This Month in YouTube: July 2009

Your cheat sheet for everything you need to know about YouTube this month...

1. JK Wedding Entrance Dance Video
Even if you didn't escape from your desk much in the last 30 days, we know you know this video -- this unconventional stroll down the aisle was the #1 Most Viewed, Discussed and Favorited video of the month. Moreover, it sent sales of its soundtrack, Chris Brown's "Forever," soaring despite the fact that the song was more than a year old. Don't miss the Biz Blog's Case Study on how the song's rights holders monetized the video.

2. 3D Video on YouTube
3D video is exploding on YouTube: not only are users experimenting with it and coming up with real works of art and entertainment, but we also made viewing 3D videos a lot easier. As this blog post explains, tagging a video with "yt3d:enable=true" adds a pulldown menu to the video's watch page to facilitate viewing options.

3. Video Quality Goes Up, Up, Up
Earlier this year, CNET crowned YouTube as the best site for HD, and from our stats we can see users are sending us more: For every one thousand uploads in June, twice as many are from HD sources compared to samples of the same size in December, and this rate is increasing. Read this blog post for more information.

4. "United Breaks Guitars"
This viral video comes from United passenger Dave Carroll whose guitar was badly damaged by the airline during a trip from Nova Scotia to Nebraska. After months of frustration trying to get reimbursed for the incident, Carroll wrote this catchy, country ditty, which has been seen by over 4 million people and captured the attention of the airline, who finally offered some compensation for the guitar.

5. User Gets Her Own Makeup Line at Sephora
Lauren Luke, aka panacea81, has built up a huge following on YouTube by creating beauty tutorials that approximate celebrity looks and other cool (and basic) effects. Her hard work -- 198 videos in two years, 253K subscribers -- has been rewarded with her own makeup line at Sephora. It's hard not to feel emotional for her as she visits her endcap for the first time at a Sephora store in Times Square. Experience the thrill with Luke in this video.

Posted by Mia Quagliarello, Community Manager