Youtube banned once again in Turkey
Turkey has once again banned access to the video portal Youtube. Access to the website Youtube was blocked in Turkey after a court oder on Thursday. Turkish users seem to receive a message explaining the ban of Youtube. The reason for the third ban are once again videos that make fun of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder and first President of the Republic of Turkey.
MSN Video vs. Google Youtube
Youtube is a well established video portal with the huge advantage that content is added every second by its visitors. Most Internet users probably do not know that Microsoft has its own video portal called MSN Video. That is probably the greatest weakness of MSN Video that hardly anyone knows about it and that this has direct impact on the amount of available videos.
Microsoft uses YouTube to promote their products
Microsoft competes with Google in many areas but has still chosen to create a video channel on Youtube to promote Microsoft products. While this seems odd it could be an effort to reach potential customers in enemy territory. What most websites reporting about the ads are reporting is that the PR guys decided to leave the comment function activated which invites many comments that are criticizing Microsoft.
Realtime Youtube Video transcoding for mobiles
I have been praising emTube just a day ago which was an application for Symbian S60 mobile phones such as the Nokia N73 and Nokia N95 that made it possible to browse Youtube with your mobile phone and download + view movies as well. No conversion was needed and the quality of the service was astonishingly good.
Youtube finally playing HD content
Graham send me an email just a few minutes ago informing me that Youtube users could finally upload high definition videos to Youtube which have the benefit of a much sharper, clearer image and the negative side effect (for some users) of a size increase of the videos.
Preview Daily Top 25 of Youtube with SlapVid
If you ever wondered how so many users are able to watch hundreds of videos that are published on Youtube on a daily basis you might want to consider using a service like SlapVid which offers previews of the daily top 25 videos at Youtube.
Youtube obeys fake takedown request
Youtube Sunday it seems. We all know that Youtube likes to cooperate with everyone who looks a bit like authority and takes down videos pretty fast. It does not always have to be copyright infringement, it can also be original works of art that some authorities like the Turkish or Thai government want removed from Youtube pressuring the site with a countrywide ban. (man I love the Turkish interpretation of Democracy and free speech)
Youtube Video Awards 2006 Winners
You might know that Youtube held a video awards voting on their site for the last five days were everyone was able to vote for their favorite videos that Youtube preselected. Ten entries were shown and you could assign spots from 1 to 10 to them. Now, after all votes have been cast Youtube presents the Winners of the 2006 Video Awards in the categories Most Creative, Best Comedy, Best Commentary, Best Series, Best Music Video, Most Inspirational and Most Adorable. The videos below are in the same order in case you are wondering.
Google Buys Youtube for 1.65 billion
With all the rumors about an acquisition of youtube by Google circulation on many websites it was only a matter of time when the real deal was announced. This happened some minutes ago. Google officially announced the deal in a press conference that took place today. Youtube was acquired for 1.65 billion dollars in a stock-for-stock transaction.
