Google blogging (and beyond) in 2011

With just a few hours of 2011 remaining in Mountain View, Calif., we’re taking our traditional look at the past year on the Official Google Blog, as well as Google’s presence on Google+ and Twitter.

On the blog this year, we published 471 posts (including this one)—17 more than 2010. Those posts were read by nearly 20 million people; we had 19,905,679 unique visitors between January 1 and December 31. We find a few themes in the most popular posts: Google+ was a favorite topic, as well as greater focus and simplicity across Google, and search quality. The top 10 posts are:

• Ten years later - 1,731,280 unique pageviews. Our post for the 10th anniversary of September 11, 2001 recognized a few online spaces for remembering the day. (This post was linked from google.com.)
• Introducing the Google+ project: real-life sharing, rethought for the web - 909,537 unique pageviews. In June, we launched Google+ to bring the nuance and richness of real-life sharing to the web.
• Microsoft’s Bing uses Google search results—and denies it - 538,764 unique pageviews. We posted about how our experiments determined that Bing was using Google web search results.
• Supercharging Android: Google to acquire Motorola Mobility - 431,366 unique pageviews. In August we announced an agreement to acquire Motorola.
• Evolving the Google design and experience - 352,254 unique pageviews. We began to bring greater consistency to the Google experience, revamping first the homepage, then Gmail and more.
• Games in Google+: fun that fits your schedule - 265,995 unique pageviews. Less than two months after we launched the Google+ project, we brought games to the platform.
• More wood behind fewer arrows - 310,912 unique pageviews. As part of the process of prioritizing our product efforts, we announced the winding down of Google Labs.
• Advanced sign-in security for your Google account - 281,385 unique pageviews. It’s not often we can say that a post about online security is one of the top posts of the year. 2-step verification, an opt-in feature that helps verify that you're the real owner of your account, was an exception.
• Google+ Pages: connect with all the things you care about - 237,467 unique pageviews. The third most popular Google+ post on the blog was about pages for brands and businesses to connect with people on Google+.
• Finding more high-quality sites in search - 258,974 unique pageviews. A major change to our ranking algorithm, known as Panda, is aimed at helping people find even higher quality in our search results.

Other popular posts included the announcement that Larry Page was becoming CEO, a project to help Egyptians communicate during the January protests, Google+ updates and +1 news, a keeping your information safe from phishing campaigns, patents and Android, practical steps toward greener computing, more search news and the debut of Google Wallet. We shared special doodles (from Lucy to Les Paul to the lunar eclipse, and Jules Verne to Jim Henson) and stories from unique Google users. We brought music to the cloud, Ice Cream Sandwich to your pocket, and great works of art and pieces of history to your computer screens. We worked to help those affected by disasters in Japan and elsewhere, told some history tales, and, as always, had some fun along the way.

Like many of you, we were excited to start using Google+ Pages when they launched in November. We’re now running 22 pages for Google products and teams; nearly 100,000 of you have the flagship page, +Google, in your circles. Popular posts there include photos of our L.A. office, holiday, New Year and Marie Curie doodles, the year-end Zeitgeist, Google Photography Prize and Sebastian Thrun on self-driving cars.

We’ll soon celebrate @google’s third anniversary on Twitter, and we hit the 4 million follower mark this month. Popular tweets include the Les Paul doodle, patents and Android, Motorola, Larry and Sergey remembering Steve Jobs, Google Wallet, Google+ and Wael Ghonim.

As the clock ticks toward the close of 2011, we thank our readers for following along—by feed reader, phone app or however you please—and hope you join us for the next year of Google news. Happy 2012!

Posted by Emily Wood, Google Blog Editor

December’s “On The Rise” Partner is ThePortraitArt

Congratulations to Xiaonan, the talent behind the portraits featured on ThePortraitArt. This channel received the most votes for the December On The Rise poll, and will be featured on the YouTube homepage today.

Xiaonan Sun is a self-taught artist, and producing lifelike portraits is his passion. Since 2008, Xiaonan has used YouTube to document his talent through timelapse videos that showcase not only the final product but the full creative process. Some of his most popular pieces are pop-culture celebrity likenesses, but he also produces personal portraits by commission. And if you thought traditional portrayals and media were the limits of Xiaonan’s skill, you’re in for a treat: he can create the illusion of reality with his portraits, and he doesn’t limit himself to using simply pencils and erasers.

Here are a few words from our December On The Rise star himself:

“I make my art videos to share my creation process, which I think could be every bit as compelling as the final product. But I also make these videos to relax your mind, calm your thoughts and uplift your mood. After all,  today's people are so often stuck in thoughts, dealing with its worries and day to day  concerns, that most rarely calm their mind down to feel the presence of the moment, which is the only thing there really is and ever could be. I want more people to be in this state more often, to see things not through the limited and rigid mind or the fearful ego, but through a heart that loves to express and create. I like to express my deep appreciation for all those who voted for me and watch my videos, and my sincere gratitude to youtube for  providing the canvas, for my channel is a drawing, and each video a stroke on its paper.”

