Microsoft Blocks Adware, T-Mobile Throttles YouTube… [Tech News Digest] | Dramel Notes

Microsoft hates adware, T-Mobile hates YouTube, Google hates passwords, one Russian man hates Fallout 4, and Boston Dynamics hates you sleeping soundly in your bed at night.

Microsoft Tackles Insecure Adware

Microsoft has committed to tackling insecure adware, promising to detect and remove any programs that fail to comply with the company’s new guidelines. Enforcement will begin on March 31, 2016, with developers being given until then to play ball.

The way that @Microsoft sneakily includes @Windows 10 with regular monthly updates is not much different from adware inclusion tactics.

— Marc Zimmermann (@marczimmermann) November 28, 2015

The target here is the nasty adware programs such as Superfish, which Lenovo actually pre-installed on some machines sold through 2014 and 2015. This program, and other adware like it, uses a man-in-the-middle technique to hijack a user’s Internet connection, change various settings, and display ads across the Web.

Microsoft explained the change of policy in a TechNet blog post:

“All of these techniques intercept communications between the Internet and the PC to inject advertisements and promotions into webpages from outside, without the control of the browser. Our intent is to keep the user in control of their browsing experience and these methods reduce that control.”

To this end, Microsoft is insisting, “programs that create advertisements in browsers must only use the browsers’ supported extensibility model for installation, execution, disabling, and removal.” Which means they will have to be browser plugins which are visible to the user and, most importantly, can be easily removed.

T-Mobile Throttles YouTube Videos

YouTube isn’t too happy with T-Mobile, accusing the mobile operator of throttling its videos as part of the Binge On program. Binge On lets T-Mobile customers stream all of the video they want from selected partners without it counting towards data caps, but limits the resolution to 480p.

The problem as far as YouTube is concerned is that its videos are also being delivered at crappy resolutions, while still counting towards data caps. Unlike Netflix, Hulu, and others, YouTube isn’t part of the Binge On program. Which means T-Mobile users viewing YouTube videos are stuck watching low-quality videos without getting any benefits to counter that compromise.

YouTube also thinks it’s unfair that Binge On was turned on by default for all eligible users. However, it is possible to switch it off, as long as you know how to do so. Regardless, Binge On has caught the attention of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which is dedicated to ensuring net neutrality is maintained.

Google Tests Password-Free Logins

So, when you sign out of your Google account it still auto fills your passwords… Who thought that was a good idea!?

— Liam Maye (@i_is_liaaaam) November 14, 2015

Google is currently testing a method for killing passwords for good. The method being tested with a handful of Android users involves authorizing a mobile device, and then receiving a notification to log in when you input your account details on a computer.

It’s not a perfect system, which is why Google is currently testing it. However, it’s the first step down the road towards removing the need to memorize passwords for every website you use. Which is a good thing seeing as how many people use really dumb passwords.

Fallout 4 Can Ruin Your Life

A Russian man is suing Bethesda for ruining his life. The unnamed 28-year-old claims that he became addicted to playing Fallout 4, leading to him losing his job, splitting with his wife, and neglecting his friends. He also claims his health deteriorated due to not eating or sleeping properly.

According to RT (formerly Russia Today), the man is seeking 500,000 roubles (US$7,000) from Bethesda for the “emotional distress” the game has caused him. Meanwhile, millions of gamers are enjoying Fallout 4 to healthy levels; eating, sleeping, working, and spending time with their loved ones just as they did before buying the game.

Happy Holidays from Boston Dynamics

And finally, Boston Dynamics wants to wish you a happy holidays, and it has chosen to do so in its own unique way. Namely, by having three of its Spot robots pulling Santa’s sleigh. Spot is a big robot dog weighing in at around 160 lbs, and it’s terrifying at any time of the year.

For the uninitiated amongst you, Boston Dynamics is the robotics company acquired by Google in 2013. It produces robots that accurately mimic real-world animals such as dogs and horses. They’re just a lot more scary in lots of different ways. Still, Santa seems to be OK with it, so I guess we have to be OK with it too.

Your Views on Today’s Tech News

Is Microsoft right to start blocking adware like Superfish? Is T-Mobile right to throttle YouTube against its will? Do we need to move on from using passwords online? Has Fallout 4 ruined your life? What emotions do you feel when watching Boston Dynamics’ robots?

Let us know your thoughts on the Tech News of the day by posting to the comments section below. Because a healthy discussion is always welcome.

