We wanted to provide you with an update on YouTube's new video page, which we've been hard at work on for the last several months (you can read more about it here and here).  We're happy to let you know that today we're transitioning all YouTube videos to this new video page.  Here are some highlights:

• The channel banner placement will change.  Branding on the video page moves to a more prominently placed (albeit smaller) banner on top of the video. Please upload a new graphic, with the following dimensions: 25px (height) by max 170px (width is flexible up to this amount). Instructions on how to edit or change the banner are here. This banner will continue to link to your channel. Up until the time you update your banner, we will default to a text link that directs users to your channel.

• The "Subscribe" button will move to a more prominent location.  As you can see in this blog post, the "Subscribe" button will now be at the top of the page, to the right of your channel banner.  Now it will stand out even more, encouraging fans to subscribe to your channel and keep up with your latest content.  

• We're introducing a new "see more videos" pane.  This new "more videos" area on top of the video allows for seamless exploration of content from your channel.  Click on the arrow next to the number of uploads to access a grid displaying all of your channel's videos. This makes it easier for users to browse your whole library while watching one of your videos.

This makeover is one of the biggest redesigns in YouTube history, providing a cleaner, sleeker and more engaging platform for you, your content, and your audience.


Posted by Erik Brown, YouTube Partnerships

(Cross-posted to the Inside AdWords blog)

Imagine you’re a travel company, and you’re trying to excite users during the holiday season about deals to tropical Caribbean destinations. Users may come to your website, browse the offers and think about booking a trip, but decide that the deal is still not cheap enough. Then, they continue to browse the web. If you later decide to offer discounted deals to the Carribean, how do you reach these users who have already expressed interest in travelling there?

To help you do this, this week we're rolling out a new feature called remarketing. Any AdWords advertiser can use remarketing to reach users as they’re browsing the web on sites within the Google Content Network. Remarketing is a simple way to connect with users, based on their past interactions with your website.

We opened a trial of remarketing last March as part of our interest-based advertising beta. We’ve received a tremendous response from the hundreds of advertisers who’ve been using it in recent months, across all industries - including automotive, retail, local and finance. We’ve seen that remarketing has worked well for many different kinds of advertisers - whether they’re looking to boost brand awareness, or drive clicks and sales, and whether they use display or text ads. For example, if you’re a search advertiser, you can use remarketing to create an integrated campaign strategy. After driving traffic to your site with search ads, you can then remarket to those users who reach your site by showing them tailored ads on sites throughout the Google Content Network.

You can easily set up and create a remarketing campaign through the new “Audiences” tab in AdWords. A remarketing campaign allows you to take advantage of the same features and reports you can use today in AdWords - it’s just a new way to reach the best audience for your ad.


Here’s an example of how it works. Let’s say you’re a basketball team with tickets that you want to sell. You can put a piece of code on the tickets page of your website, which will let you later show relevant ticket ads (such as last minute discounts) to everyone who has visited that page, as they subsequently browse sites in the Google Content Network. In addition to your own site, you can also remarket to users who visited your YouTube brand channel or clicked your YouTube homepage ad.

You can also run a number of remarketing campaigns at the same time. For example, you could offer discount game tickets to users who’ve previously visited your tickets page, advertise VIP hospitality packages to users who clicked on your “How to get to the arena” page, and advertise a sale on team merchandise to users who previously visited your YouTube brand channel.

Remarketing is a great way for businesses to reach users who are likely to be highly receptive to their ads and special offers. It helps advertisers and websites get higher returns. For example, Intercontinental Hotels Group has used remarketing to reach potential customers who have visited one of their hotel websites:

Ad by InterContinental Hotels Group using remarketing to offer incentive to users

It also means more relevant and useful ads for users, and more opportunities for your customers to receive special offers and discounts that may be of interest to them. As we announced when we launched our beta of interest based advertising, we want to put users in control of the ads they see, so anyone can opt-out of remarketing by using the Ads Preferences Manager. Our remarketing product complies with industry standards developed by self-regulatory groups such as the NAI and IAB and IAB UK.

To get started with a remarketing campaign, check out the information we’ve put together.

Posted by Aitan Weinberg, Product Manager

One of our goals is to democratize access to display advertising and make it accessible and open -- like search advertising -- so new advertisers can participate easily. We launched Display Ad Builder in 2008 to help businesses easily set up and run display ad campaigns. Display Ad Builder is a self-service tool within AdWords that helps advertisers choose from dozens of professionally designed templates, and then run ads across the 1 million sites that make up the Google Content Network -- including YouTube -- in a matter of minutes. Over 20,000 advertisers have used Display Ad Builder to create display ads quickly and simply, and over 80% them had never run a display ad campaign before.

