This week's Trends: space, holidays, and pranks

Each weekday, we at YouTube Trends take a look at the most interesting videos and cultural phenomena on YouTube as they develop. We want take a moment to highlight some of what we've come across this week:

• We studied a trend of popular composite videos created from photos taken in space.
  
  
• We collected some of the popular Rosh Hashanah music video parodies being watched during the Jewish New Year.
  
  
• We looked at how U.S. "X Factor" contestant Chris Rene jumped to popularity.
  
  
• CBS News' The Feed examined the rising phenomenon of globally-popular Russian cat videos.
  
  
• We tracked footage being posted from the "Occupy Wall Street" protests in NYC.
  
  
• And this Carlsberg prank from Belgium became a global hit:

Check back every day for the latest about what's trending on YouTube at: www.YouTube.com/Trends

Kevin Allocca, YouTube Trends Manager, recently watched "29 years old and hearing myself for the 1st time!."

Welcome to You@YouTube: What do you want to know?

Today we’re kicking off a series of posts and videos around what it’s like working at YouTube. The goal is to show you what happens behind your screen, and will talk about things we think you might want to know about like job opportunities, interesting folks working and visiting here, projects we’re testing out, our gnome overlords and more.

I could write pages about working here—the amazing people I get to work with, the fun benefits, the transparent communication, and most importantly being part of company that’s working to change our world through video. But hearing about it from me alone won’t do it justice, so here’s a teaser from some of the YouTubers here at HQ on a new channel called Life at YouTube. This will give you an insider look at what life at YouTube is like, with videos ranging from the heartfelt to the ridiculous.



So over to you, fellow YouTubers. What would you like to hear about from inside YouTube? After all this is about you—I work here already.

Bernita Jenkins, HR Business Partner, recently watched “Tales of the Tube, Episode 3.”

Clearing up some policy myths

There seem to be more rumors circulating lately about YouTube’s content policies than there are about Jennifer’s baby bump, so we’d like to clarify a few misconceptions.

Myth #1: YouTube pre-screens the videos that you upload.

Truth: 48 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute. It’s not possible to proactively review this much content. Believe us. And even if it were, it would be far less effective than deploying all of you—our global community—to help us identify videos that potentially violate our Community Guidelines. You all have really stepped up to the task, flagging thousands upon thousands of videos every day. After you flag videos, YouTube staff review them against our Community Guidelines. If they violate our Guidelines, they come down. If they don’t, they stay up, sometimes with an age-restriction.

Myth #2: If I repeatedly flag a video, it will come down.

Truth: No matter how many times you flag Baby, it will not come down. It’s been flagged. We’ve reviewed it. And it does not violate our Community Guidelines. If you’ve considered spearheading a flagging campaign to bring down a video you don’t like, save yourself the time. Videos that don’t violate our Guidelines simply won’t be taken off the site for policy reasons.

Myth #3: If I flag a video, the uploader will know who I am.

Truth: We do not reveal any of your personal information when you flag content for a Community Guidelines violation.

Myth #4: If I inaccurately report content that I genuinely believe violates YouTube’s policies, my account will be terminated.

Truth: People who flag in good faith will not be penalized for inaccurately reporting content. That said, if you’re looking to improve your flagging skills, take a minute to review our Community Guidelines.

Myth #5: If my video is removed for a Community Guidelines violation, that’s the end of the story.

Truth: We have a video appeals process that allows users to appeal a video strike if they disagree with our team’s decision. Our reviewers are human too. We review a lot of content, and we occasionally make mistakes. We aim to keep these mistakes to a minimum and try to fix any errors we may have made.

Myth #6: If someone puts an embarrassing or otherwise sensitive video of me on YouTube, it will remain on the site forever.

Truth: Whether you’re singing karaoke or riding the mechanical bull at a bar, we all do things we’d rather not have broadcasted to the world. If a video contains your image or other personal information and you didn’t consent to it, you can submit a privacy removal request.

Myth #7: YouTube censors art.

Truth: We support free expression and want YouTube to be a place where artists can showcase their work, even if that work contains some skin. We don’t typically allow nudity that’s sexual in nature. If your video contains nudity and you clearly explain the artistic, educational, or scientific context, it may stay up with an age-restriction. What do we mean by context?

Myth #8: It’s a good idea to include tags like ‘Lady Gaga’ and ‘Double Rainbow’ in my video title and description even if they’re unrelated to my video.

Truth: Tags are meant to help users find relevant videos. It’s not cool to use unrelated tags to try to trick people into watching your video. Select tags that accurately describe your video. If you do take the low road, your video will likely be struck for misleading metadata.

Myth #9: We [YouTube’s Policy Team] are robots.

Truth: We are in fact real people equipped with brains, hearts and strong moral compasses. As cheesy as it may sound, we don’t just do this job because we get paid to watch videos all day; we do it because we care about YouTube and want you to have a positive experience on our site.

Amanda Conway, Policy Associate, recently watched “Flight of the Conchords: Robot Song (HBO).”

Music review channel theneedledrop wins September's "On The Rise"

Congratulations to Anthony Fantano of theneedledrop, the channel that received the most votes for our September On The Rise poll. Anthony’s channel will be featured on the YouTube homepage today thanks to your support.

Hailing from Connecticut, Anthony began his independent music reviewing career in 2007 with the goal of introducing people to new songs, albums, and artists. His critiques of various indie rock, pop, and experimental bands have earned him a dedicated following across his various review outlets. And varied they are: The Needle Drop programming includes a regular blog, an NPR radio podcast, and of course the YouTube channel you voted for this month. So whether you’re into Fleet Foxes, Danny Brown or Andrew Jackson Jihad - or whether you’ve never heard of them and are just looking to expand your music library - let Anthony be your guide. He explains his channel’s history and purpose in more detail in the video below.



If you’re open to learning about new albums from bands you may not know, here’s a plug from Anythony himself:

Hey, you! Yeah, you! Wanna try out some new music? Bend your mind with some fresh sounds? That's what this YouTube channel is all about: theneedledrop. It's hosted by the Internet's Busiest Music Nerd, Anthony Fantano, and follows him on his personal adventures through the newest albums out there. Hear some opinions and get turned on to some artists you might not know about yet in the process. Have a nice day. Thank you for reading!

If you’ve enjoyed this monthly On The Rise blog series and want to see more rising YouTube partners, check out our On The Rise channel or look for our playlists on the browse page. Keep an eye out for next month’s blog post, as your channel may be the next one On The Rise!

Devon Storbeck, YouTube Partner Support, recently watched “Wild Flag - Self-Titled ALBUM REVIEW.”