Tech News Digest is a daily column paring the technology news of the day down into bite-sized chunks that are easy to read and perfect for sharing.

Image Credits: Yuri Samoilov via Flickr

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Speed Up Is YouTube’s Greatest & Most Underrated Feature | Dramel Notes

Though you can use outside tools to customize YouTube, such as forcing videos to play in HD right away, one of its best features is hidden right in the interface itself: the ability to speed up playback.

After expanding the gear settings symbol with a click, you can disable annotations, change the video quality, edit subtitles, or change the speed — yes, YouTube allows you to play the video in normal time, sped up at 1.25x, 1.5x, or 2.0x speed, or slowed down to 0.5x or 0.25x speed.

While slowing down is useful for watching a video that’s too fast (maybe an intricate tutorial, like how to draw something), speeding up can save you tons of time overall.

Whether you’re listening to an audio-only clip, watching the best TED talks, checking out a video game review, or watching anything else that you need to finish quickly, you can watch it 1.5x as fast, or even twice as fast, depending on how well you can keep up.

Whenever I watch a slo-mo video on YouTube, I always double the playback speed. Life moves fast people…

— Captain Eats (@CaptainEats) December 9, 2015

Obviously, this isn’t the best option all the time. If you’re listening to video game music, it won’t sound good in double time. But the next time you professor makes you watch an online lecture, try speeding it up to watch the same amount of content in half the time!

Keep in mind that this feature isn’t supported on YouTube’s mobile apps yet. If you don’t see the option to speed up, make sure your browser is using HTML5 for YouTube with their test page. If it isn’t, make sure your browser is up-to-date (and try Chrome if you’re not using it already).

What videos have you sped through? Tell us about how you use this time-saving trick below!

Image Credit: Bplanet via Shutterstock.com

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6 Awesome Books by YouTubers Actually Worth Reading | Dramel Notes

As you have probably noticed, just about every single YouTube content creator with a subscriber count in the millions has been given a book deal. No matter how little suited their style might be to the written word.

If you think most of them are boring, obviously-ghostwritten cash grabs… you’re not wrong. However, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. With Adblocker technology becoming the norm and assuming they haven’t opted into YouTube Red, some content creators need to find other ways to make money doing what they enjoy. And books may just be the key.

It turns out that some of them are actually very good reads. After all, there are a number of YouTubers who really know their stuff. It took a considerable amount of searching, but there are at least six books from popular YouTubers that are well worth reading.

This Book Loves You by PewDiePie

If you’re a fan of PewDiePie (real name Felix Kjellberg) or know someone who is, you’ve likely heard of this book. Eschewing any kind of narrative whatsoever, This Book Loves You is strictly a series of images and darkly humorous quotes.

Out of all the books on this list, this is the one I can most readily believe to have not been written by a ghost writer. Pewds’ trademark offbeat humor and guileless sincerity is on full display here. While the book could have benefited from one or two discreet edits, for the most part it is a continuation of the same acquired taste that is the PewDiePie brand.

You Deserve a Drink by Mamrie Hart

Most of the books I read from lifestyle vloggers tend to stink of some combination of self-aggrandizement and embarrassment. Mamrie Hart has no such pretensions. Her voice is both warm and blunt in this series of humorous essays about her life and adventures.

Every anecdote is a self-contained story, with an accompanying cocktail. I guarantee you’ll wish you’d been present for some of her misadventures. Hart knows how to tell a story, and she manages to make even her mundanities sound interesting, though the strategic application of her liquor recipes will undoubtedly help put the reader in the right state of mind.

The Nerdy Nummies Cookbook by Rosanna Pansino

I think the best books by YouTubers are those written by YouTubers who know how to play to their strengths, or at least to their established audience. The Nerdy Nummies Cookbook delivers exactly the nerdy recipes that make Rosanna Pansino stand out from the rest of the YouTubers making cooking shows.

Even if you’ve never seen Pansino make her Nerdy Nummies before, your mouth will be watering once you lay eyes on her colorful and delicious-looking creations. From the Red Blood Cell Cupcakes through the Chocolate Chess Board to the Atomic Cookies, every recipe is mouth-watering and delicious.

Binge by Tyler Oakley

Tyler Oakley has nothing to hold back from his audience in Binge. As the title implies, the book is a series of anecdotes about his life, told with no holds barred and with self-indulgence. The frankness of his many essays is the sort that will cause some people to feel slightly uncomfortable, but I personally found it refreshing.