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 “Downhill extreme: Rollerman overtaking motocycle!”

Share your New Year’s resolutions for an #Awesome2012

Plan to run a marathon in 2012? Go back to school? Ask your secret crush on a date?

It’s easy to come up with a resolution and enter the new year with high hopes, but the hardest part is often sticking to it throughout the year. To help you stay with it, we’ve got an idea — put your resolution on YouTube and share it with your friends using the #awesome2012 hashtag.

We’ll also be looking for five of the most interesting videos to feature on our homepage in January. Follow the instructions below and your resolution could inspire millions of viewers.

1. Make a video sharing what you want to accomplish in 2012
2. Outline your strategy and describe the steps you’ll take to reach your goal
3. Upload it to YouTube by January 2 at Noon PT and tag it with #awesome2012

Need help getting started on your #awesome2012 action plan? One of our YouTube partners is here to help:



Cheers to an #awesome2012!

Danielle Paquette, Social Media Manager, recently watched all the videos on YouTube Rewind.

Professional Bull Riding comes to YouTube

Over the last 20 years, Professional Bull Riders have turned a classic sport into a global league with more than 100 million fans tuning in from around the world. Now you can follow PBR on their YouTube Channel, for livestreamed events as well as original programming, interviews, highlights and your videos.

You can catch livestreamed events on:

• January 6 from Madison Square Garden in NYC
• April 21 from Des Moines, Iowa
• April 28 from Uncasville, Connecticut
• May 5 from Billings, Montana
• May 18 from Pueblo, Colorado
• And more to come

To get you ready to ride, here’s a quick look at the 2011 season:



See you in 2012!

Frank Golding, Director of Pro Sports & Leagues, YouTube Sports, recently watched “2011 Built Ford Tough World Finals highlights.”

Music Tuesday: A bevy of year-end lists from tUnE-yArDs and more

In 2011, music videos were as varied as the artists who made them: we saw a string of videos featuring parties you wish you’d been at. On the indie circuit, found footage and ghostly, atmospheric imagery dominated the landscape. We also saw musicians get behind the camera and make some extraordinary self-directed music videos. This week we invited a musician who's ending up on a lot of year-end lists to share with us their year-end lists — and one from a record store for good measure.

2011: Merrill Garbus’ Picks
Merrill Garbus’ tUnE-yArDs may have been embraced by the indie community, but tUnE-yArDs isn’t your average twee indie pop. If anything, Garbus is the antidote to twee: she’s got a big, blowsy voice and she explores its range with refreshing abandon, edging into abrasive territory in a way that is curiously not abrasive. She’s also profoundly influenced by African music, and you can hear itthatin the layered chirps and coos of some songs, which draw directly from the Central African pygmy vocal tradition. Yes, heady stuff -- but Garbus also loves her dance music, and that’s why her album w h o k i l l has connected on such a visceral level with so many fans this year. (It sounds like very little else in any genre.) We were intrigued to know what music inspired her this year; her choices may surprise you.



2011: Amoeba Music’s Picks
Last but not least, California’s largest independent music store employs a small army of music nerds. In one fell swoop of collective bargaining, they agreed on their 22 (22!) favorite music videos of 2011. Nobody has their fingers in as much music as these folks; consider this a quick primer on some great music that you might have missed.



See you in 2012!

Sarah Bardeen, Music Community Manager, recently watched “Favorite Albums of 2011.”

Geoffrey Canada and Capella University livestream panel on education reform

One person can make a difference. Just ask Geoffrey Canada, an education reform advocate whose groundbreaking work in Harlem schools set a precedent across the United States. It’s even inspired U.S. President Barack Obama to apply his model to cities across America.

On December 28 at 3:00pm PT, Geoffrey Canada will deliver a keynote speech about education reform, hosted by Capella University and streamed live on YouTube. The keynote presentation will be followed by a panel discussion on critical issues with leaders in the field of education reform, including Dr. Steve Perry and Dr. Christy Hovanetz. The panel will also answer questions submitted via YouTube here.

In the meantime, here’s some of Canada’s past work:



So check out the live event at 3:00pm PT on December 28 on Capella University's Inspire Ideas YouTube Channel, and we hope you enjoy.

Jen Howard, Education Director at Google, recently watched “YouTube for Schools: Join the Global Classroom Today!”

Introducing YouTube Slam

Have some free time this week? Think you can find the next singing sensation, viral video like Charlie bit my finger or Surprised Kitty?

