More than eight years after it first came out on the PlayStation 3, almost five years after its PlayStation 4 rerelease and about one year after coming out on PC, Journey is finally making its way to Steam. The game’s PC publisher, Annapurna Interact…
Engadget RSS Feed
15 years ago today, YouTube took a small step toward starting something big. On February 14, 2005, YouTube was registered as a website. Its founders wanted to create a way for people around the world to share videos. Soon after, the first video — “Me at the zoo” — was uploaded, and before the end of the year, the site was receiving millions of views a day.
Just miles away at Google’s headquarters, I had begun working with colleagues to see how people would use online video. Much to our surprise, users all over the world wanted to upload their videos to share their stories. But what surprised me even more was that so many others wanted to watch these videos about everyday life: funny dances, kids making cute unexpected comments, and, of course, lots of cat videos. These videos entertained us, but they also showed there was something very human about connecting through online video. While traditional media often showed polished and perfected versions of life, this medium was different; it had a raw, honest, and authentic feel.
As YouTube began to take off, it became clear that the company would need significant capital investment to support its growth, so YouTube decided to sell to another company. I, along with Salar Kamangar, made the case to bring the companies together. After the acquisition, founder Chad Hurley became CEO, then Salar, and I was incredibly honored to become YouTube’s third CEO six years ago.
Fast forward to today, and YouTube has more than two billion monthly users around the world, and 500 hours of video uploaded every minute. Looking ahead in 2020, we’re focused on making YouTube a place where everyone has a voice and can see the world as we:
With these new opportunities have come new challenges around responsibility. From the very first days, we realized the importance of setting the rules of the road with Community Guidelines. Over the years, we’ve built on our commitment to protect the YouTube community. While YouTube is clearly a platform — our focus as a company is to distribute the content produced by others — that doesn’t mean we don’t have responsibility. This is my number one focus, and we will continue to do the hard work to make sure that we’re on the right side of history.
We think about our responsibility efforts in terms of 4 Rs:
We’re proud of the work we’ve done over the past three years to raise the bar on responsibility. Over the past two years, we’ve made more than 50 policy changes, often in consultation with relevant outside experts around the world who help us craft guidelines that will protect our community in the long run. Today, problematic content is only a fraction of one percent of what’s watched on YouTube, and we want to drive that number down even more. And as the U.S. presidential election approaches, we will continue to balance openness with responsibility by ensuring that YouTube is a reliable source for information. Our efforts include raising up authoritative election news and removing bad actors and misleading content.
Over the next few months, we’ll be celebrating the moments that led up to the public launch of YouTube in May 2005. As I look back on my journey with online video over the past 15 years, I feel incredibly privileged to have been part of these key moments. What inspires me as CEO of YouTube are the stories I hear everyday of how YouTube enabled someone to build a business, gain new skills, laugh, cry, and connect with others. While I don’t know what the next 15 years will bring, I’m certain that YouTube will continue to empower the next generation of storytellers and enrich all our lives.
YouTube is proud to present G-Eazy’s “These Things Happened” — a new Artist Spotlight Story that depicts the Bay Area rapper’s journey from the anonymous street corners of Oakland to landing multiple chart-topping records and nearly 5 million YouTube channel subscribers.
Directed by Rob Semmer, Creative Director for FADER, “These Things Happened” takes viewers behind the scenes of G-Eazy’s amazing ascent to chart-topping rapper. The Spotlight Story mixes concert clips, backstage interviews, and documentary footage of the rapper’s hometown, including the street corners where he used to hand out mixtapes more than a decade ago. Today, G-Eazy boasts more than 3 billion views across YouTube, with his recent hit “No Limit” reaching as high as #3 on the YouTube Music U.S. Top 100 Tracks chart and #1 on Billboard’s Pop Songs chart.
“It didn’t work the traditional route until I got it popping on my own on YouTube,” the rapper says. “I’m forever grateful for the opportunity that was presented to an artist like myself.”
Born Gerald Earl Gillum in 1989, G-Eazy was raised by a working-class family in California’s Bay Area. As a teenager, he was inspired by the region’s burgeoning hyphy hip-hop sound, producing bedroom mixtapes, which he sold along Berkeley’s Telegraph Ave.
After years of self-released recordings and accompanying tours, including tour diaries posted to YouTube, G-Eazy had his breakthrough with “Been On.” The song is pure G-Eazy in that its tight lyrics flow over a hazy beat. The video was instantly iconic: a single slo-mo shot of the rapper smoking in black and white. The clip has tallied over 70 million YouTube views, and its success online helped break G-Eazy to the masses. A follow-up video, “Me, Myself & I,” featuring Bebe Rexha, landed a top 10 slot on the Billboard Hot 100.
G-Eazy’s latest LP, “The Beautiful & Damned,” reflects on the fame that he’s achieved since the album release. “These Things Happened” picks up at present day, staying by the rapper’s side as he promotes the album and plays shows in support of it. A record-signing event even takes him back to the Bay Area, where he meets fans at Berkeley’s Amoeba Records.
“I remember those shows in Berkeley at La Pena,” G-Eazy recalls. “We sold out La Pena with like 200 people. It’s not even a venue. They call it a cultural center. They booked me ‘cus no one in the Bay would book me.”
“These Things Happened” captivates in part because even in the La Pena days, G-Eazy was documenting himself, shooting footage, and uploading it to YouTube for his fans.
“If you’re not active on YouTube, if you’re not visible, if you’re not giving that window into your life at all, then you’re just disappearing,” he says.
For now, G-Eazy doesn’t have to worry. “These Things Happened” ends a few blocks from where it started. Back in New York, with G-Eazy all grown up, a star around the world. This time he gazes up again to see himself—and his YouTube channel—advertised in a new billboard high above the street.
“It’s the age of access,” says G-Eazy. “YouTube provides a peek into your life, into your world, into your process. You close that window for too long and you run the risk of losing your audience.”
“It’s an honor to partner with and help tell the story of an artist with such a clear vision,” said Lyor Cohen, Global Head of Music at YouTube. “It’s equally rewarding to work with a label like RCA that is so supportive in collaborating to propel G-Eazy and bring context to his journey.”
–YouTube Music Team
Uber’s redesigned client, which begins rolling out gradually in November, places a greater emphasis on entertainment than functionality. It features tie-ins with Yelp, Foursquare, and a myriad of other third parties.
The post Uber’s redesigned app is more about the journey than the destination appeared first on Digital Trends.
NASA has a ton of Mars-related projects that it hopes would culminate in sending humans to the red planet within the next 25 years. There's the stationary InSight lander that it plans to launch in 2018 and the next-gen rover that will succeed Curiosi…
Engadget RSS Feed
There are a lot of GoPro footage you can watch online, but this one has quite the backstory. In June 2013, Bryan Chan and his friends attached a 3D-printed chassis housing a GoPro, a Sony camcorder and a Samsung Galaxy Note 2 to a weather balloon….
Engadget Full RSS Feed