Binge is a book full of essay memoirs, but unlike You Deserve a Drink, some of the stories are more embittered than funny. Oakley shares his memories of an imperfect past with all of the emotions the memories come with, and it can be hard to read at times. Still, it is nice to feel that the writer is sharing some part of themselves with you, as opposed to presenting a polished and unreal version as many other memoirs do.

Grace’s Guide: The Art of Pretending to be a Grown-Up by Grace Helbig

Most books by YouTubers in the “self-help” genre tend to give advice so generic as to be useless. Grace Helbig has some things to say which may actually help people of the younger generations, from dating in the digital age to financial concerns.

Her advice sometimes comes with stories and funny pictures, but at its core the book is full of decent help and on-point observations about the current state of the world.

Helbig does occasionally have the self-effacement unfortunately common in books by YouTubers, but for the most part it comes in this form: “I don’t have my life together, but neither does anyone else. Here’s how to deal with that.” She’s witty, yet sapient.

I Hate Myselfie by Shane Dawson

The humor in this series of essays by Shane Dawson can be a little dated, but he knows how to tell a funny story. Beginning with a tale from the early 00s where he manages to make a haircut sound like an epic tale of personal reinvention, he picks up steam from there. Somehow each story, no matter how mundane, feels interesting and relatable.

Dawson, who boasts one of the highest subscriber counts on YouTube, does sometimes require some edits (in the very first essay he tells a story that takes place in 2006, yet makes reference in-story to a film from 2008), but it’s overall a funny and diverting read. Dawson’s written voice comes across as very warm and open despite also being snarky and harsh sometimes. It’s an interesting contrast, and an enjoyable one.

NB: For those wondering why John Green’s books aren’t on the list, it’s because his books have already reached an audience wider than his YouTube subscriber base and I feel to include them would have been cheating.

Which Books by YouTubers Have You Read?

I personally plumbed through the stacks of books by YouTubers to find those worth reading. So I can attest that most of these would be great reads even if you are not a regular viewer of the YouTuber in question.

However, there are so many books by YouTubers out there that there’s no way I could have covered them all. Which is why you, the reader, are an important part of the equation.

Have you read any books by YouTubers? Which did you enjoy and which did you despise? Please help us grow this list by detailing your thoughts in the comments below!

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Are You Addicted to the Internet? Facebook Reviews 2015… [Tech News Digest] | Dramel Notes

America loves the Internet, what we discussed on Facebook over the past year, Walmart takes mobile payments, Popcorn Time for Music is no more, and YouTube looks back over 2015.

Internet Use in the United States

The United States of America is becoming increasingly addicted to the Internet. According to the latest statistics from the Pew Research Center, 73 percent of Americans go online at least once a day, with 21 percent admitting to being online “Almost constantly”. Just 13 percent of those polled do not use the Internet at all.

The ubiquity of smartphones has a lot to do with this, as 87 percent of Americans who own smartphones go online daily as opposed to 65 percent who don’t own smartphones. The figures are even more telling in terms of constant use, with 27 percent of smartphone users admitting to being online all the time as opposed to just 8 percent for non-smartphone owners.

This increased use of the Internet is fairly even across gender and race. However, age, education, and income all make big differences: Teenagers, graduates, and high-earners are all likely to spend more time online than retirees, school dropouts, and low-earners.

So, it might be time to ask yourself, are you addicted to the Internet? If so, perhaps it’s time to take a break.

The Biggest Stories on Facebook

We have already looked at the stories which dominated Twitter in 2015, and now it’s Facebook’s turn to take a look back over the past 12 months with its Year in Review for 2015. Facebook has pinpointed 10 news stories which were widely discussed on the social network in 2015, with the video embedded above providing some background to them all.

1. The U.S. Presidential Election
2. The November 13 Attacks in Paris
3. The Syrian Civil War and Refugee Crisis
4. The Nepal Earthquakes
5. The Greek Debt Crisis
6. Marriage Equality
7. The Fight Against ISIS
8. The Charlie Hebdo Attack
9. The Baltimore Protests
10. The Charleston Shooting and Flag Debate

As you can see from the list, the majority of the most-discussed stories involved bad news. This is not only reminder of what a terrible year it has been in terms of things happening in the world, but also a reminder that people are increasingly turning to social media to talk about these issues. Both for good and for bad.

We would love to know which of these stories resonated most with you, and which you found yourself having heated discussions about on Facebook. After all, this year, possibly more than any previous year, has shown that being friends with someone on Facebook doesn’t guarantee you’ll agree with them about everything. Especially Donald Trump.