Then come play YouTube Slam—a video discovery experiment we cooked up with folks from Google Research. Each week a new crop of videos battles head-to-head in Comedy, Cute, Music, Bizarre and Dance Slams, where your votes determine who wins the Slam and gets featured on the leaderboard.

Earn points for predicting the crowd favorites, and see how you stack up against other players at the end of each week. Get your daily dose of the most talented, hilarious, adorable or weird videos on YouTube, and you could help uncover the next big thing.

You can also subscribe to our Slam channels to see each week’s video leaderboards: Comedy, Cute, Music, Bizarre or Dance. Pick a Slam and start playing!

Tomas Izo, Software Engineer, recently watched “Brick By Boring Brick: Paramore (Storm Kaden Cover)” via YouTube Slam.

Remembering a remarkable Soviet computing pioneer

In many parts of the world, today is Christmas—but in Russia and Eastern Europe, which use the Orthodox calendar, December 25 is just an ordinary day. Little known to most, however, it’s also a day that marks the anniversary of a key development in European computer history.

Sixty years ago today, in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, the Soviet Academy of Sciences finally granted formal recognition to Sergey Lebedev’s pioneering MESM project. MESM, a Russian abbreviation for “Small Electronic Calculating Machine,” is regarded as the earliest, fully operational electronic computer in the Soviet Union—and indeed continental Europe.

Recently we were privileged to get a first-hand account of Lebedev’s achievements from Boris Malinovsky, who worked on MESM and is now a leading expert on Soviet-era computing.


Turn on captions for the English translation.

Described by some as the “Soviet Alan Turing,” Sergey Lebedev had been thinking about computing as far back as the 1930’s, until interrupted by war. In 1946 he was made director of Kyiv’s Institute of Electrical Engineering. Soon after, stories of “electronic brains” in the West began to circulate and his interest in computing revived.

Sergey Lebedev*

Initially, Lebedev’s superiors were skeptical, and some in his team felt working on a “calculator”—how they thought of a computer—was a step backward compared to electrical and space systems research. Lebedev pressed on regardless, eventually finding funding from the Rocketry department and space to work in a derelict former monastery in Feofania, on the outskirts of Kyiv.

Work on MESM got going properly at the end of 1948 and, considering the challenges, the rate of progress was remarkable. Ukraine was still struggling to recover from the devastation of its occupation during WWII, and many of Kyiv’s buildings lay in ruins. The monastery in Feofania was among the buildings destroyed during the war, so the MESM team had to build their working quarters from scratch—the laboratory, metalworking shop, even the power station that would provide electricity. Although small—just 20 people—the team was extraordinarily committed. They worked in shifts 24 hours a day, and many lived in rooms above the laboratory. (You can listen to a lively account of this time in programme 3 of the BBC’s ”Electronic brains” series.)

MESM and team members in 1951. From left to right: Lev Dashevsky, Zoya Zorina-Rapota, Lidiya Abalyshnikova, Tamara Petsukh, Evgeniy Dedeshko

MESM ran its first program on November 6, 1950, and went into full-time operation in 1951. In 1952, MESM was used for top-secret calculations relating to rocketry and nuclear bombs, and continued to aid the Institute’s research right up to 1957. By then, Lebedev had moved to Moscow to lead the construction of the next generation of Soviet supercomputers, cementing his place as a giant of European computing. As for MESM, it met a more prosaic fate—broken into parts and studied by engineering students in the labs at Kyiv’s Polytechnic Institute.

*All photos thanks to ukrainiancomputing.org.

Posted by Marina Tarasova, Communications Associate, Ukraine

How to use YouTube for your holiday home videos

From squabbling over the family holiday photo, to filming a child unwrapping a dream toy, ‘tis the season for recording cherished family moments. Whether you want to share them with the world, or keep them in the family, here are tips for using YouTube to record your family’s memories:

Save a few Christmas trees, and send a holiday video card.
Compile your family’s favorite moments from the year, add season’s greetings, and blast it out to your family and friends.

1. Keep videos short—around a minute or less—and mix film and photos
2. Use the YouTube Video Editor to edit your video after uploading
3. Include a link to your video and send to your online address book in seconds

Use YouTube as an archive for your favorite holiday memories.
YouTube makes it easy to share your videos just with family or friends by letting you keep your videos private, which makes sure it doesn’t appear in searches.

1. Set your videos to Private and designate specific people who can view it
2. Keep videos Unlisted where only friends and family with the link can view the video
3. Use descriptive titles so you can easily search through your growing online catalogue

Is your hilarious holiday moment the next viral video on YouTube?
If you’re not shy about sharing your holiday moments and others love it as much as your family, you could possibly be invited to earn money from your video (helpful for future holiday shopping).

