A Brief Background of YouTube’s Evolution
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In the early days of the Internet simply sharing pictures was a cumbersome ordeal. Back when Google first came onto the scene, no one could have predicted how ubiquitous Google would become. The masterminds behind the rapidly evolving technology apparently kept themselves grounded enough to accurately assess and predict what ‘everyman‘ would need and want going forward. Gmail, Google and YouTube rapidly grew to become iconic, not just for the younger generations but across multiple generations.
“My Soon-to-be 90 Year Old Dad Watches YouTube Almost As Much As He Does His Favorite Network TV Channels”
Blogging Versus Vlogging
Today, almost anyone who writes a blog has, at one time or another, wanted to include the kind of detail that videos provide. For some people, once they’ve gained a little experience with this medium, they don’t want to go back to merely blogging, instead many instantly decide to pursue vlogging. This used to involve a pretty steep learning curve. Today however, regardless of whether or not you’re a frequent vlogger or you just have the occasional need to upload some video content to share…the end result is essentially the same…a new set of tools and work flow challenges face you. But in this instance, learning is half the fun of it I think!
It’s really easy to see why YouTube has become the chosen venue for people across the globe to share their videos. For a very longtime most of the popular social networks like Facebook and Twitter didn’t allow people to upload videos directly to their social networking servers. You needed to upload a video to YouTube first and and then you could link to it.
That’s no longer the case anymore, but it is sort of hard to change old habits…therefore I oftentimes forget that I can even do that now! Overall, as the YouTube phenomenon evolved, Google+, which is another social network, but this time one that was created by Google, became inexplicably intertwined with YouTube…and YouTube channels.
Today, in 2015, almost anyone with a Gmail account also has a G+ account and a YouTube channel. Whether or not they actually use the channel for anything is a different matter…many people do, but even more people don’t…irregardless of whether or not they upload videos to YouTube. The channel aspect is there however if someone needs it. Channels can help active bloggers and vloggers a lot in keeping their uploaded content accessible and organized, plus their history of viewing videos as well as their playlists (playlists are sort of like bookmarks for videos) too.
YouTube’s ios app in 2014 | Note the # of stars based on user reviews
YouTube Mobile Apps
The easiest way to search for and watch videos on mobile devices is through the use of the mobile YouTube app. When I’m setting up a brand new device, the YouTube app is one of the standard apps I always download almost from the get go (unless it’s an Android device in which case YouTube is already on it.)
For many years the YouTube app was great for video viewing, but very little else. There was a huge disconnect for active video up-loaders in terms of shooting & creating their content, which was generally done using mobile devices (most often an iPhones or Android phones) and managing any and all aspects of that same content once it was uploaded to YouTube. The years of 2014 & 2015 mark the time when Google finally began to take notice and to address this significant disconnect.
Both the ios and the Android YouTube app versions slowly began integrating the features mobile users desperately needed. A few years back it became possible to upload videos to YouTube directly through the use of the YouTube app. More recently it became possible to get a decent handle, in real time, of how well your videos might be doing out in the world. The evolution of the YouTube App’s occurred in almost tiny, imperceptible increments, but functionality was continually improving.
The General Public Doesn’t Always Embrace Google’s Major Software Overhauls Readily…
…nor do I. I fall prey to this as readily, if not more so, than most people I know. This is probably because I really rely on these apps for my day to day work. Anything that slows me down isn’t welcome!
But in this instance I can say with a certain degree of confidence that the YouTube redesigns truly make a lot of sense, and they will ultimately become that ‘missing link’ which was needed to address the disconnectedness that I talked about earlier! Still, it’s interesting to see how users are reacting right now to the newness of the apps!!!
Compare the # of stars for ios users to last year around this time
Fall 2015 | Mobile Versions of Google’s YouTube App’s Are Overhauled | That’s When I Discovered YouTube Creator Studio App
Sometime during the fall of 2015, Google released a completely new, vastly superior YouTube app for ios users. It was while exploring the apps features that I ran across the Creator Studio app. Let me say right here and right now, that I was ecstatic to discover this newish app! Finally I’ll have any easy way to manage all of my uploaded videos and content across channels, right from my iPad! In fact, I was so overtaken with excitement that I actually wrote a review while the app was downloading:
I’ve only just begun to explore using Creator Studio…but it is essentially the Video Manager Dashboard that is primarily accessed using a computer, although the with enough tweaking one can use it on a mobile device too. The fact that we can now accomplish 99% of our video creation (including shooting, editing, uploading, managing and analytics) directly on a mobile device is so significant that the overall impact cannot be understated!
The 2 screenshots below provide a good overview of Creator Studio’s features
- Links to download Creator Studio (free):
Will Videography Become the New Photography???
This is an exciting time and so are these new developments. Primarily because the realm which was once relegated solely to just tech or video enthusiasts, will now put videography into a much more mainstream position.
I believe that we’re standing at a precipice which, if we care to notice, will eventually come to define us and this moment in time to future generations.
Cutting Edge YouTube News | YouTube Red
2 days from now on October 28th (and on my husbands birthday too!) Google will launch an entirely new way for consumers and commercial entities alike to engage with YouTube. They are calling it YouTube Red. YouTube Red seems to be aimed at creating a new income stream for Google as well as potentially leveling the playing field for ad earnings between large YouTube producers and smaller ones like solo vloggers (and me.)
- Here’s a good article by adweek.com that sums up what we know so far.
- Adweek also wrote a new article today which talks more about the concept of leveling the playing field for smaller YouTubers.
In a nutshell, YouTube Red will attempt to get people to pay a monthly subscription fee for video content they currently follow for free. Google points out that this new alternative will be optional, and people will still be able to subscribe to their favorite channels for free too. But that the new fee structure will allow fans to monetarily support the work of YouTube creators too…in the hopes that even more people will decide to become more actively engaged in the whole video sharing phenomenon. To make the fee structure aspect more palatable (I suspect), Google will also be introducing a new streaming music service too, that will be free for those choosing to subscribe to YouTube Red. Here’s a short video about that.
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