ROFLCon Summit: Exploring how Internet communities affect everyone IRL

We’re proud to be a part of the vibrant culture of the web, and are pleased to welcome today’s guest blogger Tim Hwang and the rest of the team from ROFLCon, an organization celebrating all the wonderful memes out there.

On October 1 in Portland, Oregon the first-ever ROFLCon Summit will address the incredible potential of the Internet, memes, funny cats, and beyond.

ROFLCon Summit is a spin-off of the wildly awesome biennial ROFLCon. It brings together the leading generators, preservers and advancers of online culture so they can talk about where it’s all headed and what it means to everyone else. Speakers will include Chris Poole from Canv.as/4Chan, Eric Fensler (the GI Joe PSA guy), Bennett Foddy (the creator of QWOP), Jason Scott, and Brewster Kahle. Here’s a useful informational video that we made to help you get a sense of what we’re all about.



Helpful, no? By this point, it’s a cliche to note that internet culture has become a major engine for pop culture. But perhaps less noted is the background role of web platforms in providing the critical infrastructure for setting these cultural engines into motion. YouTube irrevocably changed the social dynamics of the internet precisely because of its ease of share-ability, the scale of its user base, and its endless catalogue of content. Let’s take one now-famous example.

“Friday.” Released March 14, 2011.



Weeks later, Conan O’Brien had a choreographed performance “Thursday.”



Less than two months later, Glee (one of the most popular shows on TV) performed a rendition of it on FOX. (Skip to 1:25).



And there are countless examples of this, happening every day on scales large and small.

Because they contribute so much to the endless churning of internet culture, what better way to promote ROFLCon Summit than with a video?

We’re huge nerds. ROFLCon is at once a celebration of the present and future of web culture, and an homage to glorious proto-internet days gone by. It’s deeply enmeshed in a childhood forged in late nights of programming in BASIC, River City Ransom, floppy disks, and the glorious days of VHS.

Needless to say, we wanted the conference (and our videos) to reflect that. The audio drops, hiccups and poor quality of the video actually helped show how far we’ve come. And once we’ve seen where things began, we’re much more able to foresee what might happen in the future.



Join us on the internets! We will be hosting a live stream of the ROFLCon Summit event on October 1 on our website, with live updates on Twitter as well.

Tim Hwang and the ROFLCon crew recently watched, “ROFLCon Summit Promotional Video.”

Music Tuesday: Nirvana, Katy B and Rock in Rio

It’s never been a better time to be a music lover. Whether you’re looking for an intimate glimpse of an up-and-coming star, an orchestral take on hard rock songs, or a place to watch major stars perform live -- we’ve got it all this week.

Nirvana’s Nevermind Turns 20
Is this the album that launched a thousand flannel shirts (or, ahem, quite a few more)? In a word, yes. Seattle’s grunge scene had been bubbling quietly until “Smells Like Teen Spirit” began making forays into late-night play on alternative radio stations around the country back in 1991. Then Nevermind released, grunge became a household world and suddenly all kinds of bands were aping the loud-quiet-loud dynamic the Pixies invented and Kurt Cobain so successfully emulated. Two decades have not diminished the album’s power, nor its hold on the popular imagination. We’ve got the entire album in various forms for you today.



Rock in Rio: Live
While folks in the northern hemisphere have been obsessing over the fact that grunge is nearly old enough to vote, people in Brazil have been rocking out. Repeatedly. Rock in Rio is one of the world’s biggest music festivals, one of the few multi-weekend extravaganzas where you could find Katy Perry, Rihanna and Elton John -- all on the same night. Last weekend, the rest of the world was able to watch the event live for the first time ever on the festival channel. The party starts up again this Thursday, September 29 with performances by Janelle Monae, Ke$ha, Stevie Wonder and more. Tune in!



Katy B “Power On Me”
The dubstep vocalist and burgeoning British pop star is storming the charts in Europe, and she’s poised to make waves in the U.S. this autumn. But for all Katy B’s high-energy dance cred, indie filmmakers Dig For Fire uncovered something much less bombastic in this acoustic video: her raw talent. The video quietly portrays the alienation of the publicity circuit -- we see her in photos shoots and makeup sessions -- and then perches on the edge of Katy B’s hotel bed one morning as she sings along to her own recording. It may not sound like much, but it’s strangely transporting.



Sarah Bardeen, Music Community Manager, recently watched “The Pixies - Gigantic.”

Dynamic Views: seven new ways to share your blog with the world

As we said a few weeks ago when we launched a completely rebuilt, streamlined authoring and editing experience, we’re in the process of bringing you a much improved and modernized Blogger. The next phase of these updates starts today with seven new ways to display your blog, called Dynamic Views.

Built with the latest in web technology (AJAX, HTML5 and CSS3), Dynamic Views is a unique browsing experience that will inspire your readers to explore your blog in new ways. The interactive layouts make it easier for readers to enjoy and discover your posts, loading 40 percent faster than traditional templates and bringing older entries to the surface so they seem fresh again.

Dynamic Views is much more than just new templates. With just a couple clicks, you’ll get infinite scrolling (say goodbye to the “Older posts” link), images that load as you browse, integrated search, sorting by date, label and author, lightbox-style posts for easy viewing, keyboard shortcuts for quickly flipping through posts, and one-click sharing to Google+ and other social sites on every post.

No two blogs are the same, so you can choose from seven different views that display text and photos differently. For example, if you have lots of photos on your blog, you may prefer Flipcard or Snapshot. If your blog is more text-heavy, then Classic, Sidebar (what you’re seeing now on Blogger Buzz) or Timeslide may be preferable. Here’s a quick description of each of the new views, along with links to some of our favorite blogs where you can check each of them out in action.

• Classic (Gmail): A modern twist on a traditional template, with infinite scrolling and images that load as you go
• Flipcard (M loves M) - Your photos are tiled across the page and flip to reveal the post title
• Magazine (Advanced Style) - A clean, elegant editorial style layout 
• Mosaic (Crosby’s Kitchen) - A mosaic mix of different sized images and text
• Sidebar (Blogger Buzz Blog) - An email inbox-like view with a reading page for quick scrolling and browsing
• Snapshot (Canelle et Vanille) - An interactive pinboard of your posts 
• Timeslide (The Bleary-Eyed Father) - A horizontal view of your posts by time period

Enter the name of your favorite Blogger blog below and click Preview to check it out with Dynamic Views.
.blogspot.com

Adding a Dynamic View to your blog is as easy as changing your template. Log in to Blogger, click on the Template tab on your dashboard, and select whichever view you want to set as your default. Note that readers can still choose to navigate your blog in a different view by selecting from the pulldown in the upper left of the screen.