Check out holiday hits from years past for some ideas:



Jessica Mason, communications associate, recently watched "Project for Awesome: Water and Victoria Secret."

Santa Claus is coming to town... find out where with Google and NORAD

It’s that time of year again! The stockings are hung by the chimney with care and Google and NORAD are ready to answer the question of “where?”

NORAD’s tradition of tracking Santa on Christmas Eve started in 1955, when a Sears and Roebuck ad promoting the Talk-to-Santa hotline inadvertently sent callers to CONAD (NORAD’s predecessor) commander-in-chief’s operations hotline. After recovering from the surprise that the call was not from the Pentagon or the White House but instead a little boy inquiring if the commander was Santa Claus, Colonel Harry Shoup asked his team to check their radar for signs of Santa’s sleigh and a tradition was born.

The Santa tracking tradition has grown over the years and today it’s also possible to track Santa using Google Earth and Google Maps on the NORAD Santa site, and on your mobile phone as well. Starting tomorrow (Saturday, December 24) at 2:00 a.m. EST, visit www.noradsanta.org to follow Santa’s journey from the North Pole to homes all over the globe. This year there are many ways to keep tabs on Santa’s sleigh, no matter how quickly it moves:

• Follow Santa on Google Maps: Visit www.noradsanta.org to see where Santa is currently flying and where he’s headed next on Google Maps. Click on the video icons to watch “Santa cam” videos from all over the world, and the gift icons will display information about each city along the route.
• Watch Santa fly in 3D with the Google Earth plug-in: If you have the Google Earth plug-in installed on your computer, you can track Santa’s location in 3D and see him deliver presents everywhere from the mountain villages of the Swiss Alps to the white sand beaches of Hawaii.
• Track Santa from your mobile phone: Follow Santa on the go by searching for [santa] on the Google Maps for mobile app.
• Get updates via social media: The NORAD team will be posting updates about Santa’s flight throughout the day on December 24. Follow them on Google+, Twitter or Facebook for live updates.
• Subscribe to the NORAD Tracks Santa YouTube channel: All “Santa cam” videos will be posted on the NORAD Tracks Santa YouTube channel as they’re captured. You can also watch a recap of Santa’s 2010 trip. Check back often for updates!

Santa flying over London in Google Earth

NORAD Tracks Santa is a special project near and dear to all of us involved. I started working on the program seven years ago and it’s been a thrill to watch it grow over the years. Recently, I was given the opportunity to speak at TEDActive about the origins of NORAD Tracks Santa and how Google has brought this to life in Google Earth.



I’d like to thank all of Santa’s “elves” that helped out across Google and NORAD far and wide. Happy Holidays!

Posted by Bruno Bowden, Lead Google Engineering Elf

(Cross-posted on the Lat Long blog)

Ads Worth Spreading 2.0 - get your entries in!

With only two weeks left for submissions to Ads Worth Spreading 2.0, TED is asking for your support in their search for innovation, ingenuity and intelligence in advertising. The dream behind the initiative is to find companies that want to communicate ideas to their consumers in the same way that TED wants to communicate with its audience.

What makes ideas powerful is that they have a life of their own; an idea can reset someone’s worldview and even begin a domino effect as they pass it on to friends. Ads Worth Spreading is TED’s initiative to recognize and reward innovation, ingenuity and intelligence in advertising -- the ads that people want to see, and share with their friends.

One of our favorite entries so far has been Chipotle's "Back to the Start" campaign, which champions the idea of a return to small, sustainable farming.



Another lighthearted piece we love comes from UK brand Cravendale. "Cats With Thumbs" has the kind of creativity and humor that inspires people to share an ad with friends.



YouTube has been helping to promote and showcase the Ads Worth Spreading entries online with a dedicated channel at http://www.youtube.com/adsworthspreading. Visit the channel and upload your video, or simply add your existing YouTube video to the channel before December 31, 2011. Agencies, brands, producers and individuals are invited to submit their best work of 2011. There is no fee to enter work. Submissions must be: less than five (5) minutes in length, created and aired between January 2011 and December 2011, and entered by an authorized agency, brand or producer. We look forward to seeing the submissions continue to come in!

Ronda Carnegie, Head of Global Partnerships at TED, recently watched, “Jane McGonigal: Gaming can make a better world.”

Thumbnails: Your video’s billboard on YouTube

This is part of an ongoing series sharing tips from the YouTube Creator Playbook, a resource of best practices and tips you can start using on your channel and videos right away. As we move along in this series, some posts will be focused for more advanced YouTubers or YouTube Partners, like this week’s tip.