Walmart Launches Walmart Pay

Someone at Wal*Mart corporate clearly got confused. When people demanded that Wal*Mart Pay, they meant pay their employees!

— Doug Hill (@DHStom) December 10, 2015

U.S. retailer Walmart has launched Walmart Pay, its own mobile payments platform designed to go head-to-head with Apple Pay, Android Pay and others. Walmart Pay will be introduced in selected stores today (Dec. 10), with additional stores coming online over the holidays. It should be available across the United States by the middle of next year.

Walmart Pay is free to use and integrated into the Walmart app. According to Reuters, it’s available both on Android and iOS, and is compatible with “any major credit, debit, pre-paid or Walmart gift cards.” Using Walmart Pay requires you to scan a code at the checkout counter using your smartphone camera, with an e-receipt being sent to the app.

The RIAA Has Killed Aurous

Consider this our farewell, thanks for all the support https://t.co/SXvXvlD9s7

— Aurous (@aurousapp) December 10, 2015

Aurous, also known as the Popcorn Time for Music, has shut down for good, with the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) bullying the service out of existence. The RIAA sued Aurous days after it launched in October 2015, and two months later, it’s dead as a dodo.

Aurous allowed users to play pretty much any song in existence by pulling music from 120 sources, including YouTube and SoundCloud. Unfortunately, not all of the sources were entirely legal, which led to the RIAA launching a lawsuit on behalf of the record labels it represents.

The lawsuit has now been settled for $3 million, with Aurous signing over its domain name and intellectual property to the record labels. According to TorrentFreak, Aurous co-founders Andrew Sampson and Danielle Astvatsaturova are banned from committing infringing actions in the future.

Watch YouTube Rewind 2015

And finally, YouTube Rewind takes a look back over 2015 with the YouTubers, videos, and memes that dominated over the past year. I think it’s fair to say that no one will recognize everybody and everything in this video. And if you do then you really need to get out more.

The video features a heady mix of mainstream celebrities and people only famous on YouTube. Which, as Wired points out, demonstrates how the lines are blurring as YouTube grows up and evolves. YouTube Red isn’t for everyone, but it’s a sure sign of a maturing platform.

Your Views on Today’s Tech News

Do you think you’re addicted to the Internet? What stories did you discuss on Facebook in 2015? Are you likely to ever use Walmart Pay? How do you feel about the RIAA killing Aurous? What YouTube channels have you watched most over the past 12 months?

Let us know your thoughts on the Tech News of the day by posting to the comments section below. Because a healthy discussion is always welcome.

Image Credits: Chris Potter via Flickr

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YouTube Introduces a ‘Trending’ Tab, Surfacing Viral Videos in Real Time by @mattsouthern | Dramel Notes

YouTube has introduced a new permanent fixture to the iOS, Android, and desktop versions of its service — a ‘Trending’ tab that will surface viral videos in real time.

Going forward, this will essentially be the home on the web for viral videos, especially videos that are going viral right at this very moment.

“This new tab in your YouTube app delivers the top trending videos directly to your Android, iOS, and desktop device. It’s the best way to catch the videos, creators, and trends that people watch, share, and talk about each and every day.”

According to The Verge, YouTube’s Trending tab uses an algorithm based on comments, views, and “external references.” Instead of recommending popular videos on the homepage, this tab will be the new place to find popular/trending videos.

VentureBeat reports the content displayed in the Trending tab may vary based on location, and will in no way be influenced by a user’s viewing history. In addition, if some particularly explicit videos are trending,they may be manually filtered out of the tab.

Manual filtering suggests that YouTube can override the algorithm to add or remove content from the tab at any time. That may be why the recent YouTube Rewind video is pinned to the top of the Trending tab right now, even though it may not be the most viral video at the moment.

In any case, it looks like this tab will be a mostly reliable source for keeping up with videos that either have gone viral, or are going viral. It will be interesting to see what kind of effect being featured in Trending will on a video’s traffic. Are people actually going to pay attention to the trending tab? I guess we will see over time.

Featured Image Credit: Daxiao Productions / Shutterstock

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9 Popular YouTube Channels Perfect for Binge-Watching | Dramel Notes

Only one site can stand toe-to-toe with Netflix when it comes to binge-watching, and that site is YouTube. Need a pick-me-up? Want to laugh away your stress? Or just have some time to kill? Then YouTube may be the remedy.