If you want to add your own touch to any of these new views, you can upload a header image and customize the background colors. We’ll be adding more ways to customize Dynamic Views in the coming weeks.

We hope you enjoy the latest update to Blogger, and that, as always, you tell us what you think by completing this short survey.

Note: In addition to Blogger Buzz, several other official Google blogs will be featuring Dynamic Views through the weeks and months ahead, including the Gmail Blog, LatLong Blog and Docs Blog. We’re excited to bring Dynamic Views into the fold and we'll be looking at how to incorporate this new technology across Google’s blog network in the long term.

(Cross-posted from Blogger Buzz)

Update 7:31pm: We've added back a working link to submit your feedback.
Update 6:00pm: Earlier today, this post included a link to a feedback form. We do value your feedback and want to know what you think of this update; we'll have a feedback link up again soon.

Posted by Antin Harasymiv, Software Engineer

Taking in more sun with Clean Power Finance

(Cross-posted from the Green Blog)

This morning, at the Renewable Energy Finance Forum (REFF-West) in San Francisco, I announced a new $75 million investment to create an initial fund with Clean Power Finance that will help up to 3,000 homeowners go solar. This is our second investment in residential solar, and we’ve now invested more than $850 million overall to develop and deploy clean energy.

As we said when we made our first residential solar investment, we think it makes a lot of sense to use solar photovoltaic (PV) technology—rooftop solar panels—to generate electricity right where you need it at home. It greens our energy mix by using existing roof space while avoiding transmission constraints, and it can be cheaper than drawing electricity from the traditional grid.

Purchasing a solar system is a major home improvement, but the upfront cost has historically been one of the biggest barriers for homeowners. Solar installers across the country don’t always have the resources to find financing for customers, or the capital to provide it themselves. And for investors like Google, banks and others, it can be difficult to enter a fragmented solar market with many companies, and get connected to individual homeowners.

That’s where Clean Power Finance comes in. They’ve developed an open platform that connects installers with investors like Google to provide financing to homeowners. Solar installers sign up with Clean Power Finance to get access to the company’s comprehensive sales solutions, including consumer financing from investors, like the Google fund. This enables installers to sell more systems and grow their business. The installer builds the system, the investor (in this case, Google) owns it, and homeowners pay a monthly payment for the system, at a price that’s often less than paying for energy from the grid. Maintenance and performance are taken care of by Clean Power Finance and its network of installers.

Owned by Google, operated by Clean Power Finance and installed by American Vision Solar, the Colin family of Santa Clarita, Calif. has a 4.14 kW solar system

This innovative and scalable model makes business sense for Google, Clean Power Finance, solar installers and homeowners too. We’re excited to be one of the first investors to partner with Clean Power Finance and enable the company to continue forging strong relationships with solar installers (like the ones they announced last week with SunLogic, California Solar Systems, American Vision Solar—learn more on Clean Power Finance’s website). By making financing more readily available, the Clean Power Finance platform has the potential to lower costs and accelerate adoption of solar energy.

We’ve already installed a 1.6MW rooftop solar installation at the Googleplex back in 2007. Now, through Clean Power Finance and our previous investment this year, we’re hoping to have an even larger impact. We look forward to watching our funding help more than 10,000 homeowners generate clean electricity from the sun.

Posted by Rick Needham, Director of Green Business Operations

European Commission President Barroso takes your questions on YouTube World View

Cross-posted from The Official Google Blog.

Tomorrow, September 28, European Commission President José Manuel Barroso will deliver his annual State of the Union Address. In these turbulent times, we wanted to give people a chance to make their voices heard and ask their questions about the EU. So we teamed up with broadcaster Euronews and invited President Barroso to answer your questions in a special, live YouTube World View interview that will take place on Thursday, October 6 at 10:00am Central European Time.

Starting today, we invite you to submit your questions for President Barroso via youtube.com/worldview. Questions can be on any topic, from the Euro crisis and austerity measures to growth and jobs, from foreign policy and immigration to ethnic minority issues, human rights and the environment. You can ask written or video questions—and view and vote on other people’s questions—in any of the European Union’s languages, thanks to Google Translate.

During the interview on October 6, hosted by Euronews anchor Alex Taylor, the President will answer a selection of the most popular questions, as determined by your votes. The interview will be streamed and broadcast in multiple languages on both YouTube and Euronews.



President Barroso’s interview will be the first multi-lingual livecast in the World View series, which gives anyone with an Internet connection the ability to pose questions, vote on what’s most important to them and get answers directly from senior politicians and world leaders. President Barroso’s interview follows interviews with U.S. President Obama, President Kagame of Rwanda, U.K. Prime Minister Cameron, Spanish Prime Minister Zapatero and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu.

Whatever your question, President Barroso wants to hear from you. Be sure to submit your question via the World View channel before midnight CET on Wednesday October 5.

Al Verney, Head of Communications, Google Brussels, recently watched “The YouTube Interview with President Obama 2011.”

European Commission President Barroso takes your questions on YouTube World View

(Cross-posted on the YouTube Blog)

Tomorrow, September 28, European Commission President José Manuel Barroso will deliver his annual State of the Union Address. In these turbulent times, we wanted to give people a chance to make their voices heard and ask their questions about the EU. So we teamed up with broadcaster Euronews and invited President Barroso to answer your questions in a special, live YouTube World View interview that will take place on Thursday, October 6 at 10:00am Central European Time.

Starting today, we invite you to submit your questions for President Barroso via youtube.com/worldview. Questions can be on any topic, from the Euro crisis and austerity measures to growth and jobs, from foreign policy and immigration to ethnic minority issues, human rights and the environment. You can ask written or video questions—and view and vote on other people’s questions—in any of the European Union’s languages, thanks to Google Translate.

During the interview on October 6, hosted by Euronews anchor Alex Taylor, the President will answer a selection of the most popular questions, as determined by your votes. The interview will be streamed and broadcast in multiple languages on both YouTube and Euronews.



President Barroso’s interview will be the first multi-lingual livecast in the World View series, which gives anyone with an Internet connection the ability to pose questions, vote on what’s most important to them and get answers directly from senior politicians and world leaders. President Barroso’s interview follows interviews with U.S. President Obama, President Kagame of Rwanda, U.K. Prime Minister Cameron, Spanish Prime Minister Zapatero and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu.

Whatever your question, President Barroso wants to hear from you. Be sure to submit your question via the World View channel before midnight CET on Wednesday October 5.