With YouTube seeing 48 hours of video uploaded every minute, it’s important to think how you can get your content seen by your regular and new viewers. In many cases, thumbnails are the first point of contact for your channel and a relevant thumbnail can make the difference for someone about to watch your (awesome) content.

Thumbnail Basics
During the upload process you have the opportunity to pick one of three frames from your video, or to upload a custom image file. For either option some basic best-practices can be applied:

1. Your thumbnail should look good, either scaled small or large

• Faces work better and engage the audience
• Visuals of the finished product work better than the process (e.g. show the cake, rather a picture of the batter)
• Good thumbnails follow the same rule as good photographs - composition, contrast, and color count

Average Betty (food)

2. Choose images that accurately portray your video’s content

• Accurate thumbnails allow viewers to more easily browser and enjoy your content.
• Misleading thumbnails lead to poor audience engagement and will hurt your channel’s performance in the long run
• Safeguards are in place to find and penalize channels that upload racy thumbnails—take a look at our Community Guidelines for more information

TMZ (entertainment)

3. For channels with the ability to upload custom thumbnails, upload a high quality image

• There is no limit on pixel size (though 1280x720 is recommended)
• The image file has to be less than 2MB
• Accepted file formats: PNG, BMP, GIF, or JPEG

vsauce (multiple genres)

Thumbnail Placement
Thumbnails for your videos, playlists and even your channel are used throughout YouTube to promote your content. Some common placements for thumbnails are in search results, along the far right column of your video’s Watch Page, on your Channel page, and in the video player after a video stops playing (the video’s end card). Through these placements viewers can discover your videos, playlists, and channels.

You also should try YouTube Analytics to understand and measure the impact of these tips, and to learn more about thumbnail optimizations and other tips, check out the YouTube Creator Playbook.

Andres Palmiter, Audience Development Strategist, recently watched “Todd Kuiken: A prosthetic arm that ‘feels’.”

On your mark, get set, GOMC!

Professor registration for the 2012 Google Online Marketing Challenge (GOMC) is now open.
GOMC is a global online marketing competition open to professors and their students in any higher education institution. Professors sign up for the contest and then serve as guides and mentors to their student participants throughout the competition. Over the course of three weeks, student teams are tasked with developing and running a successful online advertising campaign for real businesses or nonprofit organizations using Google AdWords. In the process, they sharpen their advertising, consulting and data analysis skills. (Note: student registration will open on January 31, 2012 and students can only enter if their professors have signed up already and must sign up under their own professors).

After running their online advertising campaign for three weeks, students summarize their experiences in campaign reports, which they submit online. Based on the performance of the campaigns and the quality of the reports, Googlers on the GOMC team and a panel of independent academics select the winning teams.

The global winners and their professor will receive a trip to Google headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. The regional winners (and their professor) will win a trip to local Google offices, and the social impact award winners will be able to make donations to nonprofit organizations that were part of the GOMC competition.

Last year’s challenge had 50,000 participants representing 100 countries, and this year we expect even more. For more information, visit www.google.com/onlinechallenge. Professors, here is a chance to help your students sharpen their marketing skills and make a global impact!

Posted by AJ Pascua, GOMC Team

Test your creativity with our search caption challenge

Our main goal at Google Search is to bring you the most relevant and useful results as quickly as possible. But, we are aware that often that is only part of your task or journey. Sometimes, you need more than simple results. You might want to learn, to discover, to be entertained or get insights.

Insights can happen when you least expect them. To improve their chances, it's good to try other things, or do things differently once in awhile. As a lifelong fan and connoisseur of New Yorker style cartoons, I always believed in the power of humor not just to entertain but to enlighten. I have tried to connect humor to everything I do (although, I have to admit, not always successfully). The best cartoonists possess great insights, which they illustrate in a clever package that we can consume in seconds and yet remember for years.

With all of this in mind, today we’re connecting Google search and cartoons through a search caption challenge. Cartoon caption contests have a long history dating back at least to the 1930s, as can be seen in this example I found from Ballyhoo magazine. For our modern version, we worked with artists like Matthew Diffee, Emily Flake, Christoph Niemann, Danny Shanahan and Jim Woodring, who created cartoons that place characters in unusual, interesting and funny situations—all with a common twist. In each cartoon, one of the characters is doing a Google search. We've left it to you to imagine what they'd be searching for at that moment, and left the caption blank for you to fill in with your answer.

To participate, go to Inside Search and submit your idea. Your caption will appear on the site, and you can share it with friends via a unique link. You can also vote on your favorite submissions and the most popular will rise to the top.

We hope this game helps you think in a way you wouldn't otherwise, and maybe get some insights. Or just have fun.

