videos

Following a blackout period of about six months, music videos are set to make their return to YouTube UK.  YouTube's worked out an agreement with PRS for Music, a trade body that collects royalties and at one point asked to be paid about 0.36 cents each time a clip was played. 

Google has introduced a feature for Google Video for Business that allows viewers to adjust the playback speed. There is a speed control button/slider on the video player that can be used to speed up or slow down a clip. If you're unfamiliar with Google Video for Business, it's part of Google Apps Premiere and Education editions, and lets users share rich video information, keep videos secure and private, and collaborate on videos.

Video search engine VideoSurf launched a Firefox add-on today called "Videos at a Glance," which can show Twitter users the videos behind applicable links. For example, if someone in your Twitter stream posts a link to a video, the add-on will automatically display the video, as well as a visual video summary, right in the tweet, so you don't have to click through.

All AdSense publishers should keep up with Google's official AdSense Channel on YouTube, as well as the Inside AdSense Blog (also official). There are helpful tips and other useful information posted to both periodically. As I noticed that the Inside AdSense crew just posted a webinar to the YouTube channel, I thought it might be prudent to point out that they have posted a few other useful videos over the past couple months. 1. AdSense Channels and Reporting Webinar

YouTube contacted Murdok this afternoon to tell us about a new analytics feature it has just launched for YouTube Insight. A spokesperson tells me the feature gets more into engagement metrics than YouTube Insight has in the past. Until now, YouTube Insight has only dealt with information related to views. With this launch it  "will give uploaders information on how viewers interact with their videos," she says.

In the minds of some overdramatic and/or young people in the UK, it might be today, and not February 3rd, 1959, that deserves the title of "the day the music died."  That's because YouTube UK has taken the drastic step of blocking many music videos. 

YouTube announced that it has made annotations much easier for the average user to engage in. Basically its as easy as signing in, clicking, and typing.YouTube Video Annotations let users add text within their own videos. Kind of like VH1's Pop-up Video. Users can use the feature to add background information, create stories, link to related content, etc.

Last week, Google announced the end of some of its services, and among them was the ability for users to upload videos to Google Video. They said they would be refocusing their attention on building a more comprehensive video search engine, and why not? They've already got YouTube.