Posted by Al Verney, Head of Communications, Google Brussels

Ten films from ten filmmakers under twenty-one

We love discovering new talent at YouTube, and today we are presenting 10 short films made by this year’s Ghetto Film School fellows, together with the Film Society of Lincoln Center. The culmination of the GFS students’ work is debuting on YouTube to coincide with a public screening at the Lincoln Center in New York City.

Over the last 15 months, the group of GFS teenage filmmakers worked with guest instructors like Spike Jonze, David O. Russell, Amy Adams, Jason Reitman, Lee Daniels, and Ed Burns to hone their storytelling skills. Three of these talented filmmakers are leaving Lincoln Center tonight with $1,000 scholarships from Google to continue advancing their artistic pursuits, and here are their works:

"Former Self" from Remery Camacho



"Mama’s Boy" from Ralston Ramsey



"Upstaged" from Antonello Velez



You can also watch all 10 of this year’s Ghetto Film School shorts on the GFS YouTube channel. Congratulations to all of the GSF fellows for their hard work!

Minjae Ormes, Movies & TV Marketing Manager, recently watched “15 Years of Film Distribution.”

From the desert to the web: bringing the Dead Sea Scrolls online

(Cross-posted on the Nonprofits Blog, the Google.org Blog and the European Public Policy Blog)

It’s taken 24 centuries, the work of archaeologists, scholars and historians, and the advent of the Internet to make the Dead Sea Scrolls accessible to anyone in the world. Today, as the new year approaches on the Hebrew calendar, we’re celebrating the launch of the Dead Sea Scrolls online; a project of The Israel Museum, Jerusalem powered by Google technology.



Written between the third and first centuries BCE, the Dead Sea Scrolls include the oldest known biblical manuscripts in existence. In 68 BCE, they were hidden in 11 caves in the Judean desert on the shores of the Dead Sea to protect them from the approaching Roman armies. They weren’t discovered again until 1947, when a Bedouin shepherd threw a rock in a cave and realized something was inside. Since 1965, the scrolls have been on exhibit at the Shrine of the Book at The Israel Museum, Jerusalem. Among other topics, the scrolls offer critical insights into life and religion in ancient Jerusalem, including the birth of Christianity.

Now, anyone around the world can view, read and interact with five digitized Dead Sea Scrolls. The high resolution photographs, taken by Ardon Bar-Hama, are up to 1,200 megapixels, almost 200 times more than the average consumer camera, so viewers can see even the most minute details in the parchment. For example, zoom in on the Temple Scroll to get a feel for the animal skin it's written on—only one-tenth of a millimeter thick.

You can browse the Great Isaiah Scroll, the most well known scroll and the one that can be found in most home bibles, by chapter and verse. You can also click directly on the Hebrew text and get an English translation. While you’re there, leave a comment for others to see.

The scroll text is also discoverable via web search. If you search for phrases from the scrolls, a link to that text within the scroll viewers on the Dead Sea Scrolls collections site may surface in your search results. For example, search for [Dead Sea Scrolls "In the day of thy planting thou didst make it to grow"], and you may see a link to Chapter 17:Verse 11 within the Great Isaiah Scroll.

This partnership with The Israel Museum, Jerusalem is part of our larger effort to bring important cultural and historical collections online. We are thrilled to have been able to help this project through hosting on Google Storage and App Engine, helping design the web experience and making it searchable and accessible to the world. We’ve been involved in similar projects in the past, including the Google Art Project, Yad Vashem Holocaust photo collection and the Prado Museum in Madrid. We encourage organizations interested in partnering with us in our effort to archive historical collections to enter their information in this form. We hope you enjoy visiting the Dead Sea Scrolls collection online, or any of these other projects, and interacting with history at your fingertips.

Update 9/26/11: An earlier version of this post erroneously excluded our work on the Google Art Project. We've also amended the description of the partnership form to better define the types of partners who might want to submit their information to be considered in our archiving work.

Posted by Eyal Miller, New Business Development and Eyal Fink, Software Engineer, Israel Research and Development Center

UFC fights including “Rampage” vs. “Bones” coming to YouTube in the US with paid live stream

Mixed martial arts fans, we’ve got a new destination for you— the Ultimate Fighting Championship will begin offering paid live streaming of UFC events for viewers in the US on the UFC YouTube channel.

It all begins this Saturday, September 24 at 9p ET/6p PT with the highly anticipated light heavyweight title fight between champion Jon “Bones” Jones and challenger Quinton “Rampage” Jackson. All of the main card fights from UFC 135 will be available live for fans in the US on the UFC YouTube channel for $44.99.



UFC legend Quinton “Rampage” Jackson is searching to regain the title as he faces the youngest champion in UFC history, Jon “Bones” Jones. The co-main event will pit UFC legend Matt Hughes against the fiery Josh Koshcheck. Here’s a preview of this can’t-miss event:

Seth Frank, Strategic Partner Development Manager, recently watched “UFC 135 Live Broadcast on Youtube - Jon Jones”

Remembering my dad, Jim Henson

We’re thrilled to share this guest post by Brian Henson about his father—puppeteer, director and producer Jim Henson, best known as the creator of the Muppets. For the next 36 hours, we’re honoring Jim’s birthday on our homepage with a special doodle created in tandem with The Jim Henson Company. -Ed.

When we were kids, my brother and sisters and I were always allowed to stay up late to watch our father’s appearances on The Tonight Show or The Ed Sullivan Show. No matter how late it was or how young we were, my mother would wake us up and trundle us down to the living room television. We’d be giddy—like Christmas. When he came home, he’d head down to the garage where he had a workshop, and repair everything that we broke while he was away—or build a dollhouse for one of my sisters. Jim never stopped making things.

He also loved games—card games, board games, all kinds of games. He was one of those rare parents who was always ready to play again. He loved dogs, particularly goofy ones. And he lived for those moments when everyone laughed so hard they couldn’t talk. I often walked onto the Muppet set to find everyone just laughing hysterically.

Although he loved family, his work was almost never about “traditional” families. The Muppets were a family—a very diverse one. One of his life philosophies was that we should love people not for their similarities, but for their differences.

Jim often had a little lesson about the important things in life: How to be a good person. How to believe in yourself and follow your dreams. And above all, how to forgive. If anything was stolen from one of us—like when the car was broken into—he would always say, “Oh well, they probably needed that stuff more than we did.”

He loved gadgets and technology. Following his lead, The Jim Henson Company continues to develop cutting-edge technology for animatronics and digital animation, like this cool Google doodle celebrating Jim’s 75th birthday. But I think even he would have found it hilarious the way today some people feel that when they’ve got their smartphone, they no longer need their brain.