Posted by Udi Manber, VP of Engineering and Cartoons

(Cross-posted on the Inside Search blog)

Ads that entertain: YouTube’s top spots of 2011

Editor’s note: Yesterday, we looked back on the “most viewed” YouTube videos of 2011. Today, we invited Advertising Age’s Michael Learmonth to reflect on the most viewed video ads of the year.

We always knew people liked to watch the ads. At least some ads, like the great ones people talk about after the Super Bowl. Then YouTube came along in 2005 and brought with it the notion that ads can be great content that earn their way onto screens of all types, spread by consumers who vote, share, like, comment, blog, plus-one, or even create response videos or spoofs.

YouTube is the ultimate meritocracy for video, and advertisers are adapting to this world by creating content that people want to share. It’s no surprise, for example, that among the top-10 most-watched ads on YouTube in 2011 are two Super Bowl ads.

Most watched video ads of the year (eliminating music videos and trailers):
1. VW - The Force
2. T-Mobile - Royal Wedding
3. Chrysler - Imported From Detroit
4. DC Shoes - Ken Block's Gymkhana Four: The Hollywood Megamercial
5. smartwater - Jennifer Aniston goes viral
6. Team Hot Wheels - The Yellow Driver's World Record Jump
7. Old Spice - Scent Vacation
8. Apple - Introducing Siri on iPhone 4S
9. Samsung - Unleash Your Fingers
10. adidas - D Rose: adiZero Rose 2 The Bull

What is surprising is that the majority of YouTube’s top “ads” of 2011 (seems strange to call them that) never appeared on traditional TV at all.

Videos like T-Mobile’s Royal Wedding, itself a spoof of the JK Wedding Dance, were made for the web and made to amuse, entertain, and to be passed around, as are mini-movies like DC Shoe’s Gymkhana Four, stunts like Hot Wheel’s record jump, and Old Spice’s “Scent Vacation.”

Even the two Super Bowl ads making the list, Chrysler and Volkswagen, were part of elaborate campaigns made to live significant lives on the web. In the past, advertisers treated their Super Bowl spots like state secrets, but Volkswagen posted “The Force” on YouTube two weeks before the Super Bowl last year, and had 10 million views before the game began. Chrysler took the opposite approach, but created a video four times the length of a typical TV ad, perfect for extended watching on the web after the game.

For brands, creating great content—advertainment, if you will—isn’t just for big TV events like the Super Bowl anymore. Increasingly, advertisers and their agencies are focusing on the content and the strategy, and letting that content distribute itself. That doesn’t mean they aren’t doing traditional advertising. Indeed all of these campaigns were backed up by significant spending to seed and promote these videos on YouTube and elsewhere. But paid media only gets you so far. In the end, it doesn’t matter if they paid $3 million for 30-seconds in the Super Bowl or much less to get the conversation started. In the end, it’s the content that counts.

Michael Learmonth, Senior Editor for Advertising Age, recently watched, “Sesame Street: Smell Like a Monster.”

Music Tuesday: Songs of the Season and more

We have two early presents for you this week—a playlist of seasonal songs, and a retrospective from Daptone Records first fantastic 10 years. Plus don’t miss Common performing from our New York office as part of YouTube Presents.

Songs for the Season
We celebrate the holidays by showing off the best performers in the world: you. These are your videos, your songs, your unique (and sometimes hilarious) takes on how to make this season bright. We’ve got four-part harmony how-to videos, acoustic greatness, joyful animation and even a dubstep take on “Carol of the Bells.” Thanks for all you do.



Daptone Records 10 Year Anniversary
In the ten years since Daptone Records opened its creaking doors, retromania has gone from a marginal concept to one that has a book named after it. Daptone was founded on love: love for the warm, organic sound of analog recording equipment and love for the funk and soul music that America produced in the 1960s. From those twin passions emerged a label devoted to classic sounds that somehow do not seem anachronistic in our digital age -- on the contrary, they’re warmly welcomed. Artists like Sharon Jones, Charles Bradley and the Budos Band have become critical darlings and festival favorites. But the label perhaps had its biggest impact on the culture when it loaned its house band, the Dap-Kings, to Amy Winehouse for one fateful album.



Sarah Bardeen, Music Community Manager, recently watched “XMAS SWAGGER by Princess Superstar.”

One more present under the tree—custom video messages from Santa

Last Friday Santa opened up the Ho Ho Hotline and teamed up with Gmail to send personalized holiday phone calls to anyone you know who has been nice (or naughty, for that matter) in the U.S. or Canada. In just a few days Santa has made hundreds of thousands of calls to your friends, family and loved ones, and received many a message from you at his Google Voice number (855-34-SANTA).

Santa has one more surprise in store. Starting today, anyone in the world can create and send a personalized cartoon video message (in English only) from Santa to anyone you know, anywhere in the world, and share them through email and Google+. Watch our sample video below and create your own at SendaCallFromSanta.com.



