YouTube mobile video viewing 200 million a day

YouTube has said it is serving up more than 200 million videos daily to smartphones and other Internet-linked mobile devices.

News of the milestone came as the Google-owned video-sharing service began routing Vevo music videos from artists such as Lady Gaga and U2 onto smartphones powered by newer versions of Google-backed Android software.

"As the world goes mobile and more people watch videos on their smart phones, we expect more partners will take advantage of these new mobile advertising capabilities and make more of their content available across more devices," said YouTube mobile product manager, Andrey Doronichev.

Android smartphones running on "Froyo" or newer versions of the mobile operating software will be able to access Vevo's music video library using a free YouTube application.

Vevo music website is a partnership between Google, Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group, and Abu Dhabi Media and has deals to feature content from EMI and independent recording labels.

According to YouTube, revenue will be generated from advertisements played prior to music videos.

Google launches Interest Based Advertising System

Google has launched a test version of Interest Based Advertising System for its network of websites. Google will use its surveillance of web surfing habits to figure out which ads are best suited to each individual's interests.

Under this program, someone who frequently visits sites about cell phones might see more ads about cell phones even on sites that has nothing to do with cell phones.

The new system is designed to record the interests of users based on the pages they view and Internet searches they conduct, offering tailor-made advertising offers to match which can further be refined by the user.

The ads are set to debut within the next few weeks and will initially appear on Google's YouTube and thousands of other sites that belong to Google's ad network.

The tactic relies on technology that Google got last year in a $3.2 billion acquisition of the Internet ad service DoubleClick Inc.

According to Google, “Keyword advertising has been so successful because it's useful to users, advertisers and publishers - everyone's interests are aligned. We believe that interest based ads will create the same virtuous cycle, by giving users more relevant ads, while generating higher returns for advertisers and publishers”.

Google is following major rivals like Yahoo Inc. and Microsoft Corp. that already have been customizing ads based on the past activities of specific Web browsers. Until now, Google had been tying its ads solely to search requests and the general content on Web pages.

More on Interest Based Advertising from Official Google Blog

UK users blocked by Youtube

Google has taken step to block UK users from watching music videos on YouTube after negotiations with Britain's music royalty-collecting body- PRS for Music -broke down.

Google said it was forced by PRS for Music, which it said is asking for royalties that would cause Google to lose money every time a video was played on YouTube.

In an statement google said, “Our previous license from PRS for Music has expired, and we've been unable so far to come to an agreement to renew it on terms that are economically sustainable for us”.

Until a solution is found, “we will be blocking premium music videos in the UK that have been supplied or claimed by record labels”, added the Internet Titan.

PRS for Music collects money on behalf of writers and publishers worldwide.

It was not clear how long the music videos would stay blocked. Both PRS for Music and Google said they hoped their dispute could be resolved quickly.

YouTube crossed 100 million US viewer mark

comScore, which is a leader in measuring digital world, has released January 2009 data for Video Metrix services. According to that data Youtube has crossed 100 million US viewer mark. For Youtube, this has happened for the first time. In this way, Youtube dominated the online video arena.

The overall number of videos watched online in the US in January climbed 4 percent from the previous month to 14.8 billion, with YouTube viewing accounting for 91 percent of that growth.

Google-owned websites, specially YouTube, ranked at the top of the US online video heap with 6.4 billion snippets watched during the month.

Fox Interactive Media, which owns online social-networking service MySpace, had the second highest number of videos viewed - 552 million.

Yahoo! online destinations were third with 374 million videos watched, the industry tracking group reported.

According to comScore, approximately 147 million US Internet users watched an average of 101 online videos each in January, with 102 million of those people using Google-owned sites. comScore reported that 99 percent of the video viewing at Google websites took place at YouTube.

Fox Interactive saw the second highest number of online viewers, attracting 62.1 million people. MySpace accounted for 54.1 million of those online video watchers.

Yahoo! and Microsoft websites ranked third and fourth with 41.9 million and 30 million viewers respectively.

Average duration of video snippets viewed was said to be 3.5 minutes.

More on this can be found at comScore Video Metrix data for January 2009

YouTube all set for Hollywood Partnership

According to New York Times, YouTube and the William Morris Agency are nearing a deal that would put the Hollywood talent broker's clients in YouTube productions.

The YouTube deal would reportedly give William Morris clients an ownership stake in the videos they create for the popular video Web site. William Morris represents the likes of actors Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe and producers Michael Bay and J.J. Abrams.

An agreement would give the agency's clients, which also include musicians and other celebrities, access to at least 100 million viewers, the latest figure comScore offered for YouTube traffic.

Watch Youtube Videos on Your Television

Now you can watch YouTube videos on your television screen. YouTube has partnered with Sony and Nintendo to bring YouTube videos for Television through PlayStation 3 and Wii respectively.

YouTube has configured a new website for television and it is currently available only through Nintendo’s Wii and Sony’s PS3. The Web site is available globally in 22 localized sites and in more than 12 languages.

According to a promo, “YouTube for Television offers a dynamic, lean-back, 10-foot television viewing experience for Internet connected consoles”. YouTube has also simplified the experience by enlarging text and streamlining navigation to function better on the Wii and PlayStation 3's built-in Web browsers.