YouTube Highlights 3/3/2011

This is the latest in our series of YouTube highlights. Every couple of weeks, we bring you regular updates on new product features, interesting programs to watch, and tips you can use to grow your audience on YouTube. Just look for the label “YouTube Highlights” and subscribe to the series. – Ed.

In past weeks, we’ve featured two more YouTube interviews with leaders through the World View program and seen more footage come in from across the Middle East as unrest there continues.

David Cameron and John Boehner on YouTube
In YouTube World View’s second interview, YouTube and Al Jazeera English sat down with British Prime Minister David Cameron. Ten thousand people submitted questions, and in the interview, the Prime Minister shared his thoughts on what should be done in Libya, and talked about increased taxes for banks in the U.K. and Britain’s role in Afghanistan.

And as the budget debate rages on the U.S. Capitol Hill, we asked viewers from across the U.S. and around the world to submit questions to Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH). The final interview will be posted to YouTube on Friday, March 4.

We’ll have another interview in the coming weeks—check YouTube World View for more details soon.



Join us on YouTube for Carnaval in Brazil
An estimated 100 million people travel to Brazil each year to experience Carnaval, the iconic celebration on the streets of Salvador, Bahia. This year, you can join the festivities on the Carnaval YouTube channel via computer or mobile phone. Watch live feeds of Salvador’s multi-day street fest from Thursday, March 3 through Tuesday, March 8. If you’re lucky enough to be there in person, find out how to buy a pass to Google’s street-side camarote (cabin) at the celebration at www.youtube.com/carnaval.

February’s “On The Rise” winner
After tens of thousands of votes, D-trix from theDOMINICshow has been named February’s “On The Rise” contest winner. He beat out tornado chasers, graphic artists and pop stars for the honor. When D-trix isn’t spoofing Justin Bieber, he’s dancing or teaching people how to rap. Congratulations!

Making YouTube seven times faster
To help you better enjoy all the great content that’s uploaded to YouTube every minute, we recently increased speed for uploads and playback. Google’s cloud computing capabilities help us process videos in chunks on different machines—making our video-processing seven times faster than in 2008.

Ad Blitz winner
Super Bowl ads are always a big draw of the game. This year, we added Super Bowl spots to the Ad Blitz gallery so you could vote for your favorites. More than 2.7 million votes were cast, and 3.5 million views took place on mobile devices. This year’s winner, Chrysler, was featured on the YouTube masthead for the Saturday following the game.



This week’s trends on YouTube
Here are a few recent highlights from YouTube Trends:

• Britney Spears built up anticipation for her latest music video.

• Dramatic footage poured in from across the Middle East: Libya, Iran, Algeria and Yemen.

• A funny moment from "Family Feud" got "passed around."


We’ll have another update for you in a couple of weeks. Until then, visit us at the YouTube Blog.

Posted by Serena Satyasai, Marketing Manager, The YouTube Team

Earn additional revenue from AdSense for search

Online readers have a very short attention span. You might be able to get users to your content, but what if they can’t quickly find what they’re looking for? That’s why it’s important to make sure that the users who come to your site actually stay there.

The solution is AdSense for search. This free, easy to implement product lets you place a Google search box on your website. It provides an additional layer of interactivity for your users, while helping you generate additional earnings from ads on the customizable search results page.

Here are some of our favorite AdSense for search features:

Site search: Allow users to search directly within your site to find the information they’re looking for without leaving your site.

Vertical search: Allow your users to search across multiple sites you select, including related sites you think users might find relevant or a network of sites that you own.

Keywords: You can use keywords to make search results more relevant to your audience and your site content. For instance, if you own a website about Pilates, you can enter keywords such as “exercise,” “fitness,” “meditation,” and “pilates.” As a result, when a user searches for “equipment,” the ads that appear will be specifically related to Pilates, rather than to any other types of equipment.

Ad location: You can optimize the location of your ads on search result pages. We recommend placing ads at the top and along the right-hand side, as we’ve found that this layout increases visibility and revenue.

Are you ready to give AdSense for search a try? You can find all the information you’ll need to set up AdSense for search here, or watch the video below to learn more!

Posted by Miguel Romar - AdSense Optimization Specialist

Understanding your eCPM (effective cost per thousand impressions): Part 2 of 2

Two weeks ago, we shared a brief introduction to the basics of eCPM (aka, RPM), including how it’s calculated and what factors impact it. In the Part 1 video, AdSense optimization specialist Matthew Carpenter-Arevalo discusses key variables you can use to better understand eCPM performance, including CTR (clickthrough rate) and CPC (cost per click).

Today, we’ll go a couple steps further and discuss how user behavior impacts eCPM and show you tools that can help you better understand your users’ traffic patterns.

User behavior refers to how users interact with your site. Generally, there are two types of users:

• Return users who continually come back to your site and spend more time engaging with your content
• Unique users who are arriving at your site for the first time in search of specific information that your site may or may not have

It’s important to understand the make-up of your audience, because different types of users will interact in different ways with your website.

