afterward? Produced a story about a local issue in your community? If you've done any of these things or aspire to, then you're part of the enormous community of citizen reporters on YouTube -- and today, we're launching a new resource to help you learn more about how to report the news.

It's called The YouTube Reporters' Center, and it features some of the nation's top journalists sharing instructional videos with tips and advice for better reporting. Learn how to prepare for an interview from CBS News' Katie Couric; how to be an investigative reporter from the legendary Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward, or why it's important for citizens to participate in the news-gathering process from Arianna Huffington. And definitely don't miss out on New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof's video on how to report from a crisis area without getting shot.



In addition, you can also learn practical and ethical tips, like how to fact check your stories, avoid breaking the law while reporting, and adhere to journalistic principles. Check out the Reporters' Center to see all the videos.

This isn't meant to be a one-way conversation. For the first time on YouTube, these reporters are making themselves available to engage with you directly. If you have experiences on reporting the news yourself and would like to share your tips, you can submit them for inclusion in the center. Upload your "how-to" videos to youtube.com/reporterscenter and share your knowledge with citizen journalists around the world.

If you're a news organization that would to become a YouTube news partner, please read more information on how to apply here.

Posted by Olivia Ma, News Manager

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Submit Your Question for President Obama

President Obama is taking your questions this Wednesday in a special online health care town hall event. With health care at the top of the President's agenda, he is opening up the White House to questions via YouTube. Create a 20- or 30-second video question and submit it as a reply video to the video below (go here to get started). He'll answer some of the most popular questions during the event, which we'll stream live from the White House YouTube channel.

This is your chance to speak directly to the President, so don't miss this opportunity to upload your video now. Make sure the sound and video quality are as clear as they can be, and if you'd like, leave your name and your hometown in the video description.

Posted by Steve Grove, Head of News & Politics

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