The Gmail team wishes you a happy holiday!

Posted by Trevor Claiborne, Product Marketing Manager

(Cross-posted from the Gmail blog)

What were we watching this year? Let’s rewind 2011.

One hundred years into the future, when our great-grandkids look back to what was capturing the world’s imagination on YouTube in 2011, what will they make of us? Will they still be delighted by babbling babies? Will they still be “so excited” about the weekend? And will they be any closer to understanding the mystery of the space-traveling toaster pastry cat?


Check out YouTube.com/Rewind for a timeline of this year's most popular videos and events and to see what the world watched in 2011.

Today, we rewind through the videos and channels that absorbed our collective global attention this year. To compile these lists, we looked at global view counts of popular videos uploaded throughout this year, and, in some instances, we aggregated views across multiple versions of the same video. 2011 was a year of amazing new channels and new stars being discovered, awesome creativity, and of course, Rebecca Black. It was also a year of powerful news stories playing out on YouTube, as people witnessed and documented uprisings and natural disasters, touching personal moments and moments of protest.

In total, there were more than 1,000,000,000,000 (one trillion) playbacks on YouTube this year (yep, count ‘em, 12 zeroes). That’s about 140 views for every person on the earth. More than twice as many stars as in the Milky Way. And if I had a penny for every … OK, you get my drift, it’s a big number.

So to all of you who picked up a guitar and sang a love song, held your camera phone high above a protesting crowd, danced along to “Friday” or just forgot the webcam was on, thank you. You make YouTube what it is, and we can’t wait to hear your stories next year.

Without further ado, your most-viewed videos of 2011.

Most-viewed YouTube videos globally (excluding videos from major music labels)
(playlist)

1. Rebecca Black - Friday (OFFICIAL VIDEO)
2. Ultimate Dog Tease
3. Jack Sparrow (feat. Michael Bolton)
4. Talking Twin Babies - PART 2 - OFFICIAL VIDEO
5. Nyan Cat [original]
6. Look At Me Now - Chris Brown ft. Lil Wayne, Busta Rhymes (Cover by @KarminMusic)
7. The Creep (feat. Nicki Minaj & John Waters)
8. Maria Aragon - Born This Way (Cover) by Lady Gaga
9. The Force: Volkswagen Commercial
10. Cat mom hugs baby kitten

Most-viewed YouTube channels globally (excluding channels from major music labels)

1. machinima
2. IGNentertainment
3. RayWilliamJohnson
4. expertvillage
5. BlueXephos
6. smosh
7. realannoyingorange
8. roosterteeth
9. thelonelyisland
10. barelypolitical

Most-watched videos from major music labels globally (playlist)

1. Jennifer Lopez - On The Floor ft. Pitbull
2. LMFAO - Party Rock Anthem ft. Lauren Bennett, GoonRock
3. Bruno Mars - The Lazy Song [Official Video]
4. Nicki Minaj - Super Bass
5. Pitbull - Give Me Everything ft. Ne-Yo, Afrojack, Nayer
6. Pitbull - Rain Over Me ft. Marc Anthony
7. Jessie J - Price Tag ft. B.o.B.
8. LMFAO - Sexy and I Know It
9. Katy Perry - E.T. ft. Kanye West
10. Katy Perry - Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)

Some highlights from other categories

• Zach Wahls Speaks About Family was the most-watched political video
• Japan Earthquake: Helicopter aerial view video of giant tsunami waves was the most-watched news video
• 25 Ways to Wear a Scarf in 4.5 Minutes! was the most watched “how-to” video
• iPhone 5 Concept Features was the most-watched science/technology video
• Immortals was the most-watched movie trailer
• Mountain Biker gets taken out by Buck was the most-watched sports video

You can also check out the most-viewed videos of the year in fashion, beauty, sports, gaming, travel, fitness, food, science, tech reviews, family, pets and wedding proposals.

Posted by Kevin Allocca, YouTube Trends Manager

(Cross-posted from the YouTube Blog)

What were we watching this year? Let’s rewind 2011.

One hundred years into the future, when our great-grandkids look back to what was capturing the world’s imagination on YouTube in 2011, what will they make of us? Will they still be delighted by babbling babies? Will they still be “so excited” about the weekend?  And will they be any closer to understanding the mystery of the space-traveling toaster pastry cat?

Check out YouTube.com/Rewind for a timeline of this year's most popular videos and events and to see what the world watched in 2011.

Today, we rewind through the videos and channels that absorbed our collective global attention this year. To compile these lists, we looked at global view counts of popular videos uploaded throughout this year, and, in some instances, we aggregated views across multiple versions of the same video. 2011 was a year of amazing new channels and new stars being discovered, awesome creativity, and of course, Rebecca Black. It was also a year of powerful news stories playing out on YouTube, as people witnessed and documented uprisings and natural disasters, touching personal moments and moments of protest.