To track and analyze user behavior to help you make informed decisions about your site, we recommend integrating Google Analytics with your AdSense account, so you can see data at more specific levels and by regions. We also suggest setting up channels to understand how the ads across specific pages on your site are performing.

In Part 2 of this video series, Matthew explains how user behavior affects eCPM and provides helpful tools to further analyze your site’s traffic patterns. Take a look at the video below to learn more:

Thanks for following our two-part 'Understanding your eCPM' series. We hope you found the content useful, and that you now have a better understanding of the factors that influence your eCPM.

Posted by Meredith Blackwell - Inside AdSense team

Understanding your eCPM (effective cost per thousand impressions): Part 1 of 2

“What is eCPM? What affects my eCPM? What can I do to earn a higher eCPM?”

Effective cost per thousand impressions (eCPM) is the amount of revenue you can expect to earn from AdSense for every 1000 impressions shown on your site. Since eCPM helps you measure how well your ads are performing, we often hear questions from publishers about the factors that impact this metric and how it relates to their earnings. If you're using the new interface, you'll see that your reports show RPM (revenue per thousand impressions); RPM is just another term for eCPM, and it's calculated the same way, so we use these two terms interchangeably.

To help provide some clarity, we’re kicking off a two-part video series with more insights into how eCPM is calculated in order to help you maximize earnings. With the help of AdSense optimization specialist, Matthew Carpenter Arevalo, we’ll show you the factors that affect eCPM, how to track user behavior and traffic patterns, and what you can do to improve your website performance.

In the video below, Matthew will introduce you to the basics of how eCPM is calculated and explain how to analyze the causes behind any changes in your eCPM.

If you’d like to learn more about eCPMs visit our Help Center.

Stay tuned for Part 2 to learn what you can do to better understand and optimize your website’s eCPM.

Posted by Meredith Blackwell - Inside AdSense team

How to resize embedded video using GIMP

Update: For embedding Youtube video, you can do the resizing at Youtube.com itself by either ticking one of the 4 size option (560x340 640x835 835x505 1280x745) or by clicking CUSTOM and typing in your choice of width while letting Youtube automatically fill in the value for the height to keep the aspect ration constant (see screenshot below). However the method described in this post will still be useful if you want to resize other video embed codes or similar:

Method of resizing video embed codes while keeping aspect ration constant

Irfanview which I used as a convenient tool to help resize Youtube video wouldn't work with MAC. The alternative using calculation to resize Youtube video is also a problem for some, so this post will explain how to use GIMP to help with resizing Youtube video to fit your blog sidebar or main column or whatever. (Note: Youtube video can also be resized/customized direct in Youtube website too to be covered with another post)
Read rest of post >>>

Blogger video upload icon and the old post editor

Many bloggers have asked why they cannot upload video via Blogger post editor anymore? Or they ask, what happened to the "filmstrip icon" which I believe is the Blogger video upload icon at the end of the toolbar you see in the screen shot below:



In practically every case, I have found that the reason their "filmstrip icon" disappeared is because they are using the new updated post editor which do not provide for video upload.

The solution is simple. Just go to SETTINGS > BASIC (the Basic tab is the very first "sub-tab" for SETTINGS which you will be in once you click the SETTINGS tab) and scroll to the bottom of the page. There you will see the options to select the new updated post editor or the old post editor:



Select the old post editor, save, go to your post editor and there you will see your "filmstrip icon".
Read rest of post >>>

Create and Embed Youtube Playlist

From a comment at Google sites to host and hotlink music files

"ok I have loaded a list, how do I play more than one song?"

Haven't studied how to create playlist with Google Sites (check back later), so I tried using Youtube and tested it twice - Test embedding Youtube Teresa Teng playlist (my favorite singer who unfortunately died young) as well as Test embedding Youtube Bee Gees playlist (bring back memories of the good old times), and here are the steps I took to embed those 2 playlists:

Create a Youtube if you don't already have one and sign in. Either upload your own videos with music or search for those songs you want to include in your playlist. At the page showing the selected video, click + Playlist:



Give your new playlist a name, then click ADD. Search for more videos and repeat the ADD process till all the videos you want have been added.

When done, click the down arrow next to your Youtube username at the top right-hand corner of the page and select ACCOUNT:



At the next page, click Custom video players:



then click Create custom player. Give your player a name and enter some description, select the color theme, the layout, then under CONTENT, highlight the playlist, then click SELECT:



Next, at the section for Generate Code and Save Player, click GENERATE CODE and you will get a script similar to the one below to copy-paste into your post editor or into a HTML/Javascript gadget:

<object width="416" height="337"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/cp/vjVQa1PpcFNYcUl_cZNmLaxf1CI296PUeiBMfZ3_X9k="></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/cp/vjVQa1PpcFNYcUl_cZNmLaxf1CI296PUeiBMfZ3_X9k=" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="416" height="337"></embed></object>

Note width and height (in red). If you want to edit the codes so that the width of the embedded video player is commensurate with the width of your main column or the sidebar, use the method to resize Youtube video with no distortion so that it fits nicely into your post or sidebar.