Jim was clearly a great visionary. But he also wanted everyone around him fully committed creatively. If you asked him how a movie would turn out, he’d say, “It’ll be what this group can make, and if you changed any one of them, it would be a different movie.” Every day for him was joyously filled with the surprises of other people’s ideas. I often think that if we all lived like that, not only would life be more interesting, we’d all be a lot happier.

Posted by Brian Henson, Chairman of The Jim Henson Company

Google Apps highlights – 9/23/2011

This is part of a regular series of Google Apps updates that we post every couple of weeks. Look for the label “Google Apps highlights" and subscribe to the series. - Ed.

It’s back-to-school season, and we’ve made Gmail, Google Docs, Calendar and Sites easier to use and more powerful for students and non-students alike—including some important accessibility improvements to help blind users be productive in our apps.

Multiple sign-in and other new preferences in Gmail for mobile
On Wednesday, we added some helpful new features for people who use Gmail on a mobile browser. You can now sign in to more than one Gmail account at a time, and toggle between them easily from the account switcher menu at the bottom of the mobile inbox. This can be a good time saver if you have multiple accounts or share a mobile device with family members. Gmail for mobile also now enables you to set up mobile-specific email signatures and create vacation responders right from your phone to let people know when you won't be available by email.

Calling credit auto-recharge
Now you can automatically add international calling credits for phone calls in Gmail when your balance gets low. Just visit the "Billing" area of the Google Voice settings page and click "Add credit" to put your account on cruise control.

Allow people to comment but not edit in documents
Sometimes, you might find yourself in situations when you’d like to share a document for feedback, but don’t want to make the document's content fully editable. The comment-only level of access launched last week is a nice option for these scenarios. You can let others discuss and add their thoughts to your document—without allowing them to change your work. You can allow document comments from specific individuals or groups, from anyone belonging your organization or from the general public.

Format painter, Fusion Tables, drag & drop images and vertical cell merge
Comment-only access isn't all that we've added to Google Docs over the last few weeks. Other notable improvements include a text format painter in documents, which is a fast way to copy and paste font, size, color and other text styling. Spreadsheets now support vertically merged cells (in addition to horizontal merges). In drawings, you can drag images from your desktop to the drawing canvas, then continue editing your graphic. We also added Fusion Tables as a new document type in the documents list. Fusion Tables are a powerful way to gather, visualize and collaborate on large data sets that might be unwieldy in a typical spreadsheet.

Fusion Table data visualized on an interactive map

Accessibility improvements in Google Calendar, Docs and Sites
We think technology can do a better job getting out of people’s way and helping you be more productive with less complexity and fewer frustrations. In this spirit, we’ve recently made a series of improvements to make our applications more accessible to blind users. We have more work to do, but Google Calendar, Docs and Sites now offer better support for screen readers and improved keyboard shortcuts. We hope these changes make our applications more useful to all users.

Who’s gone Google?
Organizations are moving to Google Apps for a diverse set of reasons—including cost savings, streamlined teamwork and better mobile access. We’ve even started hearing from schools and businesses who have made the switch to reduce their impact on the environment. No two organizations choose Google Apps for the exact same reasons, but in total, the momentum of Google Apps keeps growing.

We recently shared the news that 61 of the top 100 universities ranked by U.S. News and World Report have gone Google. On the business side, there are now more than 4 million companies using Google Apps, and businesses are joining at a rate of over 5,000 per day. In all, there are more than 40 million users that regularly use Google Apps in their organizations.

I hope these product updates and customer stories help you and your organization get even more from Google Apps. For more details and the latest news, check out the Google Apps Blog.

Posted by Jeremy Milo, Google Apps Marketing Manager

Grade the candidates in last night's Fox News/Google Debate

Last night’s Fox News/Google Debate brought your top-voted questions to the Republican candidates right here on YouTube. In the lively two-hour debate, over a dozen of your questions were posed to the candidates, while search trends and question data provided more information on the issues you were most interested in.

Now it’s time to grade the candidates on their answers. Did they answer the questions directly? Did they answer them well? Visit youtube.com/foxnews now to watch individual clips of each question-and-answer exchange and provide feedback on how the candidates did.

The Fox News/Google Debate was the most-watched debate of the 2011 season, averaging 6.1 million viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research. If you missed it, you can also watch the full broadcast here:

In addition to voting on videos of the debate, you’ll find a “Pulse” tab on the channel that shows data visualizations of the questions you submitted. You’ll also be able to watch clips from our online show with Shannon Bream and Chris Stirewalt, where we examined your questions and issue searches in more detail.

During the debate, we also looked at what searches were spiking on Google. Of all of the candidates names, the underdog former Governor of New Mexico Gary Johnson’s name saw the biggest spikes.

Viewers were also interested in finding out more about Herman Cain’s “9-9-9” plan -- every time he mentioned the plan, searches for it on Google spiked.

Check out more search trends on the Google Public Sector Blog.

As the GOP primary continues to heat up, you’ll be able to find information straight from the candidates right here on YouTube. Our next scheduled debate is with PBS and the Des Moines Register on January 12th in Iowa -- stay tuned for more information on how you can participate.

Steve Grove, Head of News and Politics, YouTube, recently watched Fox News/Google Debate (Full Length)

The Fox News/Google Debate live tonight on YouTube: GOP candidates answer your questions

Cross posted from the Official Google Blog.

Since we announced the Fox News/Google Debate on September 1, people across the country have submitted more than 18,000 questions to the Fox News YouTube channel on topics ranging from immigration reform, to health care, to foreign aid to social security. Tonight, the Republican presidential candidates will answer those questions in the Fox News/Google Debate, which will be live-streamed on YouTube and broadcast on Fox News Channel starting at 9pm ET. We’ll also have an online pre-debate show starting at 8:30pm ET, featuring Fox News’s Shannon Bream and Chris Stirewalt, and Steve Grove, YouTube’s Head of News and Politics.

Even if you’re watching on TV, you can visit youtube.com/foxnews during the debate to vote on real-time polling questions and submit live commentary. Throughout the evening, we’ll share Google politics-related search trend information and public data that will provide context to the issues discussed. Fox News moderators will ask specific questions that were submitted by citizens through YouTube, and we’ll be looking at overall trends that emerge from the questions in aggregate. To give you an idea, here’s a look at the most popular words people used in their submissions (the bigger the word, the more often it was used)

Flex your democratic muscle and tune in to youtube.com/foxnews tonight at 8:30pm ET for a political debate that puts you in the driver’s seat of the discussion.

Ramya Raghavan, YouTube News and Politics Manager, recently watched “Candidate Question IRS.”