In total, there were more than 1,000,000,000,000 (one trillion) playbacks on YouTube this year (yep, count ‘em, 12 zeroes). That’s about 140 views for every person on the earth. More than twice as many stars as in the Milky Way. And if I had a penny for every … OK, you get my drift, it’s a big number.

So to all of you who picked up a guitar and sang a love song, held your camera phone high above a protesting crowd, danced along to “Friday” or just forgot the webcam was on, thank you. You make YouTube what it is, and we can’t wait to hear your stories next year.

Without further ado, your most-viewed videos of 2011.

Most viewed YouTube videos globally (excluding videos from major music labels)
(playlist)

1. Rebecca Black - Friday (OFFICIAL VIDEO)
2. Ultimate Dog Tease
3. Jack Sparrow (feat. Michael Bolton)
4. Talking Twin Babies - PART 2 - OFFICIAL VIDEO
5. Nyan Cat [original]
6. Look At Me Now - Chris Brown ft. Lil Wayne, Busta Rhymes (Cover by @KarminMusic)
7. The Creep (feat. Nicki Minaj & John Waters)
8. Maria Aragon - Born This Way (Cover) by Lady Gaga
9. The Force: Volkswagen Commercial
10. Cat mom hugs baby kitten

Most viewed YouTube channels globally (excluding channels from major music labels)

1. machinima
2. IGNentertainment
3. RayWilliamJohnson
4. expertvillage
5. BlueXephos
6. smosh
7. realannoyingorange
8. roosterteeth
9. thelonelyisland
10. barelypolitical

Most watched videos from major music labels globally 

(playlist)

1. Jennifer Lopez - On The Floor ft. Pitbull
2. LMFAO - Party Rock Anthem ft. Lauren Bennett, GoonRock
3. Bruno Mars - The Lazy Song [Official Video]
4. Nicki Minaj - Super Bass
5. Pitbull - Give Me Everything ft. Ne-Yo, Afrojack, Nayer
6. Pitbull - Rain Over Me ft. Marc Anthony
7. Jessie J - Price Tag ft. B.o.B.
8. LMFAO - Sexy and I Know It
9. Katy Perry - E.T. ft. Kanye West
10. Katy Perry - Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)

Some highlights from other categories:

• Zach Wahls Speaks About Family was the most-watched political video
• Japan Earthquake: Helicopter aerial view video of giant tsunami waves was the most-watched news video
• 25 Ways to Wear a Scarf in 4.5 Minutes! was the most watched “how-to” video
• iPhone 5 Concept Features was the most-watched science/technology video
• Immortals was the most-watched movie trailer
• Mountain Biker gets taken out by Buck was the most-watched sports video

You can also check out the most-viewed videos of the year in fashion, beauty, sports, gaming, travel, fitness, food, science, tech reviews, family, pets, and wedding proposals.

Kevin Allocca, YouTube Trends Manager, recently watched “Miracle on 42nd Street.”

Ending the year with another clean energy investment

We’ve made a new $94 million investment in a portfolio of four solar photovoltaic (PV) projects being built by Recurrent Energy near Sacramento, California. This brings our portfolio of clean energy investments to more than $915 million. We’ve already committed to providing funding this year to help more than 10,000 homeowners install solar PV panels on their rooftops. But this investment represents our first investment in the U.S. in larger scale solar PV power plants that generate energy for the grid—instead of on individual rooftops. These projects have a total capacity of 88 MW, equivalent to the electricity consumed by more than 13,000 homes.

We’re investing alongside global investment firm KKR and Recurrent Energy, a leading solar developer. Google will provide a $94 million equity investment and SunTap Energy, a new venture formed today by KKR to invest in solar projects in the U.S., will provide the remaining equity.

We’re joining KKR on their first renewable energy investment in the U.S. We believe investing in the renewable energy sector makes business sense and hope clean energy projects continue to attract new sources of capital to help the world move towards a more sustainable energy future.

Solar panels at one of the Recurrent projects

The energy produced by these projects is already contracted for 20 years with the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD). SMUD recently created a feed-in tariff program (FIT) to help green the grid for Sacramento-area residents. We’re excited that these projects are the first to be built under the program.

We’ve had a busy year at Google. Since January, we’ve invested more than $880 million in clean energy projects. We believe the world needs a wide range of solutions—from wind, to transmission, to solar PV and concentrated solar—and we look forward to new opportunities next year to further expand our portfolio of clean energy investments.

Posted by Axel Martinez, Assistant Treasurer, Google Treasury