These popular channels all have one thing in common: entertainment value. Some of them may not be your cup of tea, but we guarantee that you’ll end up loving at least one of them — maybe even several of them! Give them all at least one try. You won’t be disappointed.

Note: Just be careful that you don’t let the binge-watching get out of hand. YouTube can quickly become a massive time-waster if you let your guard down!

Epic Rap Battles of History

As far as binge-worthy entertainment goes, few channels are as consistent in both quality and delivery as Epic Rap Battles of History. Every single episode — each of which is only a few minutes long — is fresh, fun, and full of laugh-inducing lines.

For those who don’t know, Epic Rap Battles of History takes famous figures throughout history (or pop culture) and pits them against each other for a few rounds of verbal sparring. The lyrics are written from the point-of-view of each character, which is what makes it so entertaining.

Still confused? Just watch the Picasso vs. Bob Ross battle in the video above. If you love this — and millions of people do — then you should check out our list of the funniest Epic Rap Battles of History (as well as our updated list of five more).

5 Second Films

These films truly live up to their gimmick. Each video is nine seconds long (four seconds of intro, five seconds of content) and they’re all dense enough to pack a whopping punchline. Some are better than others, of course, but they’re all pretty good.

The thing about these 5 Second Films is that they’re individually so short that none of them are entirely satisfying — and that fuels the need to binge-watch several of them at once. It’s way too easy to lose half an hour with these.

Not sure where to begin? Start with our compilation of the funniest 5 Second Films to watch.

Zero Punctuation

If you’re a fan of PC games, then you can’t miss Zero Punctuation. A lot of video game reviewers have popped up on YouTube over the past few years, but Zero Punctuation was a pioneer — and still reigns as one of the funniest and most relevant of them all.

Zero Punctuation’s claim to fame is two-fold: its characteristic talk-without-taking-any-breaths approach to communication, and the snarky way in which the narrator criticizes various aspects of the games under review. It’s as entertaining as it is informative, which is why so many people love Zero Punctuation reviews.

Looking for a taste of what’s in store? Start with Zero Punctuation’s greatest hits. Each review is only a few minutes long, so the series is seriously worthy of being binged on.

Cinemassacre

Cinemassacre is actually the production channel for a handful of different gaming-related YouTube series — the most popular is the Angry Video Game Nerd (AVGN), but the channel also has movie reviews and board game antics.

Like Zero Punctuation, the AVGN series is one about video game reviews, but with a twist: not only does it focus on games that are absolutely terrible, it ramps up the, “Oh my God, this pisses me off” factor as each review goes on.

It’s certainly not for everybody but the show has plenty of fans, and if you find that you do enjoy it, then there are over 100 episodes for you to binge on. With each episode being around 10 to 20 minutes, that’s a lot of potential binge-watching in your future.

Extra Credits

It’s one thing to play video games, but another thing to understand video games. There’s a lot that goes into the design of a game, and the Extra Credits channel tries to break things down in a way that the average gamer can grasp. But to be clear, Extra Credits isn’t always right.

Experienced game designers know that everything they say is overly simplified, that game design is a complicated field that often lacks clear-cut answers. However, as lightweight entertainment for gamers and amateur game developers, Extra Credits fits the bill well.

CinemaSins

“No movie is without sin. We exist mostly just to remind you of that.” It’s a simple concept, but when executed as brilliantly as this channel manages it, you get a wonderfully entertaining channel that ends up teaching you about characters, narratives, and tropes.

In each episode, CinemaSins takes a particular film and pokes fun at its various elements. Sometimes it deals with story inconsistencies, other times it emphasizes continuity goofs. Mostly it just makes wry commentary — but in all things, it’s lighthearted and silly.

Episodes are anywhere from three to 20 minutes long, so no matter how much time you have to kill, there’s something that will fit your schedule.

Songify This

Schmoyoho’s Songify This channel played a big part in establishing some well-known memes in the early 2010s. It’s possible that the world may have never known about the Double Rainbow Guy, Antoine Dodson, or Backin’ Up if it wasn’t for Schmoyoho.

Long story short, these guys take semi-popular Web clips and turn them into songs using auto-tune technology — and many of these songs are actually quite catchy (and, of course, silly).

Bad Lip Reading

Take any clip of someone talking — whether from a film, a TV show, or even a press conference — and dub it over with your own words, but in a way that still matches the lip movements of the clip. It’s harder to do than you might think, but when done well, can be hilarious.

