What *else* went down on the site, aside from people searching for "Tiger Woods"?

1. YouTube Direct: Now media orgs can easily rebroadcast UGC clips
As YouTube has become a global platform for sharing the news, media organizations have been looking for a good way to connect directly with citizen reporters on our site so they can broadcast this footage and bring it to a larger audience. Enter YouTube Direct, a new tool that allows media companies to request, review and rebroadcast YouTube clips directly from YouTube users. Built from our APIs, this open-source application lets media orgs enable customized versions of YouTube's upload platform on their own websites. Read more about it here.

2. 1080p launches
YouTube's HD mode now supports viewing videos in 720p or 1080p, depending on the resolution of the original source, up from our maximum output of 720p. For viewers with big monitors and a fast computer, try switching to 1080p to get the most out of the fullscreen experience. Compare the difference in resolution in this blog announcement.

3. Iraqi government comes to YouTube
On November 25, the Iraqi government launched a YouTube channel at youtube.com/iraqigov, joining other governments, heads of state, and leaders from around the world, including the Pope, the Royal Family, and Queen Rania, and presidents from the United States, France, South Korea and Estonia. Learn more in this video from Iraq's Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.

4. Auto-Tune it!
Auto-Tune is a proprietary voice processor that makes anyone sound like a smooth hip-hopper (T-Pain, to be exact) and it's become a huge phenomenon on YouTube. For the scoop on how it came to be, ROCKETBOOM recruited "Weird Al" Yankovic to provide this entertaining history of the meme. Speaking of which: subscribe to the Gregory Brother's "Auto-Tune the News" channel, a classic of the genre.

5. Gonzo et al. go gangbusters
Muppets + Queen = Viral hit. Enjoy the video already consumed 9 million times: presenting..."The Muppets: Bohemian Rhapsody."



Posted by Mia Quagliarello, Community Manager

Last week the world watched in wonder as Jill Peterson and Kevin Heinz's wedding party transformed a familiar and predictable tradition into something spontaneous and just flat-out fun. The video, set to R&B star Chris Brown's hypnotic dance jam "Forever," became an overnight sensation, accumulating more than 10 million views on YouTube in less than one week. But as with all great YouTube videos, there's more to this story than simple view counts.

At YouTube, we have sophisticated content management tools in place to help rights holders control their content on our site. The rights holders for "Forever" used these tools to claim and monetize the song, as well as to start running Click-to-Buy links over the video, giving viewers the opportunity to purchase the music track on Amazon and iTunes. As a result, the rights holders were able to capitalize on the massive wave of popularity generated by "JK Wedding Entrance Dance" — in the last week, searches for "Chris Brown Forever" on YouTube have skyrocketed, making it one of the most popular queries on the site:

This traffic is also very engaged — the click-through rate (CTR) on the "JK Wedding Entrance" video is 2x the average of other Click-to-Buy overlays on the site. And this newfound interest in downloading "Forever" goes beyond the viral video itself: "JK Wedding Entrance" also appears to have influenced the official "Forever" music video, which saw its Click-to-Buy CTR increase by 2.5x in the last week.

So, what does all of this mean? Despite compelling data and studies around consumer purchasing habits, many still question the promotional and bottom-line business value sites like YouTube provide artists. But in the last week, over a year after its release, Chris Brown's "Forever" has again rocketed up the charts, reaching as high as #4 on the iTunes singles chart and #3 on Amazon's best selling MP3 list. We've seen similar successes in the past with partners like Monty Python.

One of our main goals at YouTube is to help content creators effectively make money from the distribution of their content online. That they can do so in a way that brings artists and our community together to create fun, spontaneous and inspiring works, is one of the best and most exciting things about YouTube.

Posted by Chris LaRosa, Technical Account Manager, and Ali Sandler, Music Partner Manager