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ManualsBrandsWiley Manualsbooks978-0-470-14925-6

Chapter 1

Everything You Wanted to

Know about YouTube

In This Chapter

 Creating accounts

 Touring YouTube

 Searching for and creating videos

 Setting YouTube preferences

 Joining the YouTube community

 Promoting a business on YouTube

 Molding YouTube for you and your kids

ouTube is: A: an appliance; B: an ergonomic chair; C: the coolest video

site on the Internet? If you answered A or B, you really need this book.

But the fact that you own this book or are skimming through these pages at

your favorite bookseller means you probably answered correctly, but need to

know more about YouTube, which is great because these pages are written

by a couple of card-carrying geeks who love video and think YouTube is the

coolest thing since one-terabyte hard drives.

We cover a lot of ground in this book. In this chapter, we give you an

overview of what we cover and how we cover it.

Charting YouTube

YouTube popped out of the woodwork when three PayPal employees brain-

stormed to start a video sharing service. They were at a party, and people

were shooting digital photos and capturing videos. After the party, they tried

to share the videos via e-mail but ran into difficulties due to differences in file

formats and codecs. That’s when the lads came up with the idea to start an

online video sharing service. Their idea was probably one of those blinding

flashes of inspiration, like the kind that wakes you from a sound sleep; the

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COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL

Summary of content (16 pages)

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Chapter 1 RI AL Everything You Wanted to Know about YouTube TE In This Chapter Creating accounts MA Touring YouTube Searching for and creating videos Setting YouTube preferences Promoting a business on YouTube D Joining the YouTube community TE Molding YouTube for you and your kids GH Y CO PY RI ouTube is: A: an appliance; B: an ergonomic chair; C: the coolest video site on the Internet? If you answered A or B, you really need this book.
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10 Part I: Curtain Up on Streaming Video modern day equivalent to getting hit on the head with an apple and deciding that gravity is a really cool concept. However, getting a great idea without acting on it is like inspiration with no perspiration. Most people never make it past the inspiration phase. Then, a few months after you dismiss the idea, you find someone else is marketing it, and you kick yourself squarely on whatever part of your body you can comfortably reach for not acting on your idea.
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Chapter 1: Everything You Wanted to Know about YouTube Figure 1-1: The YouTube staff celebrating their last day in their original office. You can maintain multiple personalities on YouTube. It’s as easy as creating multiple accounts. You use one username when you want to upload your Dr. Jekyll videos, and log in under another username when you want to upload your Mr. Hyde videos. Touring the Tube When you visit YouTube for the first time, you might be wondering what all the hubbub is about.
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12 Part I: Curtain Up on Streaming Video Figure 1-2: YouTube welcomes you with featured videos. Plus signs After you view a couple videos, you can get adventurous and click one of the blue buttons (actually the buttons are a gradient from white to a lovely shade of blue) and gain access to all the videos in the YouTube vault.
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Chapter 1: Everything You Wanted to Know about YouTube Tuber’s equivalent of a remote control — and you’re transported to that channel. Another benefit of subscribing to a channel is that you see a thumbnail of the most recent uploaded video from each of the channels you subscribe to when you log in to the Tube (see Figure 1-4). Figure 1-3: Hello, hello. I don’t know why you say goodbye, YouTube says hello. Figure 1-4: Get free subscriptions with no strings attached.
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14 Part I: Curtain Up on Streaming Video When you start uploading your own videos and other Tubers take notice, you’ll probably get some subscribers to your channel. You may also get requests to be added to other Tuber’s Friends list. If you’re really lucky, you may get some Tuber groupies. Just don’t let your significant other know. But if you want to do some really cool stuff, like look for some videos you actually want to view, you need to know how to get from Point A to Point B to Point C.
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Chapter 1: Everything You Wanted to Know about YouTube Figure 1-5: Searching the Tube for a way-cool video is easy. Changing Your YouTube Preferences When you first set up a YouTube account, you have a giant clean slate. But that can change quickly if you use even just a fraction of what YouTube offers. When you create a YouTube account, you get a channel with your username, as shown in Figure 1-6. As you can see, a new account has a squeaky clean channel.
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16 Part I: Curtain Up on Streaming Video Figure 1-6: Tune in to my channel. Figure 1-7: Having it your way with a custom channel.
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Chapter 1: Everything You Wanted to Know about YouTube Getting to Know Other Tubers YouTube is a huge community. Next time you surf the Tube, take a look at the different usernames associated with the videos; then take a look at the number of groups and you start to get the idea. It’s kind of like a video commune. You can be totally anonymous even if you have a YouTube account. But if you post some really cool videos, you’ll find that people leave comments on your stuff and subscribe to your channel.
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18 Part I: Curtain Up on Streaming Video Figure 1-8: Give yourself credit when you create videos for the Tube. Creating Specialty Accounts Are you a musician, celebrity, celebrity-wannabe, or a reasonable facsimile thereof? If so, YouTube likes people like you. In fact, they let you create special accounts. Yes, Virgina, the special accounts are still free, and your videos appear in the appropriate channel.
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Chapter 1: Everything You Wanted to Know about YouTube Musicians: The hotspot if you’re a musician, singer, recording label owner, or are involved in music in some other way. So if you have the notion to rock the boat baby, create a Musicians account. Who knows, MTV and Virgin Records may be surfing the Tube for talent and discover you. YouTube also has a Partners account. But this type of account isn’t available for mere mortals and the general Tuber population.
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20 Part I: Curtain Up on Streaming Video YouTube for the Entrepreneur Do you have a product to sell or a message to tell? If you do, get your camcorder out, take a video of the product, or tape your message and upload the video to YouTube. You might find some prospects for your product or service by surfing the Tube.
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Chapter 1: Everything You Wanted to Know about YouTube YouTube and the Copyright Police Gobs of video get uploaded to YouTube every day. If you upload a video to which you don’t own the copyright or haven’t purchased rights to the video, you’re in violation of the copyright law. YouTube does a pretty good job of policing its site. YouTube also gets feedback from users when a video isn’t considered appropriate. If you upload a copyrighted video and YouTube catches you, it yanks the video and your account.
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22 Part I: Curtain Up on Streaming Video Seeking the YouTube Experience When we told our friends and relatives about this book project, we received mixed reviews. Some people thought the videos on the homepage of YouTube were the greatest thing since the release of the Xbox 360. Our older friends and relatives weren’t quite as enthusiastic. But there’s something for everyone on the Tube. You’ve just got to be an ambassador and show your friends how to find the stuff they want to see.
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Chapter 1: Everything You Wanted to Know about YouTube Figure 1-11: A YouTube channel is a place for your video stuff. The lists are comprised of thumbnail icons, which, after clicked, display the associated item. For example, if you click a playlist icon, you see the associated playlist. The easiest way to make the Tube your way is to find some videos you like and then view the channel of the user who uploaded the clips.
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24 Part I: Curtain Up on Streaming Video