The Fox News/Google Debate live tonight on YouTube: GOP candidates answer your questions

Since we announced the Fox News/Google Debate on September 1, people across the country have submitted more than 18,000 questions to the Fox News YouTube channel on topics ranging from immigration reform, to health care, to foreign aid to social security. Tonight, the Republican presidential candidates will answer those questions in the Fox News/Google Debate, which will be live-streamed on YouTube and broadcast on Fox News Channel starting at 9pm ET. We’ll also have an online pre-debate show starting at 8:30pm ET, featuring Fox News’s Shannon Bream and Chris Stirewalt, and Steve Grove, YouTube’s Head of News and Politics.

Even if you’re watching on TV, you can visit youtube.com/foxnews during the debate to vote on real-time polling questions and submit live commentary. Throughout the evening, we’ll share Google politics-related search trend information and public data that will provide context to the issues discussed. Fox News moderators will ask specific questions that were submitted by citizens through YouTube, and we’ll be looking at overall trends that emerge from the questions in aggregate. To give you an idea, here’s a look at the most popular words people used in their submissions (the bigger the word, the more often it was used).

Flex your democratic muscle and tune in to youtube.com/foxnews tonight at 8:30pm ET for a political debate that puts you in the driver’s seat of the discussion.

Posted by Ramya Raghavan, YouTube news and politics manager

Additional Creator Tools from YouTube

As part of our ongoing goal to foster the creation of great video content, we are announcing the release of three new features we hope will empower you to become even more imaginative with your video production.

1. Convert your 2D videos into 3D with a single click. (beta!)
Creating 3D videos was pretty tough before. You had to set up two cameras, combine the footage from each, and use special software to make the effect look just right. Today we're launching 2D to 3D conversion. Once you've uploaded your 2D videos to YouTube, you can convert them to 3D with the click of a button. Converted videos will be viewable by everyone in 3D. You'll still get best results with a 3D camera, but it's a great new way to let people enjoy your finest moments. You'll find this feature by selecting "Edit Info", then "3D Video" on a video you've uploaded. (Note, you'll still need glasses to watch on most devices.)

2. All verified users in good standing can now upload long-form videos.
YouTubers are some of the most innovative, entertaining and inspirational people in the world, and their creativity often needs more than the current upload limit of 15 minutes. Today, we’re improving upon our previous launch by enabling long uploads for users with a clean track record who complete an account verification and continue to follow the copyright rules set forth in our Community Guidelines. Check out some of the original full-length videos that can now shine on YouTube, such as student-film: “Spirit’s Revenge.”

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To help you get those longer videos online, we also recently launched resumable uploads, which ensures that you won’t lose any of the minutes you’ve uploaded if your internet fails or your computer dies during the upload process. You can resume uploading right where you left off once you’re back online. (Note: Advanced uploader is no longer required to upload large files.)

3. Shoot, edit and share your videos easily with vlix and Magisto, now on youtube.com/create.
We’re adding two additional video creation platforms for you to make your videos even better: Vlix and Magisto. Vlix lets you spice up your videos by adding cool effects and text to the video intro and closing. Magisto takes your unedited video and automatically edits it into short, fun clips.

With so many tools at your fingertips, what are you waiting for? Get Ready...Set...Create!

Shenaz Zack Mistry, Product Manager, recently watched "Home."

Rock in Rio 2011 live on YouTube

With live streams of concerts like Coachella and Lollapalooza, and performances from bands like U2, YouTube is no stranger to hosting the planet’s big rock fests. So we’re adding another to the list: Rock in Rio 2011.

From September 23 to October 2, some of the biggest bands in the world will be live on YouTube performing at the world’s next mega-concert, Rock in Rio 2011 from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The Rock in Rio YouTube channel already has an early look at some of the bands in the lineup, including Metallica, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Katy Perry, Elton John, Rihanna and more.



We’ll be live around the world in 24 different languages, so if you can’t attend in Brazil, clear your schedule and get ready to rock!

Flavia Simon, Marketing Manager, recently watched “Cidade do rock 3D.”

A 67-year reunion of wartime survivors, inspired by Google Books

(Cross-posted on the Inside Google Books blog)

From time to time, we invite guests to post about items of interest. We're pleased to have James Keeffe, III, author of the award-winning Two Gold Coins and a Prayer: The Epic Journey of a World War II Bomber Pilot and POW, tell us an amazing story about how Google Books helped reunite a Holocaust survivor and a World War II veteran. -Ed.

Last year, my distributor Epicenter Press uploaded my book, Two Gold Coins and a Prayer: The Epic Journey of a World War II Bomber Pilot and POW, to Google Books. The book is a memoir of the WWII experiences of my father, James H. Keeffe, Jr., as told to me. He was an American B-24 bomber pilot who, on his fourth mission during the war, was shot down over Southern Holland and taken in by the Dutch Underground. He spent the next five months evading capture by staying in several safe houses in Rotterdam. In one of the homes, owned by a Dr. Jappe-Alberts, a Jewish family—father, mother and eight-year-old daughter—hid up in the attic.

About six months ago, I received an email that sent shivers up my spine. It was from the same Jewish family's daughter, now called Helen Cohen-Berman:

Dear Sir,

I've found this book a few day ago at the internet. I am the little girl from the Cohen family who was hidden together with Jim at the Jappe-Alberts family. I was 8 years old. I've read a part of the book already on the net and my son in the USA ordered it. It's unbelievable to find all this after so many years... We are now living in Israel since 1978. I would like to leave a note with these information for the writer and his father as a sign of life. Can you give me an email-address? Forwarding is another possibility!

With regards,
Helen Cohen-Berman

Imagine my surprise! All my dad knew about the Cohens at this point was that they had eventually been captured by the Nazis, who also shot Dr. Jappe-Alberts and sent his family to prison.

Left: Photo of 19-year-old James from October 1942, Right: Photo of 9-year-old Helen from 1945

Helen, my father and I began emailing each other quite often. Helen, now 76 years old, told us that after all these decades, it had been time for her to come to grips with her memories of the war. Her daughter suggested that she search for the name "Jappe-Alberts” and the place "Rotterdam" on Google. Two results of import came up. The first was a memorial to 10 men shot by the Nazis on a country road south of Rotterdam, including Dr. Jappe-Alberts. The second was the portion of my book on Google Books that had the name Jappe-Alberts in it. Helen began to read that part of the book and, lo and behold, realized she was reading about herself as a young girl and her family.

She told us that, though her family had been sent to Westerbork, a transit/concentration camp in North Holland, after being captured, they survived the war. The rail system in the Netherlands by that time was so damaged that the Nazis could not move any more people from transit camps like Westerbork to the death camps of Germany and Poland. Westerbork—along with the Cohens—was eventually liberated by the Canadians.

