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04 Nov 2010 10:09

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Tech, World: Turkey proves that no, they don’t really understand YouTube

  • dumb Turkey, concerned about clips offensive to founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, bans YouTube from the country.
  • smart Now that the clips are offline, Turkey unbanned YouTube. Hello, Keyboard Cat! Hello, Numa Numa Guy!
  • dumb Turkey found ANOTHER clip that offended them, and now YouTube could get blocked for another 30 months. source

29 Oct 2010 20:21

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Tech: Peace out, Chad Hurley: YouTube co-founder heads for the exit

  • Thanks for the viral memories, Chad. It’s always a sad day when a founder leaves a company, as Chad Hurley is about to do with YouTube. Especially when the company runs one of the three most important sites on the entire Web (along with Google proper and Facebook). Hurley, who has enough money under his belt that he probably never has to work ever again, has earned the chance to do something else. He’s been replaced as chief executive by Salar Kamangar, currently the company’s vice president of product management and the guy who’s been doing much of the grunt work over the last couple of years. Kamangar has made the company nearly profitable, yeah, but Hurley made it relevant. source

11 Oct 2010 22:23

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Culture: On Banksy, “The Simpsons,” News Corp. and YouTube

  • You can’t be serious. it’s like you’re hiding this. Banksy’s “Simpsons” couch sequence has been the talk of the Web all day. It packs a visceral effect that wears off after the first time, but it mainly works because it’s so out of left field – even for the Simpsons. Anyway, the video that everyone was linking from a YouTube channel called “banksyfilm” – you know, Banksy’s own account. Now it’s been taken down for copyright reasons and people have been told to watch it on Hulu, which, besides the country restrictions, is annoying because they initially didn’t even have the Banksy intro pulled out as a clip. The effect feels akin to censorship, considering the very viral subject matter can no longer be viewed in Asia. (Fortunately, we found another version.) source

11 Sep 2010 12:14

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Tech: Protip: Create “Google Instant” variations to secure employment

Hey @FreeTheFeross! Loving YouTube Instant… http://feross.net/instant/ Want a job? 😉Fri Sep 10 18:55:10 via web

 

  • youtube A guy created an awesome Google Instant-inspired variation on YouTube. Within hours, Chad Hurley was Tweeting him.
  • maps Someone else has created a different variation on Google Instant, this time using Maps. He’s available, by the way. source
  • » Update: Oh, it gets better. The creator of Google Maps Instant also did something similar with Google Images. And that’s simply a rad idea.

02 Sep 2010 21:21

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Tech: Copyright owners use YouTube ads as a backdoor into ¢A$H

  • 2 billion views of YouTube videos with ads every single week
  • 14% the percentage of total weekly views on YouTube each week ad-supported videos make up – a small chunk, but definitely still a lot
  • 33% of those videos (or more) are clips which are copyright violations that the owners have chosen to make money from source

29 Aug 2010 21:39

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Tech: We hate Shane Dawson and his money-milking Youtube clips

  • $315,429 made by that stupid prick
  • YouTube’s model is broken. Here’s why. A kid like Shane Dawson can prime the pump of YouTube’s model and make clips that are the unfunniest things you’ve ever seen. We couldn’t even make it though the first minute of this piece of crap here. This guy isn’t the only insane YouTube moneymaker out there, either. All of these guys brand the heck of of themselves, and some of them are pretty unfunny for the most part. We don’t understand their appeal at all.
  • The annoying orange This video, which is minorly charming, got approximately 29 million views since its October launch. Since then, its creator has made $288,375 from YouTube and has a TV deal in the works.
  • Ray William JohnsonThis guy is something of a low-rent Tosh.0, who basically re-appropriates viral clips for his own brash commentary and quick edits. Funnier than Shane Dawson, he made $278,048 from YouTube.
  • Philip DeFrancoAs overly-popular YouTube figures go, this guy is better than most. In this clip, he make fun of his long-windedness using that Radiohead cover from “The Social Network” trailer. He made $181,706. source

29 Aug 2010 21:10

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Tech: Did YouTube break its featured videos formula for some reason?

  • Half of the top eight videos are videos that have something to do with a single YouTube celebrity – Shane Dawson. Great if you’re a fan of Shane Dawson, awful if you’re just about anyone else. Why is this? Well, YouTube changed its formula recently, so now it’s not done by hand. This makes no sense. Before, it encouraged the discovery of new videos. Now, we get Shaytards. And Fail Blog. And Shane Dawson. All of which, in our opinion, completely suck and aren’t nearly as good as that random stuff that used to bubble up. In other words, established entities win over actual viral content. Way to not understand your user base, guys. We know you’re owned by Google, YouTube, but get your humans back. source
 

29 Aug 2010 11:27

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Tech: YouTube marks Hurricane Katrina’s fifth anniversary perfectly

  • Today is the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina’s landfall. Many sites have been covering this anniversary of the tragedy in their own ways, but our favorite thus far is YouTube’s treatment of the disaster. This is the first major event that happened on their watch, and the videos here reflect a tragedy that is very much of this generation. It even created a poorly-timed meme. Great job putting this together, guys. source

15 Aug 2010 23:11

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Tech: Embracing the future: A quick note on our YouTube embeds

  • As you may or may not know, YouTube’s embeds have traditionally used Flash. It’s a big, clunky beast that isn’t really made for the future. It’s not particularly sleek. But, fortunately, Google has a plan for all that. A few weeks ago, they launched these new YouTube embeds that can automatically adapt to the browser, whether it supports HTML5 or Flash. Plus, it’s an iFrame format (and way cleaner than the old style), so, it loads independently of the page. We’re trying them out for now. Please let us know what you think. source

02 Jul 2010 21:28

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Culture: The Muppets – and Swedish Chef – were born for YouTube captions

  • This is a truly innovative use of YouTube. Not only does it take advantage of the medium in a way that understands the element of surprise, it’s funny, and it’s especially funny because of the way it uses captions. Somehow, the Muppets Studio is getting even better at using YouTube.