In 2007, we witnessed an explosion of ideas and creativity on YouTube. You showed us that online video is not just a way to share pet and baby videos (though it is certainly good for that, too), but rather it can be so much more: a showcase for aspiring artists, a megaphone for everyday people, a way to learn new skills and even to change the political process.

In recognition of all of these vibrant uses of and communities on YouTube, we expanded the awards this year to include five new categories -- Best Short Film, Best Political Video, Best Sports Video, Best Eyewitness Video, and Best Instructional Video – for a total of 12. Each category now has six nominees instead of 10 (a special nod to those of you with short attention spans).

You'll also notice that the structure of the awards and the way voting works look a little different this year. Every time you refresh the page, the order of the categories and the featured thumbnail change in a random order so there can be no bias in the way the content is viewed or presented.

As you might imagine, whittling down any category to six videos was a gargantuan task and already we'll say we're sorry to the hundreds/thousands of deserving content creators who didn't get nominated. But you can't exactly blame us - you made these videos memorable and helped them rise to the top of the YouTube charts. The nominees reflect some of the most buzzed-about videos on the site, particularly the ones you bookmarked to watch later (and presumably again and again).

So head over to the YouTube Video Awards channel to start watching and voting for some of the videos that defined '07. You can vote once per day (though you may not change your vote on the same day) and you have until 11:59pm PT on March 19, 2008, to do so. Winners will be announced on March 21, 2008, at which point we'll feature them on this page as well as overnight them a trophy like no other (and believe us when we say this). Winners will also get a special invitation to a YouTube event later this year.

Good luck and have fun!

The YouTube Team

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We try really hard to make YouTube as open as possible. Anyone can upload and view videos, which can be embedded anywhere and viewed on all kinds of different devices. And, of course, anyone can participate in our community by commenting on videos, rating them, and sharing them with friends.

Nevertheless, we worried that we weren't open enough. So, we pulled some all-nighters and added some powerful new ways to integrate YouTube content and community into other websites, desktop applications, video games, mobile devices, televisions, cameras, and lots more.

For users, the exciting news is that they will be able to actively participate in the YouTube community from just about anywhere, including the online destinations and web communities they already love and visit regularly. For partners and developers, YouTube has grown into much more than a website. It has become an open, general purpose, video services platform, available for use by just about any third-party website, desktop application, or consumer device. We now provide a complete set of (CRUD) capabilities for uploading, managing, searching, and playing back user videos and metadata from the YouTube "cloud," managed by us. We do all of the hard work of transcoding and hosting and streaming and thumbnailing your videos, and we provide open access to our sizable global audience, enabling you to generate traffic for your site, visibility for your brand, or support for your cause. Meanwhile, we provide full access to our substantial video library, enabling you to attract users and enhance the experience on your site. It's all free, and it's available to everyone, starting now.

Technically, we have introduced some new APIs. (This is just a geeky acronym for Awesomely Powerful Interactions, which is what users are now capable of performing from just about anywhere.) Building upon our existing APIs for querying the YouTube library and playing embedded YouTube videos, we have added the following new API services for external developers and partners:

• Upload videos and video responses to YouTube
• Add/Edit user and video metadata (titles, descriptions, ratings, comments, favorites, contacts, etc)
• Fetch localized standard feeds (most viewed, top rated, etc.) for 18 international locales
• Perform custom queries optimized for 18 international locales
• Customize player UI and control video playback (pause, play, stop, etc.) through software

The number of possible new applications is endless. Electronic Arts has enabled gamers to capture videos of fantastical user-generated creatures from their upcoming game, Spore, and publish these directly into YouTube. The University of California, Berkeley is bringing free educational content to the world, enhancing their open source lecture capture and delivery system to publish videos automatically into YouTube. Animoto enables its users to create personalized, professional-quality music videos from their own photos and upload them directly to YouTube. Tivo is providing its users a rich and highly participative YouTube viewing experience on the television. For more details about the innovative ways these other partners are utilizing YouTube APIs, see our case studies.

What will you build with our new APIs? The possibilities are endless. Learn more about the exciting new features in this release from our engineers or visit Google Code to get started now. We can't wait to see what you create.

Enjoy,

Jim Patterson, Product Management
The YouTube Team

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Presidential elections were held in Spain this weekend, with Prime Minister Jose Luis Zapatero's winning re-election after a fierce race with conservative opponent Mariano Rajoy. We're proud to have played a role in this political process with our Elecciones '08 initiative, a partnership between YouTube and Radio Television Española (RTVE), Spain's public broadcasting channel. Over 600 video questions for the candidates were submitted here, including these highlights:



In all, 53 questions were posed on TV to the presidential candidates, like this provocative one about abortion rights submitted by the Catholic Church. (It's already received over 400,000 views.)

Reflecting a wide range of concerns and opinions, Elecciones '08 gave Spanish voters an opportunity not only to voice their views about the candidates, but also to engage with them like never before.

Yours,
Steve G.
YouTube News & Politics

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For the next week and a half, the SXSW festival is taking over Austin, Texas, to celebrate music, film and all things interactive. If you think a few of the shorts in the SXSW line-up sound familiar, that's because they do - YouTube features My First Crush, Knock Knock, The Golden Egg and Spider all made it to the big screen, so congratulate your fellow YouTube filmmakers!

And to stay up-to-date with the music program here in the Land of Dee-licious BBQ, stay tuned to our music category for new videos from guitarist extraordinare Kaki King and Bay Area singing-songwriting treasure Kelley Stolz.

