YouTube launched in 2005 as a video sharing platform, and was acquired by Google (now Alphabet) in 2006. It has built an entire community of creators that run channels dedicated to topics like gaming, tech reviews, and beauty. It also houses news videos and entertainment such as music videos, movie trailers, and clips from late-night TV shows.
YouTube’s rapid growth has not been without problems. YouTubers typically make money from ads that run in front of their videos, but if they break the platform’s rules, their channels and videos can be demonetized. Executives and moderators have worked to combat harassment, misinformation, terrorist propaganda, hate content, and other abuse.
The Verge runs two YouTube channels, The Verge and Verge Science.
And yet, Matty Benedetto has amassed millions of subscribers with his Unnecessary Inventions. Tune into my new video series, Full Frame: Creators, where I spend a day with a creator to see how they have found success on the internet.
Hank Green is mad about the price of YouTube Premium, because it’s more expensive than Premium is everywhere else. The reason why is all about buttons and links and app store commissions, and you definitely don’t need Rocket Money to solve this problem, but Green is right about the bigger point here.
The lesson, as always: listen to Hank Green.
While the issue seems fixed today, Reddit users reported that and other problems, like videos that couldn’t be unmuted, in a thread spotted by 9to5Google. The solution was apparently disabling ad blockers. We saw the same behavior at The Verge.
It’s not clear if this was related to YouTube’s ongoing crackdown on ad blockers, or problems with the ad blockers themselves.
The app’s “Now Playing” screen has a gradient background now, as 9to5Google spotted. Also, the three tabs at the bottom aren’t on a visually separate bar anymore, though you can still swipe up to reveal them.
If you don’t see it at first, try swiping the app closed from the app switcher and relaunching — worked for me.
Remember that 15-year-old Tolkien fan movie that Warner Bros. pulled from YouTube last week for sharing the same name as its upcoming Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum title? Well, it’s back!
Adrian Webster, who played Aragorn in the fan-made film, told IGN:
“Perhaps it was an automated copyright block due to the same title. It’s not quite clear. Anyway, we’re happy it’s back online again just now.”
Some YouTube Premium subscribers can now jump to the most-watched part of a video, only in the YouTube app, by double-tapping the right side of the screen (which normally skips ahead 10 seconds), then tapping a “Jump ahead” button that appears, according to 9to5Google.
To see if you have the feature and enable it, go to Settings > Try experimental new features.
Disney Plus has never hosted “Dad Baby” — likely because it depicts Bluey’s dad Bandit pretending to give birth to his daughter Bingo — but the entire episode is now available to watch online via the official Bluey YouTube channel.
Despite Dad Baby’s cult status, it’s actually one of several episodes of the Australian children’s TV show hit with censorship.
You can now preview thousands of audiobooks from the Google Play Books channel on YouTube — in addition to the previews already available in the Play Store. Google has also expanded its selection of free nonfiction ebooks for kids.
The split screen feature that pulls in up to four channels at once launched on smart TVs last year, and iOS last month — now it’s Android’s turn. Google spokesperson Allison Toh confirmed to The Verge that the launch started today, and said it’ll roll out to all Android phones and tablets over the next few weeks.
We warned you about pause ads nearly six years ago, and again when YouTube started trialing them last May. Now, Google’s Philipp Schindler says the results of that trial is that advertisers unsurprisingly love them!
They are driving strong results and “commanding premium pricing from advertisers,” he said on today’s earnings call. No news about a wider rollout, but...
According to the WSJ, Amazon, YouTube, and Peacock are all in the mix alongside incumbents Warner and Disney, with the possibility of snagging global streaming rights for some games.
When these deals kick in after 2024-2025, they’ll exist alongside the three-headed effort from Disney, Fox, and WBD, standalone ESPN, Netflix and the WWE, the NBA’s FAST channel and who knows what else.
YouTube’s livestream from the music festival is available once again, as it will be through 2026 at least. This year it includes NFL-style multiview in YouTube’s TV apps so you can keep an eye on more than one broadcast.
The schedule is available here, and hopefully, this weekend, everyone will know how to use their equipment properly.
First spotted by 9to5Google, YouTube Music’s Activity feed will appear under the bell icon that most users associate with notifications.
It’s widely rolling out today on both Android and iOS via a server-side update.
In an interview with Bloomberg, YouTube CEO Neal Mohan doesn’t confirm whether OpenAI used YouTube videos to train its text-to-video AI model — but he says it would be a “clear violation” of the platform’s policies if it did:
When a creator uploads their hard work to our platform, they have certain expectations. One of those expectations is that the terms of service is going to be abided by. It does not allow for things like transcripts or video bits to be downloaded.
The company is now autogenerating key moments in “any video” viewed on televisions, says YouTube CEO Neal Mohan, who shared a three-hour example.
In addition to announcing a June 10th date for WWDC 2024, Apple also revealed an official YouTube channel that currently houses the sessions from WWDC 2023.
Apple previously only made videos from WWDC available from its developer website and app, but bringing them to YouTube should make them easier to find.
Product designer Scott Yu-Jan had the idea to marry an iPad Mini to a Mac Studio inside a 3D-printed approximation of an original Macintosh. It’s not just a fun gimmick — this thing looks delightfully practical, too.
Earlier this month, a Fortune story reported that one of X’s latest moves since Twitter entered its Musk era involves whipping up a video app for smart TVs, with one source calling it “identical” to YouTube’s own.
Assuming this video posted by app researcher Nima Owji is what Fortune’s source saw... yeah, I’d reckon there’s some resemblance.
James Channel altered an original copy of NES Open Tournament Golf so that it can both be played on a Nintendo Entertainment and used as a fully-functioning Nintendo Entertainment System.
Or it can play itself, like some sort of Mariourobouros.
Police investigating suspected Bitcoin money laundering wanted info on viewers of certain tutorial videos viewed over 30,000 times, Forbes reported.
The court orders show the government telling Google to provide the names, addresses, telephone numbers and user activity for all Google account users who accessed the YouTube videos between January 1 and January 8, 2023. The government also wanted the IP addresses of non-Google account owners who viewed the videos.
The documents reportedly don’t reveal whether Google gave over the information.