Since we launched Display Ad Builder, we’ve added more templates and fonts to help advertisers design display ads quickly. Today, we're announcing another new feature in Display Ad Builder that lets advertisers use simple templates to create InVideo overlays and companion ads on YouTube.

An InVideo ad is an animated overlay that appears at the bottom part of a video that a user is watching. It’s been one of the most effective ad formats on YouTube. With people watching over 1 billion videos a day on the site, overlays are one of the easiest ways to get your ad directly in front of a huge audience.

But building overlays has always been difficult for small advertisers, who often don’t have access to the resources needed to create these animated ads. That’s where Display Ad Builder in AdWords comes in.


Now, any advertiser can use Display Ad Builder to turn their image ads into overlays and run a campaign on YouTube in minutes. Depending on the type of campaign an advertiser wants to run, overlays can be bought on a CPC (Cost Per Click) or CPM (Cost Per Thousand Impressions) basis, and can be matched to YouTube videos based on numerous criteria (like demographics or content categories), or even on a video by video level.

With this new format, Display Ad Builder will enable more advertisers to run display advertising campaigns on YouTube. For example, if you’re a small business that sells beauty products, you can quickly use a template in Display Ad Builder in AdWords to create an overlay ad and then run it on popular fashion and beauty videos.

If you’re interested in creating your own InVideo ad, or any other type of display ad, click here to get started.

Posted by Christian Oestlien, Product Manager

We continue to roll out the YouTube Partner Program (YPP) around the world and today added Mexico to the list. We're recognizing our most popular and prolific Mexican users, like Huevo Cartoons, Polo Polo and Bungolio, for their creativity on the platform by helping them turn their YouTube presence into a money-making venture and hopefully also a full-time job.

As you may already know, YPP allows participating users to choose which of their videos they want to generate revenue on YouTube. We then place ads beside those videos and our partners receive a portion of the money generated from these ads. So if you are in Mexico (or any of the other dozen YPP countries), regularly upload videos that are viewed by thousands of YouTube users, and consistently comply with the YouTube Terms of Use, then apply now, por favor.

What if you are a Mexican videographer who's created a popular video but aren't yet able to qualify for full partnership in YPP? The Individual Video Partnerships program allows people to monetize single videos -- "Ataque de Pánico!," "Acapulco Dreamers" and "Quiero ir al Antro" are all examples of this program at work. This means that if you are in Mexico (or Spain, where we also just launched IVP) and you receive an invitation from us to run ads next to one of your videos, we hope you'll accept.

We'll expand YPP to more countries soon, but in the meantime, "¡Bienvenidos, Mexico!"

Posted by Adrián Fernández, Business Development, Mexico

Recently we debuted an Ideas Page for YouTube, where users from around the globe could contribute ideas and feedback to make YouTube better. It was a success, receiving almost 3,000 ideas and more than 300,000 votes. We even launched a few features that directly addressed some of the requests -- namely, an HTML5 Beta (there were many HTML5 advocates who participated) and a sneak peek of our new cleaner video page (some desired a "less cluttered" YouTube).

Today, we are creating a similar Ideas Page specific to our YouTube Partners, where you can post ideas about how we can improve the site and your experience as partners, and see what other people are suggesting, too. If you like their suggestion, vote for it!

Whether it's an idea for a brand new feature, a small tweak that would simplify your work flow or just feedback about our Partner Program, we'd love to hear it. While we aren't able to guarantee that all ideas will be implemented, we can promise that we'll take the top ideas (as voted by you) and bring them to the YouTube Partner Team for review.

This series will be closed to new submissions and votes on April 12, so be sure to submit your ideas soon. We look forward to hearing from you!

Posted by Filipe Lima, Strategist, Europe, Middle East & Africa

Mobile phones are rapidly becoming essential tools for surfing the web, connecting with friends, and sharing and watching video online, and we're seeing these effects at YouTube. The YouTube mobile site is more popular than ever: site traffic grew by over 160% in 2009, and now millions of people all over the world are streaming tens of millions of videos every day on their mobile phones. The mobile space moves fast, so we've been working hard to roll out new features and functionality quickly, especially as more and more people adopt YouTube-capable phones.

The increased usage of high-end devices like the iPhone and Android is also making mobile advertising easier and more effective for advertisers. So today, we're launching ads on the home, search, and browse pages of the American and Japanese YouTube mobile websites (m.youtube.com from your mobile browser). This is a great way for advertisers to reach YouTube viewers across multiple platforms. In fact, at launch YouTube will immediately provide one of the largest audiences for a mobile ad campaign anywhere on the mobile web. And because YouTube mobile attracts early adopters, the site can deliver to advertisers a coveted demographic of tech savvy trendsetters. We've already seen some early campaigns run on YouTube's mobile site by advertisers like Sony (for the DVD release of "District 9") and Kia, both of whom were able to easily reach their target audience, no matter where they were looking for video.