If you're attending the festival yourself, don't be shy. Get those cameras out and rolling, and let us know when you post your videos. We want to see the festival through your eyes and hear about the bands You. Just. Can't. Miss. If you need some inspiration, check out some of these fantastic video diaries from last year, as well as the festival's official channel.



Cheers,
Sara P. and Michele K-tel
YouTube Film and Music

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We are thrilled to let the shy and beguiling Icelandic post-rock quartet Sigur Ros take over our home page with a full, 97-minute presentation of their DVD Heima, along with 10 videos created by their fans out of unused footage from the film.

What is this otherworldly road trip? Heima documents Sigur Ros' 2006 free tour of Iceland and it's their first-ever concert film. With the shows announced only by word-of-mouth, the band ended up performing in deserted fish factories, far West fjords and tiny regional community halls. "Heima" means both "at home" and "homeland" in Icelandic.

Sigur Ros invited their fans to participate in their film project by creating a video contest on YouTube asking users to create their own "little Heima" with extra footage from the DVD. After sorting through nearly 150 videos, the band selected their favorite, by sdewitt108, whose film has been referred to as "The Cosmic Sheep."

We'll let Sigur Ros tell you (in their own reluctant manner) about the contest, the cosmic sheep, and their unique and magical film:



We hope you enjoy this peaceful journey of music and epic landscapes from Heima, as presented by Sigur Ros and, of course, you.

Takk,
Michele K-Tel
YouTube Music

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It's March and, on the travel front, that can mean only one thing: sojourners, beware. In these waters, there be Spring Breakers.

For the next month, many of the Western hemisphere's finest vacation destinations will be inundated with legions of sun-worshipping students hellbent on having the most unforgettable week of their young lives. And, yes, the irony that much of that week will actually be forgotten is not lost on us here at YouTube.

Unfortunately, not everyone looking for a little end-of-winter respite fits into that enviable demographic. Some of us just want to get a little sun, a little good food, and a lot of peace and quiet. For those of you looking to avoid the throngs of young revelers, do not despair. YouTube's travel community has come to the rescue.



And for those college students thinking about a spring break that's a little more off the beaten path, here are a few fantastic ideas from some inspiring YouTube users.



Happy Travels,
The YouTube Team

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The race for the White House continues today as Texas, Ohio, Rhode Island, and Vermont hold their presidential primaries. All eyes are on the Democratic primaries in Ohio and Texas as Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton face off for crucial votes that could determine which candidate gets the nomination. Will today's primaries seal the deal for Senator Obama, or will they signal the resurgence of Senator Clinton and push this contest all the way to the Democratic National Convention?

As usual, YouTubers from all over the country are weighing in on what's happening in Texas and Ohio.



And while the GOP nomination is all but locked up for John McCain, Mike Huckabee still has his share of supporters -- like the Pena family, who wrote a song reminding Texas voters not to give up on the former Arkansas governor just yet.



Finally, if you're confused about the Texas voting system, with its unique combination of caucuses and primaries, watch this video from WhyTuesday, which offers a helpful and entertaining explanation. And as always, check back to our You Choose '08 platform for election news and commentary from voters, candidates, and news organizations as today's primaries unfold.

Yours,
Steve G.
YouTube News & Politics

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As the 2008 presidential primary election continues to winnow the Republican and Democratic field, our You Choose '08 platform has expanded to include more election content for you to watch. Not only do we have videos from the candidates' YouTube channels, but we also have more content from news organizations, bloggers and, of course, you. Check out the redesign here.

We'll feature five timely election videos here every week day -- and every Friday we'll post a "Best of the Week" list so you can catch up over the weekend if you missed anything. Our Election News section will feature videos from our news partners, including the Associated Press, CBS News, and The New York Times . In addition, lots of local news stations have YouTube channels and we'll be highlighting their content too.

In our playlist box, you can keep track of the candidates' views on the important issues in this election, and we've planted a few of your ideas in there as well. You can also can keep track of past political programs that ran on YouTube (the debates, primary and caucus voter video projects, international political platforms) by clicking on the icons down in the footer of the page.

So what do you think? Shoot us an email with your thoughts as we continue to develop You Choose '08 to bring candidates and voters together in effective ways. We'd also love your video ideas for the You Choose '08 playlists.

Finally, stay tuned to the You Choose '08 platform as the 2008 election broadens beyond the presidential race to Congressional, state and local elections, or head over to our political platforms in the UK and Spain for a taste of politics beyond the 50 states.

Yours,
Steve G.
YouTube News & Politics

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The following features are now appearing on YouTube. Check out the goods...

CHARACTER COUNTER FOR VIDEO COMMENTS

The visual counter lets you know exactly how many characters you have left before approaching the limit. Now you will always know how many words you can fit in before hitting 'submit'.

CONTEXTUAL HELP IN MY ACCOUNT

You'll notice some new help icons next to features on your account. To see instructions and helpful information related to managing things like your channel design and videos, just hover over the " ? " icons. Click the "read more" link to go directly to the full article related to that particular feature in our Help Center.

EXPERIMENTAL PERSONALIZED HOMEPAGE BETA

We just launched a new experimental personalized YouTube homepage. Check out all the details in our previous blog post before you opt in to the beta by clicking here.

And now, we grace you with the stylings of pzottolo in the latest edition of YouTube News:



Best,
The YouTube Team

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We mentioned the upcoming limited release of a New Experimental Personalized Homepage on our blog a few days ago. As of today, the page is now available to a small, randomly selected group of users. But even if you're not in this group, you can still give it a whirl. You only need to login to your YouTube account and click this link to opt in to the experiment.

We want to know what you think about this new personalized YouTube experience. The more feedback we receive the better, so don't forget to leave your comments here. We'll be watching!

The YouTube Team

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