Therefore, due to the difficulty, Bad Lip Reading videos can be hit or miss. However, if there’s a Bad Lip Reading for a movie or show you’ve already seen, there’s a good chance that it’ll be funny (because you know the original context). Regardless, these are great for binging.

Want to start with some good ones? Here are the best Bad Lip Reading videos that we’ve seen.

Slow Mo Guys

Explosive sequences are already exciting as they are, but when you slow them down by several orders of magnitude, they become exponentially more interesting. Don’t believe me? The Slow Mo Guys do nothing but slow down clips and have almost 7 million subscribers.

I know it sounds silly, but as the above video shows, it’s surprisingly entertaining. You think you’d get sick of it in just a few minutes or so, but it somehow sucks you in. Every new slow-motion video is yet another awe-inspiring bit of footage.

At the very least, check out these unbelievable super-slow-motion videos. Even if the Slow Mo Guys channel doesn’t blow your mind, these videos definitely will.

Which Channels Do You Binge-Watch?

There are hundreds of other popular YouTube channels that probably deserve a spot on this list, including those run by well-known creators such as Nigahiga, PewDiePie, and Freddie Wong.

Unfortunately, we had to pick the best of the best, or you would have got bored and stopped reading a while ago. However, we welcome you adding to this list with your own suggestions of popular YouTube channels worth binge-watching.

So tell us, which entertainment YouTube channels do you think are best for binge-watching? Any genre, any size — just let us know all about them in the comments below!

Image Credits:Watching Movie At Home by Andrey_Popov via Shutterstock

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5 Ways to Improve Your YouTube Organic Reach by @ab80 | Dramel Notes

With over a billion users and enough traffic to place make it the third most popular website globally, YouTube beats out all other search engines with exception to Google. Combine that with Google’s incorporation of YouTube videos in general search results, and you have a powerful search engine that cannot be ignored. In this post, I’m going to show you five ways you can improve your YouTube organic reach.

1. Build up Your YouTube Channel Reputation

To start improving your YouTube organic reach, you will want to build up your YouTube channel as an authority in your industry. To get started, you will want to fully complete your YouTube channel like you would a profile on a top social network.

This includes having a good profile photo and cover photo (or as YouTube calls it, channel art). At 2560 x 1440 px, it’s one of the largest cover photos in the social media landscape, yet is also the one with the most narrow display.

Next, you will want to have a strong channel trailer to introduce new visitors to you, your brand, and why they would want to subscribe to your channel. The video you use for your channel trailer should also have a great description, as that will be shown alongside your trailer.

YouTube Profile Information

On your channel’s About tab, enter a description of yourself, your business, and your channel. Then link it to your website and your top social profiles on Google+, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

From here, you will want to upload lots of great videos to your channel and organize it using playlists. If you know it will take you a while to upload videos of your own, you can populate your channel with playlists and videos from other YouTube users. Just make sure they aren’t competitors and are relevant to your brand or business. This tactic will allow you to have a strong channel and build subscribers while creating your video library.

Building YouTube Subscribers

Speaking of subscribers, be sure to start building your YouTube subscriber base by linking to your YouTube channel on your website, in your email signature, on your email newsletter, on your other social profiles, and anywhere else you might be able to connect with people who would be interested in subscribing. Subscribers will provide social proof for your channel and will be updated to your latest video uploads.

You can also boost your subscribers by going to your channel’s Branding settings and adding a watermark to all of your videos. When people click on it, they will be taken to your channel page to subscribe. This will ensure that people can subscribe to your channel from videos that are embedded on other websites or shared on social media.

2. Do Keyword Research for Each Video you Upload

If you want to improve your YouTube organic reach, you will want to start with good keyword optimization. Just like you would with a web page you want to rank well in search results, you should do keyword research for your YouTube videos. You can start with the trusty Google AdWords Keyword Planner to determine search volume and competition for your target keyword phrase.

For additional variations of your keyword, you can move on to using the suggestions from the Google search box or paid SEO tools.

In the image below you can see a list of suggestions from Rank Tracker ( Just a note: I’m the founder, but the tool does have a free version, which has no limitations for keyword research).

This should help you get the right target keyword phrase, plus additional variations of your target keyword phrase to use in different aspects of your video optimization.

3. Optimize Videos Before you Upload Them

Search optimization of your YouTube videos needs to begin before you upload your video. Before you upload your video to YouTube, be sure to optimize it for your target keyword phrase, starting with the filename of the video itself.