Six months after Helen's email to me, after much planning, Helen flew to Seattle and was reunited with my father on September 13, 2011. Sixty-seven years had passed since last they saw each other. It was a very moving experience—all possible because of Google Books.

After 67 years, Helen and James were reunited in James' Seattle home

I was greatly honored to have been able to bring my father and Helen together again. Helen said the reunion was a "closing of a circle" and a healing time for her as she was finally able to talk about some of the events she had endured. For my father, the reunion was a joyful occasion. Meeting Helen allowed him to fill in some gaps, and find out the details of her family's capture and imprisonment. He was very happy to see Helen and quite sad when it was time to say goodbye.

At their reunion, I kept looking at them both, now in their later years, trying unsuccessfully to imagine what it must have been like when they were young and living under the fist of the Nazi occupation. Always the threat of instant and often cruel death weighed heavily on them, yet they both survived—and 67 years later were standing side by side, telling each other, and us, their stories.

Photo taken at the VFW Hall in Redmond, Washington, where James attends POW meetings. Credit: Book It Northwest

Posted by James H. Keeffe, III, author of Two Gold Coins and a Prayer: The Epic Journey of a World War II Bomber Pilot and POW

YouTube.com/Teachers: Helping teachers use YouTube to engage and educate their students

We’re excited to welcome James Sanders, middle school history teacher at KIPP San Francisco Bay Academy, to the YouTube blog. In his classroom, James uses technology to engage and educate his students more effectively. Today James shares the impact YouTube has had on his students and helps us announce an exciting new resource for educators worldwide.

When I started teaching in Los Angeles five years ago I was surprised by how little the classroom experience had changed since I was a middle schooler myself eighteen years prior. The world around us had gone through a dramatic technological boom but classrooms had stayed nearly the same. In my classroom, I made a commitment to incorporate technology. I started a class blog and participated in an experiment with Chromebooks. What was the one tool I found most useful as a teacher and most engaging for my students? YouTube.

I’ve used YouTube in my classroom in countless different ways. I use videos to spark classroom discussions, increase instructional time by assigning videos as homework, and create playlists for each lesson so students can dive deeper into specific areas that interest them. I also found countless educational videos on YouTube that energize and excite my students about a number of topics, such as medieval history.

This summer I was delighted to join the YouTube team to help develop resources for teachers. This past July we organized the first-ever YouTube Teacher’s Studio, a workshop for teachers from around the world to train them on using YouTube in the classroom. Award-winning teacher trainers Jim Sill and Ramsey Musallam led workshops on “Finding your inner Spielberg” and “FlipTeaching,” and I taught about using YouTube as a powerful educational tool.

While it was an amazing experience for those gathered, YouTube is all about its global reach and universal access to great content. In that vein, we’ve worked to build these trainings (and more) into a site we’re launching today: YouTube.com/Teachers.

This site is a resource for educators everywhere to learn how to use YouTube as an educational tool. There are lesson plan suggestions, highlights of great educational content on YouTube, and training on how to film your own educational videos.

This site was written by teachers for teachers, and we want to continue that spirit of community-involvement. We’re creating a new YouTube newsletter for teachers (sign up here!) and are asking teachers to submit their favorite YouTube playlists for us to highlight on YouTube EDU.

Finally, I know that not every teacher is lucky enough to have access to YouTube in their school. The YouTube EDU team is hard at work on a solution that will make educational content more easily discoverable for teachers and the site more easily integrated within schools, so stay tuned!

James Sanders, a middle school history teacher at KIPP San Francisco Bay Academy, recently watched “A Brief History of Techonology in Classrooms,” and can be found posting tips and tricks on Google+. Will Houghteling, YouTube EDU, recently watched “Monster Foam Science Experiment."

ESPN’s SportsNation is on the recruiting trail

Sports fanatics have taken to YouTube to voice their opinions as part of ESPN SportsNation Fanalyst campaign, where you have the chance to be on SportsNation every Friday. We have this week’s question and invite your feedback, as you could be selected as the Fanalyst of the Week online and on-air.

This week's playbook calls for your well-informed, 15-second analysis on if Tom Brady is a lock to win the NFL’s MVP award. That's right: we're two weeks into the 2011 NFL season and already the New England Patriots QB seems like everyone’s runaway favorite for the NFL’s top honor. Only the most original take on the Brady Bandwagon will win Fanalyst of the Week honors, so let’s see what you’ve got.



The Sports Nation Fanalyst Contest presented by Toyota (contest rules here) will continue throughout the year, so return every Monday to SportsNationESPN to get the weekly topic from hosts Michelle Beadle and Colin Cowherd, and grab your 15 Seconds of Fanalyst Fame!

Brendan McGovern, Interactive Producer, recently watched “Could Tony Romo Lead Dallas To The Superbowl?”

Google+: 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99... 100.

For our international readers, this post is also available in Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish (Latin America, Spain). - Ed.

The Google+ project has been in field trial for just under 90 days, and in that time we’ve made 91 different improvements (many of which are posted here). Google+ is still in its infancy, of course, but we’re more excited than ever to bring the nuance and richness of real-life sharing to software. Today we’re releasing nine more features that get us that much closer.

+Hangouts: more places, more people, more to do

Hangouts uses live video to bring people together, face-to-face-to-face. And from day one, the community has shaped and stretched the feature in amazing ways—from cooking classes to game shows to music concerts. We're determined to keep this momentum going, and to keep providing new ways to communicate in-person, so we hope you enjoy this week’s round of Hangouts improvements.

92. Hangouts on your phone
In life we connect with others in all sorts of places, at all different times. And the connections you make unexpectedly are often the ones you remember the most. We think Hangouts should keep pace with how you socialize in the real-world, so today we’re launching it on the one device that's always by your side: your mobile phone. To get started, simply find an active hangout in the Stream, and tap “Join”:

Hangouts on your phone: Stream View (left), Green Room (center), Portrait Mode (right)

Hangouts currently supports Android 2.3+ devices with front-facing cameras (and iOS support is coming soon). The new mobile app is rolling out to Android Market today, so you can start hanging out at any time, from just about anywhere.

93. Hangouts On Air
Google+ users already use Hangouts to create intimate onscreen experiences—with family members, prayer groups, even people with certain medical conditions. But sometimes you want to speak to a large audience, or alternatively, view as a spectator. In these cases a public broadcast is what’s needed, so today we’re introducing Hangouts On Air.