Our first tests of YouTube mobile ads -- with brands ranging from L'Oreal to Land Rover -- showed strong results related to click-throughs, user experience, and brand awareness, and we've learned a lot in the months since then. As a result, ads on the YouTube mobile website will be banner ads sold on a full-day basis (like with the YouTube homepage on the web), making a mobile buy an easy and valuable addition to any YouTube campaign. For example, today Mazda is running a homepage ad on YouTube.com, and extended their campaign to run ads on our mobile site as well.

If you're interested in learning more, reach out to your YouTube or Google sales rep, or visit youtube.com/advertise.

Posted by Taylor Cascino, Strategic Partner Development Manager

Tens of millions of people in the U.S. experience some kind of hearing impairment and recent studies have predicted that over 700 million people worldwide will suffer from hearing impairment by 2015. To address a clear need, the broadcast industry began running captions on regular video programming in the early 1970s. Today, closed captions on video are more prevalent than ever. But generating captions today can be a time-consuming and complicated process.

Making video easily accessible is something we're working hard to address at YouTube. One of the first steps we took was the development of a caption feature in 2008. In November of last year we released auto-captioning for a small, select group of partners. Auto-captioning combines some of the speech-to-text algorithms found in Google's Voice Search to automatically generate video captions when requested by a viewer. The video owner can also download the auto-generated captions, improve them, and upload the new version. Viewers can even choose an option to translate those captions into any one of 50 different languages -- all in just a couple of clicks.

Today, we are opening up auto-captions to all YouTube users. There will even be a "request processing" button for un-captioned videos that any video owner can click on if they want to speed up the availability of auto-captions. It will take some time to process all the available video, so here are some things to keep in mind:

• While we plan to broaden the feature to include more languages in the months to come, currently, auto-captioning is only for videos where English is spoken.
• Just like any speech recognition application, auto-captions require a clearly spoken audio track. Videos with background noise or a muffled voice can't be auto-captioned. President Obama's speech on the recent Chilean Earthquake is a good example of the kind of audio that works for auto-captions.
• Auto-captions aren't perfect and just like any other transcription, the owner of the video needs to check to make sure they're accurate. In other cases, the audio file may not be good enough to generate auto-captions. But please be patient -- our speech recognition technology gets better every day.
• Auto-captions should be available to everyone who's interested in using them. We're also working to provide auto-captions for all past user uploads that fit the above mentioned requirements. If you're having trouble enabling them for your video, please visit our Help Center: this article is for uploaders and this article is for viewers.

For content owners, the power of auto-captioning is significant. With just a few quick clicks your videos can be accessed by a whole new global audience. And captions can make is easier for users to discover content on YouTube.

Twenty hours of video is uploaded to YouTube every minute. Making some of these videos more accessible to people who have hearing disabilities or who speak different languages, not only represents a significant advancement in the democratization of information, it can also help foster greater collaboration and understanding.



Posted by Hiroto Tokusei, Product Manager

A result of the video page redesign is that branding on the page moves to a more prominently placed (albeit smaller) banner on top of the video. In other words, aside from your video, your branding and subscribe button are now the most visible elements on the page, catching the eye of anyone who views your videos.

As we roll out the redesigned page more widely, we wanted to make sure you knew how to change your banner. We will re-size the existing banner to fit into the space provided, but we think it's a good idea to double-check how it looks and upload a new one if necessary. Instructions are below and also in this Help Center article.

1. Sign into your Account and go to your channel page.
2. Click the "Branding Options" button.
3. Click the "Video Page Branding" button.
4. You'll see an option to upload your "Video page banner," and a new option to upload an additional video page banner (specifically for the redesigned video page).
5. Upload your new banner for the redesigned page.
6. Click "Save Changes." Your new banner will now appear on the redesigned page above the video.

Recommended sizing:

• Height: 25px
• Width, flexible but max. of 170px in width

We hope this helps, but certainly let your partner manager know if you're having any problems or leave a comment in the partner forum.

Posted by Shiva Rajaraman, Product Manager

To accompany the official Nexus One launch back on January 5, we also launched a custom designed YouTube brand channel. We decided to build a brand channel on YouTube because they allow for a fun, interactive and engaging hub for a wide range of content -- in this case, educational and partner-created videos as well as custom Nexus One content. Since the launch, our Nexus One YouTube channel has allowed us to maximize consumer engagement by hosting fresh, new content, while also allowing us the flexibility to update the gadget to highlight the content we want to promote. As the launch was focused around online activities, our channel has become the gateway to an array of branded video content, capturing organic YouTube search traffic and succesfully directing engaged consumers to the main Nexus One website -- google.com/phone.