Next, you will want to get more info about your video. From this screen, you can add more information about your video to the video file itself. Most video editing tools have this ability built-in. Depending on your operating system, you may also be able to right-click on your video file and add extra details.

This will let YouTube know what your video is about right from the start.

4. Optimize Your Videos After Uploading Them

As soon as you start uploading your new videos, you will have the chance to optimize them on YouTube.

This page gives you some hints as to what YouTube finds important about the optimization of your videos.

Basic Info

First, you have the basic information for your video: the video title, description, and tags. Think of the usual on-site optimization rules for these fields.

Your SEO title should be 55 characters or less and should include your target keyword phrase. In this case, your video title is the SEO title.

Your meta description should be 160 characters or less in length. In this case, the video description is the meta description. While keywords in your meta description will not necessarily help you rank better in Google search, they are typically bolded in Google search results, so it’s important to include your target keyword phrase in your video description.

Note that you shouldn’t make your video description 160 characters or less, but rather, you should put the information you would want to appear as the meta description in the first 160 characters. YouTube allows up to 5,000 characters in your video description.

This gives you approximately 800 words for your video description, give or take, to use to further optimize your video for search. Think of it like a blog post content that is optimized for your target keyword phrase along with the additional variations you found in your keyword research.

Your meta keywords should be 255 characters or less in length. In this case, the video tags are the meta keywords. Granted, these have little weight in terms of factors that will help you rank in Google search, but they should be incorporated to help optimize your video for YouTube search. So be sure to include your target keyword phrase along with the additional variations you found in your keyword research.

Advanced Settings

Next, you have the Advanced Settings tab. Here, you will find additional things to configure for your video.

Be sure to choose the best category for your video and add additional details such as the location of the video (if applicable), the language, and the date.

Social Sharing

Back on the Basic Info tab, you will see the option to share your new video with your Google+ and Twitter audience. This should alert you to the fact that social sharing metrics – especially on these two networks – are important.

Playlists

Below the social sharing options, you will see the option to add your video to a playlist. For this, you will want to create or choose a playlist on your YouTube channel that relates to your video’s target keyword phrase.

Thumbnails

If you have verified your YouTube channel (which can be done by simply entering your mobile number and confirming the code sent to you via text), you can upload a custom thumbnail for your video. This allows you to use something eye-catching as your video thumbnail that isn’t necessarily in the video itself.

Like you would with any image you upload to a web page, optimize the image for search using your target keyword phrase in the filename and the image metadata. The fact that YouTube thumbnail images appear in the image results of Google search shows that the optimization of even those images can count for something.

Annotations and Cards

After your video is uploaded, you can go to it and use the icons beneath the video to make additional edits to your video.

In particular, you can use Annotations and Cards to link more of your videos to your video. This will boost the views and engagement of your other videos.

5. Get Engagement for Your Videos

Once your video is uploaded, it’s essential that you get engagement for your videos. When you think about YouTube as a search engine, you have to think about the things that will tell that search engine why it should show your video above everyone else’s. You’ve already configured the video’s on-site SEO settings. Now, it’s time to boost the other ranking factors.

By default, YouTube shows the number of views, thumbs up, thumbs down, and comments for every video unless the video owner disables these features. If you can boost the number of views, thumbs up, and comments for your video, it will signal to YouTube that your video is important, which will ultimately help it’s rankings.

In addition, think back to the Basic Info for your video while you were uploading it. Social sharing was indicated as something that would help your video. Hence, you will want to get social shares for your video as well.

You can do all of these things through promotion of your video. If you have a large audience on your blog, social networks, email list, or other platforms, share your video with those audiences first to get the ball rolling.

You can also do outreach for your video in order to get it embedded and linked to on other websites. Simply look for blog posts that relate to the topic of the video, then reach out to the people who authored those posts. Let them know you loved their article and thought your video would make a great resource for their readers who want to learn more about the topic. Both embeds and links to your video will count towards boosting the video’s authority.

You may even be able to do outreach to other YouTube channels with the same approach. Find videos that relate to the topic of your video and watch them. If they don’t have annotations or cards pointing to other videos, reach out to the channel owner to see if they would want to link their video up to yours as a resource for their viewers. In this case, you may want to include directions on how to use Annotations or Cards to link your video to theirs.

Be sure to measure the results of your promotions by installing vidIQ for YouTube. This Google Chrome extension will show you the detailed analytics of most videos on YouTube, including your competitor’s for research purposes.