The setup is simple enough: just start a normal hangout, and you’ll have the option to broadcast and record your session. Once you’re “On Air,” up to nine others can join your hangout (as usual), and anyone can watch your live broadcast:

Hangouts On Air: Stream View (left), Full-screen Mode (right)

We’re starting with a limited number of broadcasters, but any member of the Google+ community can tune in. In fact: we’ll be hosting our very first On Air hangout with will.i.am on Wednesday night, September 21. For more information visit will.i.am’s or my profile on Google+.

94, 95, 96, 97. Hangouts with extras
Spending time together goes hand in hand with actually doing things together. Dinner with family can easily turn into movie night at the local theater, for instance. And running into old friends can inspire anything from photo sharing to vacation planning. Hangouts has always included a basic set of in-room actions (like group chat and co-viewing of YouTube videos), but we want to make it easier to do a lot more. That’s why we’re previewing some extras, including:

• Screensharing: for when you want to show off your vacation photos, your high score, your lesson plan or whatever else is on your screen
• Sketchpad: for when you want to draw, doodle, or just scribble together
• Google Docs: for when you want to write, plan or present something with others
• Named Hangouts: for when you want to join or create a public hangout about a certain topic (like fashion or music or sports...) 

Hangouts with extras: Screensharing (left), Sketchpad (right)

Hangouts with extras: Docs (left), Named Hangouts (right)

The extras are still under construction, but we wanted to preview these features and get your feedback sooner versus later. So start a hangout, click “Try Hangouts with extras” in the green room, and let us know what you think.

98. Hangouts APIs
If field trial has taught us anything about Hangouts, it’s that the community is overflowing with creative individuals. So in the wake of last week’s Google+ API launch, we’re also releasing a basic set of Hangouts APIs. If you're a developer who wants to build new kinds of apps and games (and who-knows-what-else), then you can find more details on the Google+ platform blog.

+Search: find the people and posts you care about

99. Search in Google+
You’ve been asking for it, and we’ve been busy building it, so today we’re bringing Google’s search expertise to Google+. Just type what you’re looking for into the Google+ search box, and we’ll return relevant people and posts, as well as popular content from around the web.

If you’re into photography, for example, then you’ll see other enthusiasts and lots of great pictures. If you care more about cooking, then you’ll see other chefs and food from around the globe. In all cases, Google+ search results include items that only you can see, so family updates are just as easy to find as international news.

Search in Google+: photography (left), cooking (right)

With more than 1 billion items shared and received every day, we’re excited to see how search will connect people through their posts on Google+.

+Everyone

100. Anyone can sign up for Google+—no invitation required.
For the past 12 weeks we’ve been in field trial, and during that time we’ve listened and learned a great deal. We’re nowhere near done, but with the improvements we’ve made so far we’re ready to move from field trial to beta, and introduce our 100th feature: open signups. This way anyone can visit google.com/+, join the project and connect with the people they care about.

Over the next day we'll be rolling out all of these features globally. In the meantime, you can check out what's next in Google+.

Posted by Vic Gundotra, Senior Vice President of Engineering

Music Tuesday: Mastodon, Warpaint and Strawburry17

Austin, Texas is accustomed to hordes of music lovers descending on its streets periodically. But at this year's Austin City Limits Music Festival, you didn’t need to be there to be part of it—the festival was streaming live all weekend on YouTube; check out some festival highlights now. And, just in case you didn’t get your fill last weekend, we have oodles of musical goodies for you today.


Mastodon The Hunter album premiere
What is a mastodon? A massive, lumbering animal that first appeared on earth 40 million years ago. Does Mastodon, the metal band, share the same gravitas as its namesake? If you like heavy music, twin guitar squall and hard rock with a side of prog, then the answer is yes. Mastodon’s fifth release jettisons the concept-album conceits of its predecessors, liberating the band to dizzying stylistic pivots that can, at their best moments, feel like small revelations (check out the song “The Ocotopus Has No Friends”). We’re pleased to present their new album The Hunter in its entirety today, set to excellent visuals, a week before release.





Live Sessions on the ‘Tube
It’s all about the live sessions these days. Everybody’s doing them, whether they’re seated on the Big Ugly Yellow Couch, crammed into the studios at KCRW or KEXP, vibing out in Room 205 or rapping to a boombox on the Brooklyn bridge. This week we celebrate the beautiful diversity with exclusive live sessions from the indie band Warpaint, whom we in part love just because of their website name. (Warpaintwarpaint.com — why say it once?) This is a band that manages to sweetly brood, skirting the line of psychedelia with a kind of entrancing intensity. We also include a smattering of great live performances found on other channels. Got a suggestion for live sessions we haven’t seen? Send Music Tuesday a message.





Strawburry17 Gets More Into Indie Pop
The music video creator Meghan Camarena, better known as Strawburry17, has earned herself a devoted following on YouTube for her work crafting videos for up-and-coming bands. Last week, she reached out to the community to help her get more into indie pop—and you responded in a big way. Check out her favorite picks, and dig deeper into the genre with her.





Sarah Bardeen, Music Community Manager, recently watched “Das Racist - Michael Jackson.”

Fox News/Google Debate: Digging into your questions

With three days to go before the Fox News/Google Debate, we’ve seen more than 16,000 questions from all 50 states submitted to the Fox News YouTube channel. During Thursday’s live event in Orlando, you’ll see a selection of these questions posed to the GOP candidates live on stage. As we count down to tomorrow’s midnight ET submission deadline, here’s a look at the questions you want answered by the candidates bidding for the 2012 Republican nomination.

The top issues on your minds? The Government Spending & Debt and Jobs & Economy categories rank highest in question volume—not surprising with unemployment above 9 percent and a summer spent debating the debt ceiling. Health care, which dominated political chatter for the first year of Obama’s presidency, now trails all other issues.

* NOTE: This chart excludes the “Other” category, which has received 26% of all questions, ranging from education to State’s rights.

You also want to hear from specific candidates in the GOP field. Ten percent of the total questions received referenced a specific candidate, and of those, newcomer Gov. Rick Perry leads the pack. Outweighing all of the GOP candidates in mentions? President Obama. Questioners referenced the current president over 1,000 times, nearly twice as many times as Gov. Perry, and ten times as much as the previous president, George W. Bush.

Interest in the race spans the country and the globe, with questions submitted from Indiana to Israel, South Dakota to South Korea. In the US, the cities leading question submissions are:

• Houston
• Miami
• New York
• San Diego
• Austin

It’s not too late to submit your own question, or vote on the ones you like, at www.youtube.com/foxnews. Then, on Thursday, watch the live debate unfold there at 9pm ET, and see how the candidates respond.


Will Houghteling, YouTube News and Politics, recently watched “Flying over planet Earth.”