“Google doesn’t get social media.” This sentiment’s been bandied about since the dawn of social in the mid-aughts. Google executive chairman of the board Eric Schmidt even admitted recently that his biggest regret as CEO was “not anticipating the rise of social…”

Social media can be very loosely defined as a construct and in the ever-changing operating system of the web and its users, Google is still poised to thrive even as it continues to slowly, but surely ramp up its own platform, Google+. But things begin to get real when some key moves are made to create a more social environment within YouTube. While SoundCloud took cues to become the YouTube equivalent for audio, YouTube can learn from SoundCloud’s superior integration of social subscription discovery and how that improves the user experience.

YouTube is Google’s gateway to the living room and with the $35 Chromecast dongle now available in several countries, YouTube could become the primary source of both information and entertainment for both cable subscribers and cord-cutters alike. Chromecast makes it easier than ever to watch online video on a television. Sure, Roku and Apple TV have been around for years but Chromecast has the best YouTube integration and can be controlled via native mobile apps or a laptop.

What’s missing? A way to navigate and discover YouTube content based on your personal interest and those of your peers. A more social YouTube can empower not only users but also content creators while redefining the way we use Chromecast.

The fix begins with one [seemingly] simple feature: social subscriptions. The best and easiest way to begin watching YouTube via Chromecast is by browsing the new content from the channels one already subscribes to. But what channels to subscribe to? Users should be able to opt in to publicly share (at least some of) their subscriptions so others can discover new channels to subscribe to. Currently, there is no way to generate a dedicated link to one’s own page of YouTube subscriptions, you can only add a module with videos most recently watched to your own channel (see mine). Granted, not everyone wants to share their viewing preferences publicly – or even with friends – but for those accustomed to sharing and discovering new content and channels on platforms such as YouTube, this feature can be a game changer.

Now YouTube is only one “app” that plays over Chromecast — there’s an entire suite of them, including Netflix, HBO Go, Hulu Plus and others that are standard with the set-tops like Roku and Apple TV. But YouTube is free and has the greatest breadth of content, with more and more being made each day by fast-growing multi-channel networks such as Fullscreen, Machinima and Maker Studios, which will be acquired by Disney and will now be taking several hours of its YouTube content to cable TV, according to reports.

People are flocking to YouTube, no longer just to watch a song or search for a news clip but to watch regularly produced and even episodic content.

UPDATE 12/1/2014: You can now visit a users YouTube channel subscription list, example – youtube.com/user/revolute/channels (revolute is my YT username). There is some semblance of Google+ integration as well, when you go to a channel, you will see Google+ avatars at the top right of your contacts who have already subscribed to the channel. (Click here to make your channel subscriptions private.) With just a unique URL to shareable subscription lists that can be posted to Google+ I wouldn’t have to go through the tedious exercise of creating a web 1.0-style list of recommended YouTube channels for friends to subscribe to (as I recently did — copy/pasted below) and ideally the discoverer wouldn’t need to go through so many clicks to subscribe. Ideally, YouTube could create a profile tab similar to this one on Soundcloud (the YouTube equivalent for audio), which displays the accounts I’m following…

Below: A shortlist of some of the YouTube channels I’ve subscribed to over the years. I’d love recommendations of new channels to check out – there’s so much good stuff out there! Please leave your recos in the comments section.

Right-click (or command-click [Mac] ctrl-click [PC) on the links to open channels in new tabs then click “Subscribe.”

[See image gallery at andysternberg.com]
Click here to view Google I/O photo gallery on flickr.

“Welcome to Googlepalooza,” joked Perry Farrell, constantly making fun of the mostly male and very geeky crowd. “I don’t know what we got paid here – we did it just because, right?”

It’s possible to embed each track (individually) from the 10-song set via Vevo.com, as well as YouTube. Anyway, here are a couple of my favorite The National cuts as performed live last night at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, benefiting Red Hot. Enjoy.

There’s a ton of blather from me about to go up about his deeply moving performance, largely a tribute to his late wife Linda on the 11th anniversary of her death from breast cancer. Read all about that shortly. But the power of the set list speaks for itself …

Main set: Jet / Drive My Car / Only Mama Knows / Flaming Pie / Got to Get You Into My Life / Let Me Roll It (with a coda of Purple Haze) / Honey Hush / Highway / The Long and Winding Road / My Love / Blackbird / Here Today / Dance Tonight / Calico Skies / Mrs. Vanderbilt / Eleanor Rigby / Sing the Changes / Band on the Run / Back in the U.S.S.R. / Something / I’ve Got a Feeling / Paperback Writer / A Day in the Life > Give Peace a Chance / Let It Be / Live and Let Die / Hey Jude

First encore: Birthday / Can’t Buy Me Love / Lady Madonna
Second encore: Yesterday / Helter Skelter / Get Back / Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise) -> The End

photo by Mick Orlosky via creative commons.