Initially, the channel launched with ten "How To" videos, two set-up videos and one launch video. Following the launch, the first new section of the channel to launch was "Theatre," which showcases all the YouTube partner Nexus One videos -- including Patrick Boivin's viral unboxing, and videos from Mike Relm, MysteryGuitarMan and Chef John. We've continued to update this section as partner videos go live, allowing us to maintain engagement with viewers.

Patrick Boivin's viral unboxing

Later on we unveiled yet another section -- "The Story." This is a series of documentary videos capturing behind the scenes footage of the making of Nexus One, which had a timed release, with a new video launched everyday for five days. Again, this enabled us to maintain maximum engagement with viewers who were eager to come back and see the next episode. The videos made use of YouTube annotations and a custom designed endcard menu, to lead people to the "Next Episode" or the Nexus One site. These linking annotations are particularly powerful when viewers watch the videos outside of YouTube, as they are able to drive viewers back to the channel.

Not only did we want to make sure that we kept people interested once they got to the channel, but we also wanted to make it as easy as possible for viewers to share the content -- which we addressed by adding critical sharing links to each video watch page, and the overall channel.


We added captions to all video content on the channel, so the video can be viewed in over 50 languages. Customers can find a link to the YouTube channel from the homepage of the Nexus One site. YouTube has been and will continue to be a central hub for the Nexus One campaign, and a critical component of our campaign strategy. The creative custom channel provides an interactive brand experience, through which we have been able to engage different types of audiences with the content it hosts.

Posted by Anna de Paula Hanika, Product Marketing Manager, Nexus One

[Cross-posted to the Google TV Ads Blog]

Platforms like Google TV Ads and YouTube are making it easier for businesses of all sizes to connect with consumers via video. But for many businesses, creating an ad can be an expensive hurdle to advertising on national television, radio, and online. That's why we built the Ad Creation Marketplace (ACM), a tool that connects businesses with talented production specialists who can produce a professional TV, online video or audio ad across a range of budgets starting as low as $250.

Creating high quality ads has never been easier or more affordable. While the ACM has been available for some time through Google AdWords, we've completely redesigned it to make it easier for you to browse sample work and connect with specialists who best fit your needs.


To get started, visit the ACM and specify your budget range and ad category using the filters at the top. Then browse through sample videos created by ACM vendors in the past which will give you a sense of the style and price you can expect from each vendor.

After you've found the specialist(s) you like, click the "Contact vendor" button to start a conversation and discuss terms and project details. Make sure to tell the vendor up front that you're new to TV Ads and that you want to use the Google promotional credit. Once the vendor has completed your ad, you will receive an email with the finished ad. In just a few clicks, you can put this ad on television or online through Google TV Ads and other YouTube ad formats like Promoted Videos.

To celebrate the launch of the new ACM, Google TV Ads is offering a limited time discount on any ad created through the ACM that has an initial invoice price of $300 or more. That means you can create a video ad for as little as $100! (Here are the promotion terms and conditions.)

We hope you'll find the Ads Creation Marketplace a useful tool that makes it easier for your business to produce professional quality video ads.

Posted by David Wurtz, Product Manager, Google TV Ads

Here are some upcoming opportunities for our Spotlight Videos module (if you don't see it on your homepage, add it here!) and @youtube Twitter love. Spotlights run a few times per week and showcase interesting and timely videos from our community and partners, all organized around an event or theme. Tag any appropriate and relevant video with the tags below to be considered for these spotlights. Please note that themes and dates are subject to change and spotlights may be added or dropped without notice.

3/7 -- Oscars: parodies, predictions, 2010 event footage from news and entertainment partners (tag: ytoscars)
3/17 -- St Patrick's Day: we're looking for any and all intriguing content related to the holiday (tag: ytstpatty)
Calling all curators! Partners like BoingBoing, alphacat and TEDTalksDirector recently curated our homepage, usually around a holiday or theme -- for example, alphacat picked his favorite videos for Black History Month and TED got 2010 Prize Winner Jamie Oliver to select his favorite TED Talks. We get a kick out of showcasing people who have a knack for finding hidden gems or who like to express their tastes and personality through video curation.
Calling all video Twitter-ers! We love to help spread interesting, timely YouTube videos and news. So if you're Tweeting a YouTube video, be sure to include @youtube so we can see your Tweet -- and ReTweet, if appropriate, to help you amplify your video and message. See what this looks like: CBSEveningNews, NYTimes and BarackObama.

If you're interested in being a curator or have ideas for a theme we haven't mentioned, please send an email to mia@youtube.com (until we can get this blog's comments fixed!).

Posted by Mia Quagliarello, Product Marketing Manager, Editorial/Community