width of

Embed Video in sidebar

Update: For embedding Youtube video, you can do the resizing at Youtube.com itself by either ticking one of the 4 size option (560x340 640x835 835x505 1280x745) or by clicking CUSTOM and typing in your choice of width while letting Youtube automatically fill in the value for the height to keep the aspect ration constant (see screenshot below). However the method described in this post will still be useful if you want to resize other video embed codes or similar:

Method of resizing video embed codes while keeping aspect ration constant

A blog reader asked how to embed a video into the sidebar. I have embedded a video into the right-most sidebar at the bottom of Dummies Guide to Google Blogger. The method is not much different from the procedure to embed a as explained in embed Youtube video in blog post, but for completeness and simplicity, I will explain the procedure in full here:

The very first step is to find out the width of the sidebar as explained in how to determine the width of the blog Header, main column and sidebars. The blog Dummies Guide to Google Blogger uses a 4 column Minima template and the width of the right-most sidebar is 164 pixels.

The original embed script of the video is pasted into the scroll box below with the width and height attributes highlighted in red:

<object width="400" height="333"><param value="http://www.youtube.com/v/bU4gXHkejMo&rel=1" name="movie"/><param value="transparent" name="wmode"/><embed width="400" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/bU4gXHkejMo&rel=1" wmode="transparent" height="333" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"></embed></object>

We have to resize the video to fit into the sidebar. The easiest way is to first create an empty image with a photo editor such as the free Irfanview with the same width and height as the video (400x333). Then, with the option to preserve aspect ratio ticked, the width is changed to 160 and the corresponding height is noted (in this case I found it to be 133). So I changed all the width attributes to 160 and all the height attributes to 133.

I then get into the LAYOUT and clicked "Add a gadget" (previously "Add a Page Element") and then select HTML/Javascript and pasted the edited Youtube embed script into the page element:

<object width="160" height="133"><param value="http://www.youtube.com/v/bU4gXHkejMo&rel=1" name="movie"/><param value="transparent" name="wmode"/><embed width="160" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/bU4gXHkejMo&rel=1" wmode="transparent" height="133" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"></embed></object>

Update: "How do i find out if a video has embedding enabled!!!"

Look at this video for example: How to play make a circuit light a bulb game. If you look at the bottom, you will see at the bottom an EMBED button (highlighted in red). Click on the EMBED button and you will get the embed code:



In other circumstances, you will see an up arrow button at the bottom right corner of the video which when clicked will reveal the embed code (see screen shot below, arrow button and embed code highlighted in red:

Related posts:
Resizing Youtube video to fit main column or sidebar using calculation
Embed Youtube video in blog post

Uploading video direct in Blogger post editor

Video can be pretty useful in blogs. For example, there is a nice post with some hard to get Angklung Music. You can upload video from your computer direct from Blogger post editor using the video upload icon . This is simpler than uploading to Youtube, Google Video or LiveVideo and then resizing them to fit as the script resulting from uploading direct via the Blogger upload icon below:

<OBJECT class=BLOG_video_class id=BLOG_video-UPLOADING height=266 width=320 contentId="UPLOADING"></OBJECT>

only have 1 attribute for height and width and 1 (320px) for width. Now the width is only 320px which will be less than the width of the main column of most blogs including this one (400px). This mean I (and nearly all bloggers) will not need to edit the script to resize the video to fit the main column.

Update: The filmstrip icon for uploading video is not present in the new updated Blogger post editor, but still available in the old post editor. Refer to Blogger video upload icon and the old post editor

Compare that with 2 attributes for Youtube which must be edited to reduce the width (425px) to be equal or less than the width of this main column (400px). For ways to do that, refer to How to resize Youtube Video to fit main column or sidebar and How to resize YouTube video to fit any width.

For Google video, refer to embedding Google video and for LiveVideo, refer to refer to resize LiveVideo to fit main column

Music and video for your blog

No time to try out but hoping some of you will see if that is another easy way get get music on your blog and give feedback on result:

Share Booklet, Facebook application

Please note No time to try out.

Video uploading is now out of beta (Blogger in Draft) and available in all Blogger account

When Blogger in Draft (actually just a name for an experimental Blogger account where new features for Bloggers are introduced and tested), it just introduced 2 features - Autosave (Rat called this Auto####) and video upload direct from your Blogger post editor. They later introduced Polls and Enclosure links. As at time of publishing, Polls are still having problems and Enclosure links which allow you to turning your blog into a podcast easy.

There is some controversy over Autosave (including 2 bloggers who complained that they like to play with editing of their old post and if they don't like it, they just don't publish. Now with Autosave, their old post get overwritten without their "permission". I also complained that while doing edition of old post, before I finish with the editing, the untidy, unfinished post get published. I have to add the phrase "under editing" at the top of the post to warn readers). I have been pestering Blogger to give bloggers an option to turn off Autosave in such circumstances, but for unknown reasons, this very reasonable request was turned down.

Now Video Upload is out of beta (Blogger in Draft) and I am wondering if anyone will discover any similar problems. Now when you get into your Blogger post editor, you will see an extra video upload icon in addition to the other standard icons.

I will probably test it at Testing Blogger Beta (now New Blogger)

Blogger Buzz: 3, 2, 1, Action!