Dying to know how well these Contextual YouTube video ads do as far as CTR, etc. And HOW insulting that al-Zaidi’s shoes reveal an add for women’s shoes! And that’s not all, the infamous shoe incident — which already is on its way to becoming the viral-est of all online videos — is now immortalized as a Flash game:

As for Zappos, even Letterman has a shout-out:

If it can’t find a solution, Google should kill YouTube
Speaking to The New Yorker, Schmidt said that it “seemed obvious” that Google should be able to generate “significant amounts of money” from YouTube, but so far, it has no idea what to do.

Could YouTube become hub for feature films and TV shows?

Mark Cuban: Hulu is Kicking YouTube’s Ass:
Hulu is crushing YouTube in revenue per video and revenue per user primarily because “Hulu has the right to sell advertising in and around every single video on its site…. It can package and sell any way that might make its customers happy.”

Ken Auletta interviews Eric Schmidt, the chairman and C.E.O. of Google, in San Francisco on June 11, 2008.

Personally, I’ll sit through hundreds of 15 second ads on Hulu just so I can watch TV for free — now including full-length episodes of Daily Show and Colbert!

ABC News, what is the matter with you?

ABC News, the National Constitution Center and WPVI-TV will host a Democratic Presidential Candidate debate in Philadelphia on Wednesday, April 16th. The live 90-minute debate, moderated by ABC News anchors Charles Gibson and George Stephanopoulos, will air from 8-10 PM ET/PT on the ABC Television Network. — U.S. State Dept. Web site

This is such an ignorant, irresponsible, and backwards move on behalf of ABC, it’s beyond belief.

This would be a perfect opportunity for Disney-owned ABC News Networks to promote their streaming video services. I am crossing my fingers that the debate WILL be live-streaming via local Philadelphia affiliate WPVI. As it stands right now, WPVI has a “breaking alert” that they will live-stream President Bush talking about Climate Change in about 30 minutes.

Don’t even get me started about how ridiculous this concept is: Bush addressing climate change with THE POPE at his side? Hilarious!

Philly Inquirer previews tonight’s debate. This as Jersey boy Bruce Springsteen endorsed Obama on his website.

Obama Plays Basketball — Bryant Gumbel reports:

All screenshots via WPVI and KGO

YouTube’s Multi-uploader: LINK
The videos of Sharon Jones & Dap Kings from tonight via my Fuji F50fd if they ever make it there: LINK
Photos from the show: LINK
UPDATE: My review + photos + video of Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings 12/4 @ El Rey.

Also, did I ever mention how much it tickles me to be on Techmeme? It’s the veritable equivalent of an NYT or Romenesko link. Thanks, Gabe!

The attitude of many publishers towards the Web, no thanks to Google/YouTube, is — “if it’s not fair use, what, are we gonna get sued?” And when a takedown notice comes through, the image, video, or other content is removed and usually the conflict is resolved. In other instances, however, a photographer is completely entitled to send a bill to a for-profit publication or organization that uses a photo or video without the creators permission. In the old days of print, I believe they called it “plagiarism.”

There are exceptions, of course. When user-generated content (UGC) is submitted through a module or service that requires agreeing to terms (i.e. checking a box without realizing what exactly you’re doing), the original producer of the content typically often signs off their rights completely on a non-exclusive basis.

In the case of Jamal Albarghouti’s infamous cellphone video of the Virginia Tech shootings, CNN contacted Albarghouti minutes after his submission was received to negotiate exclusive rights (for an undisclosed sum. Surely the creator was aware of the key terms and the key opening clause — submitting content meant no payment from CNN or its affiliates in exchange, automatically, for “a non-exclusive, perpetual, worldwide license to edit, telecast, rerun, reproduce, use, syndicate, license, print, sublicense, distribute…” (emphasis mine). Yahoo!/Reuters YouWitness News has similar terms, as do other sites, although to see a YouTube “exclusive” on CNN would probably be a first. In other words, no other UGC provider likely had the breadth of worldwide video distribution outlets (and cash) as did CNN (a Time-Warner company).

I wonder if any outlet has ever “bluffed” a claim of exclusive rights to user-generated content and/or how competitors could confirm the nature of their exclusive arrangement, but then again, the distortion of the term “exclusive” (not to mention “breaking news”) throughout the media is for another blog post / conference.

How do you know what you can post and what *might* get you in trouble? I use a Creative commons license or badge to indicate content that I’m happy to share for non-commercial use with proper attribution. In other instances, I’ll gladly accept cash or PayPal. NowPublic, AP’s UGC partner, was friendly enough to send me a message via flickr asking permission to use CC-licensed photos of mine on a couple occasions. Is a CC license legit? Well, your work is copyrighted whether or not you ever file or register a copyright and — after only 5 years of operation, there are over 140 million pages with CC licenses. Where can you find CC-licensed content? They’ve got a search tool.

* C-SPAN’s CC-style license.
* BBC’s Creative Archive Licence Group.
* Poynter’s David Shedden’s guide to copyright & fair use.

Originally posted in the Digital Political Communication class blog on April 20, 2007