YouTube brings in a new Net nanny
YouTube has managed to stay relatively family friendly, but it’s no trouble finding a bad neighborhood or two. And so we have Safety Mode, just rolled out to users.
Most nanny filters turn out lame — blocking things like the name “Dick.” (Yep, saw that one ****’d elsewhere today.) YouTube passed the Dick test, so perhaps this censor system has some common sense.
“While no filter is 100% perfect, Safety Mode is another step in our ongoing desire to give you greater control over the content you see on the site,” the YouTube blog explained.
Let’s give it a test:
As the demo shows, using “naked” as a search term returns nothing but a red text notice (top right) that says results were deleted because of the protective feature. Searching for “violence” returns a filtered result, but presumably catching the rough stuff.
Our own Safety Mode-enabled search for “pussy” returned no results, but there were plenty of PG-13 Pussycat Dolls videos. “Asshole” produced an empty page. Going for the less obvious, “Felch” delivered the nasty without resistance. The video “Thanksgiving Felch” was an R-rated hoot; another video began with an adults-only warning. Better hope the kids keep to the classic four-letter words.
The Safety Mode opt-in is located bottom left of any YouTube page. To get the protection, just hit the link and then select a radio button. OK to go back in forth in a session.
If you’d like to leave Safety Mode on for future users with impressionable minds, log out and it can’t be changed on the browser until you log back in.
Comments with nasty language will have the specific words blocked out. Hopefully not Dick.
Watch and win: YouTube’s cool redesign
YouTube has gone public with a redesign of its viewing page, a change that puts the focus back on the video being displayed, instead of a lot of ancillary crap.
The re-do includes a dump of the useless 5-star rating system. Instead, it’s thumbs-up, thumbs-down.
Not many people like redesigns at first, but this one should be a crowd pleaser from day 1. The overall look and feel are cleaner, clutter cut as more information is collapsed, including the embed and URL strings for cut and paste.
Check out the YouTube resign — you can revert to the old-school version at the top of any page. Unfortunately, users can’t toggle back and forth yet, or set preferences.
The YouTube blog has this to say about the redesign:
“YouTube is about creating and watching the world’s biggest video collection; therefore, the design should make the video the star. To that end, the new look is more subdued, stripped down and simple than before. … We thought a lot about practicality here, choosing to expose only the most commonly used actions and language for you.”
The top right of the page is key here. It has less going on, with the ugly gray screen banished. There are fewer images in the space, meaning it doesn’t distract from the video, which is now unquestionably the dominant element on the page. (Sometimes it was hard to tell with so much crap on the right.)
The old top-right box is replaced by a collapsible search-results feature, more focused than the traditional Related Videos section, which remains lower right, but now unlabeled. There may or may not be an ad below between the two. Also, the Related Videos’ 1990s-style scroll is gone.
Response videos take a step back, going to a less prominent vertical format with smaller images — again, less distraction.
Facebook and Twitter get space below the video window, in the button bar that includes sharing, rating, saving and flagging options.
Searching while watching a video triggers another improvement. Instead of simply cutting off your current video, a smaller version of the window appears on the resulting page, slid to the far left. The search results are on the right — and you can return to the original watch page by a simple link.
Meanwhile, YouTube has come out with an experimental version of an HTML5-supported player and a Pandora-like music feature called Disco.
YouTube thinking big, in 1080p
We’re days away from 1080p HD displayed at full resolution on YouTube.
The amateur video giant has been supporting 720p “high def” for a while now, and while uploaders could get a 1080p video onto the servers, display rubbed up against that maximum output. No more, apparently.
YouTube’s HD mode will now offer 720p and 1080p, depending on the resolution of the source video file. (1080p is what you get from a Blu-ray.)
YouTube is even going back to re-encode 1080p files already uploaded to get them into proper resolution.
“For viewers with big monitors and a fast computer, try switching to 1080p to get the most out of the fullscreen experience,” a YouTube engineer suggested on the official YouTube blog. OK here, we go. (Don’t waste your time trying this on your iPod, which doesn’t do 720.)
A sample video of Pennie the Dog’s nose is offered as a 1080p preview. Kind of underwhelming, but get a load of this 1080p high definition test of some square in Maine put up by a consumer. Big and beautiful. To get the full 1080p (apparently), add this to the end of the URL string: &fmt=37
Terrific, but … here are the potential downsides: Eternal upload times (even at the 11-minute limit), constant buffering during viewing due to server slowness, and audio playback that’s the pits compared to the video. Everyone banging on the YouTube servers could share in the HD strain.
“How about making it so that videos load fast enough on NORMAL QUALITY first?” one crank commented on YouTube’s blog posting announcing the news.
YouTube is making the inevitable move to full 1080p support now, probably figuring enough people have full-HD home video cameras to justify the expense and hassle. The whole area of online video is one big Beta anyway — let’s enjoy the bumpy ride.
Now about that crappy audio …
YouTube loses top content deal maker
YouTube’s chief of content partnerships, Jordan Hoffner, is leaving after three years on the job. Hoffner helped YouTube get into the premium content game in some fashion, making deals with Disney/ABC and Time Warner, and setting up an internal movie “channel.”
Hoffner is off to Barry Diller’s new multimedia production unit at IAC, joining Ben Silverman. Chris Maxcy, who handled music partnerships, steps up to take Hoffner’s place.
Hoffner starts off with some serious traction: YouTube’s live (and archived) global webcast of U2’s Rose Bowl gig has sent out more than 10 million streams since Oct. 25. It’s a beautifully done concert presentation with solid sound and imaginative visuals. YouTube also just wooed back Warner Music artists .
The DIY video giant also has been in content talks with majors Warner Bros. and Sony, as well as MGM and Lionsgate. YouTube recently created a “Shows” section for professional video. YouTube also made baby-step deals for short-form content and trailers from DIsney/ABC and Time Warner.
Warner Music artists dance back to YouTube
Warner Music videos are headed back to YouTube, but it’s going to cost Google.
Executives at the third-biggest music company said they would receive “a vast majority” of any ad revenues generated by videos from Warner artists. That includes Coldplay, Madonna, Green Day and a zillion catalog artists such as the Monkees, Joni Mitchell and the B-52s.
The Warner-Google money dispute over YouTube led to a rude and sudden cutoff of Warner videos last December. (Google owns YouTube.) The online video giant now has all the music majors in line — Warner, Sony, Universal and EMI. Warner pulled its troops out of LastFM as well, back in June. That annoying dispute continues.
WMG chieftain Edgar Bronfman Jr. has criticized online entertainment providers for being “slow to create monetization tools.”
Of the new deal with Warner, Chris Maxcy, head of Music partnerships at YouTube, told analysts and reporters: “It sets us up for a sustainable partnership going forward by sharing revenues, where the vast majority of the revenues will be going to Warner Music associated with advertising when consumers watch or listen to the content on YouTube.”
Translation: Much was surrendered but much was gained.