In Conclusion

If you follow the steps outlined above, from building up your YouTube channel’s reputation to promoting each and every video you create, you will improve your YouTube organic reach in search results, suggested videos, and even Google search results.

If you have tried any of these things or have some other great tips that I might have missed, please share them in the comments below!

 

Image Credits

Featured image: Your Design/Shutterstock.com
All screenshots by Aleh Barysevich. Taken November 2015.

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YouTube Copies Netflix, Google Kills Songza… [Tech News Digest] | Dramel Notes

YouTube channels the spirit of Netflix, Google subsumes Songza, Wikipedia creates a new AI, Adele admits streaming is the future, and the pop songs of 2015 get mashed up into one.

YouTube Wants to be the New Netflix

YouTube is keen to become the new Netflix, with sources claiming the Google-owned company is actively pursuing the rights to stream movies and TV shows.

According to the Wall Street Journal, negotiations are at an early stage, but Google is keen to have “a robust collection of original programming and licensed programming in 2016 and beyond.”

Right now, details are very thin on the ground, but our guess is that YouTube is trying to add content to its new subscription service, YouTube Red. One way of persuading people to pay $10-a-month for YouTube would be to add a range of licensed content. YouTube Red already boasts homemade content from the likes of PewDiePie and Rooster Teeth.

There is already strong competition in the streaming arena, including Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime Instant Video. However, YouTube has a famous brand, hundreds of millions of users, and the backing of Google/Alphabet. All of which means YouTube could represent a serious threat to the competition if it starts aggressively buying up both old and new content.

Google Is Killing Off Songza

Google is killing Songza, with the website and app due disappear on Jan. 31, 2016. Google acquired Songza in July 2014, and has slowly but surely been adding Songza’s features to Google Play Music. And Google hopes all Songza users will now switch to using Google Play Music.

The Songza founders claim the two services have now reached parity, hence Songza has become surplus to requirements. However, that will offer little comfort to those who, for whatever reason, preferred Songza to Google Play Music.

As is so often the case, Google has acquired a rival service purely to subsume its best features into its own offering. Meanwhile, the Songza founders are happy telling you to switch over to Google Play Music in between bouts of feverishly counting the money sitting in their bank accounts.

Wikipedia AI Spots Bad Edits

Wikipedia has created a new artificial intelligence designed to recognize potentially bad edits and flag them to human editors. In addition, the person responsible for a revision that’s deleted will now receive a notification informing them why their edit hasn’t been accepted.

The Objective Revision Evaluation Service (ORES) “functions like a pair of X-ray specs,” seeing through attempts to fool the team of humans maintaining order at the online encyclopedia. Wikipedia has always employed tools to monitor content, but ORES is the first one that’s able to differentiate between malicious edits and human errors.

Adele Admits Streaming Is the Future

Adele isn’t a fan of streaming music services such as Spotify and Apple Music. So much so that her new album 25 isn’t available to stream on these services. Except on Pandora, when the odd song from it will play randomly. Which isn’t ideal.

However, Adele has admitted that streaming is the future, telling Rolling Stone:

“[Streaming] probably is the future, but, eh. There are kids I know who are, like, nine who don’t even know what a f**king CD is! I’ve got my CDs out on display in my house just to prove a point. Maybe CDs will have a massive comeback like vinyl did.”

We doubt CDs will make a comeback in any big way, despite recently discovering that most of our readers still own CD players. As for Adele, we suspect she’ll have to embrace the new medium at some point in the future, even if it around the time she releases an album titled 72.

Watch 50 Shades of Pop 2015

And finally, we have the United State of Pop 2015 video, as put together lovingly by DJ Earworm. This year, as every year, DJ Earworm has produced a mashup of the biggest pop songs released over the previous 12 months into one glorious whole. This year’s song is titled 50 Shades of Pop.

Artists to have made the cut include Adele, Ariana Grande, Drake, Ed Sheeran, Justin Bieber, Nicki Minaj, Sam Smith, and Taylor Swift. Even if you’re not a fan of pop music, this is still worth watching. And who knows, perhaps you’ll discover a new appreciation for Fetty Wap or The Weeknd.

Your Views on Today’s Tech News

Will you be subscribing to YouTube Red? Are you sorry to see the end of Songza? Is Wikipedia still plagued by factual errors? Should Adele embrace streaming as the future of music? How many songs did you recognize in 50 Shades of Pop 2015?

Let us know your thoughts on the Tech News of the day by posting to the comments section below. Because a healthy discussion is always welcome.

Image Credits: Rego Korosi via Flickr

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