Marking the 20th anniversary of a crucial paper in the web’s development, Google has published an online book on ‘things you’ve always wanted to know about the web and browsers but may have been afraid to ask’.
Google has produced a book on browsers and the web in association with illustrator Christoph Niemann Search engine Google has commemorated the 20th anniversary of a paper crucial to the web’s development by producing an online book to explain how the internet works.
Search company prepares to launch fashion-dedicated website, believed to be called boutiques.com
Google is testing live video streaming on YouTube, in a move that will challenge the likes of Livestream, UStream and Justin.tv
The two-day trial, in association with a number of content partners, including Rocketboom and Young Hollywood, is aimed at testing YouTube’s ability to deliver consistent live streams, and to experiment with live comments, to which content providers can respond in real time.
The alpha testing, which starts today, is Google’s first step towards providing a full live-streaming service through its YouTube website. Live streaming has been mooted for years, and YouTube has broadcast one-off events live, including U2’s concert at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, cricket from the Indian Premier League, and a State of the Union address from Barack Obama.
CitizenTube, a channel on the YouTube website dedicated to political discussion, has also regularly hosted live streams.
"This is just an initial trial, a first step," said Josh Siegel, a product manager at YouTube. "We're going to look at a whole bunch of data about the performance of our new platform and then, based on that, make decisions about how we'll open it up, with the goal of opening it up to all of our partners over time."
However, industry experts believe any live-streaming service will be limited to professionally produced content provided by YouTube’s partners, rather than live videos uploaded by users.
“This isn’t surprising – there’s obviously a big infrastructure hurdle involved with streaming content from so many people,” said Jason Kincaid, a reporter with industry blog TechCrunch.
“But, more importantly, there’s also a greater risk that someone will stream a suicide, or something similarly awful.”
Google said that live streaming was “a natural evolution to online video” and added “an extra level of engagement” for YouTube’s audience.
YouTube is the biggest video-sharing site on the internet, with 24 hours of video uploaded to the site every minute, and an average of two billion views per day
Speaking at a small Google Mobile event in London, Hugo Barra, director of products for mobile at Google announced that the new update will be available in 'just a few hours'.
Google wanted to offer walkers the same free and easy way to find their ways around cities that cars are afforded, and has come up with a number of feet-friendly features:
"We had the idea that people are now navigating using Google Maps, getting turn by turn navigation in your car, so now we're launching a walking version of that." Hilly
"The new version of Google Maps will choose routes that are pedestrian only, such as not going down very hilly roads if there's an easy way to get around.
"It will also turn on satellite view automatically, which is really helpful for getting your bearings so you can know what's around immediately.
"You can also mute navigation voice guidance; sometimes you might not want Google telling you to turn left when on the street, so you can turn it right down, and it will vibrate every time you need to look at it and get a new instruction." Enhance!
Users can zoom around the map by clicking on almost any part of the picture, and it will zoom there in a much slicker way than before.
Android lovers can search for the new update in a few hours, so keep your eyes peeled for Google Maps 4.5 on your handset.
By Gareth Beavis
The 'fundamental change' that will save the world's web users 111 years per day is just the first step in the search giant's
The service allows users to make calls to land lines and mobiles from inside their Gmail account. Phoning anywhere in the US and Canada will be free until the end of the year, while calls to the UK, France, China and Germany will cost 2 cents a minute. Until now Google offered computer-to-computer voice and video chat services. "This is a real big deal becausenow hundreds of millions of Gmail users can make phone calls right from their Gmail page," Craig Walker, product manager for real-time communications told BBC News. "They don't need to download an additional application or anything to start making really high-quality low-cost calls. For the user it means much more efficient and low-cost communications." The product will initially be rolled out in the US, the firm said. However, for a brief time, international users were also able to use the feature because of an error. "Unintentionally we briefly made the service available to non-US English users," a spokesperson said. "We do hope to bring it to our international users soon." When it rolls out the product link will appear on the left hand of the Gmail page within the "chat" window. A "call phone" option will pop up along with a number pad to let you dial the number of the person you want to talk to. Google said money raised from international calls will pay for the free US and Canadian calls. "What surprised me was that they actually said they hope to make money off the calls," said Danny Sullivan, editor-in-chief of technology blog SearchEngineLand. "Normally Google is like 'We don't know how we are going to make the money' or 'We will make money down the way, don't worry about it' and this stands out as a big benefit that they get actual revenue early on."
Millions of people watch them each day around the world. Their audiences are young and tech-savvy and most people over 30 would be forgiven for never even having heard of them.
New research has revealed the names of the ten highest earning independent acts on YouTube. True their earnings may be miniscule compared to Steven Spielberg, James Cameron or Ben Stiller, but they have done something which for a long time nobody in the mainstream media industry believed was possible – turning what was essentially a bedroom hobby into serious money by uploading video or vlogs (video blogs) on the site.
It is estimated that 60,000 new films a week are added to YouTube – the equivalent of 12 hours of footage joins the world's most popular on-line video community each minute. But there among the vast digital landscape of bad lip-synching singers and unfunny TV bloopers are some emerging stars yet to be snapped up by an established media company or brand.
The research by TubeMogul, an analytics and internet advertising company, has revealed that at least 10 performers, writers and producers earned more than $100,000 (£65,000) each over the last 12 months from their short films which have achieved popularity largely through word of mouth.
Under a special partnership deal with the site, which is owned by search engine giant Google, original content creators are able to generate advertising revenues from their work and enjoy the same promotional benefits as more established stars. YouTube splits the revenue from banner ads 50-50 with its partners.
Nine of those that appeared in the top 10 are comics, including Shane Dawson, 22, a committed Christian who eschews sex before marriage, drugs and alcohol who was number one having earned an estimated $315,000 in the last 12 months from his near-the knuckle satirical videos.
Dawson, like many on the list, grew up with vlogging and see it as the natural arena for his talents. But many of the biggest names – such as The Annoying Orange created by Dane Boedigheimer – are already being eyed up by established media companies. In the two years since he has started posting his unique brand of humour, Dawson can lay claim to the fourth and ninth-most subscribed channel in history on YouTube, with total upload views of more than 249 million.
Increasing a website's number of hits is a notoriously dark art. Some on the list have been accused of so-called "tag loading", a process whereby vloggers can increase the number of hits they get by tagging material with search terms such as "Xbox" – which though unrelated to their work can drum up hundreds of thousands of extra views.
While some industry commentators suggested the earnings could be on the conservative side, other sources suggested they were close to the amounts earned. But Greg Benson of Mediocre Films, which came in at number seven in the survey, fiercely dismissed the figures. He said he loved his job and worked extremely hard – between 60-80 hours a week arranging shoots and working in front of his computer. He said: "I get asked this a lot. It's a fair question but it's kind of rude to ask someone how much money they make," he said.
"It's so wrong everything in the article appears to be wrong… I would be thrilled if I actually had any business being on that list or if I actually made that much money or had that many viewers that they say I have. That would be awesome. It would also be awesome if I could shit diamonds. But I can't do that either."
The $100,000-a-year stars
1. Shane Dawson
Estimated earnings from YouTube advertising on his video clips in past 12 months: $315,000 (£200,000). Views in that time: 431,787,450
Describing himself as an "innocent guy with a dirty mouth", the 22-year-old Californian's sketches include one of a vampire drinking menstrual blood and have earned him more than 250 million uploads. Success on YouTube has enabled Dawson to move out of his mother's house.
$288,000. Views: 349,753,047
The obnoxious fruit that irritates the pips out of its fellow foodstuffs has proved a huge success for its creator, Dane Boedigheimer (daneboe), who recently celebrated one million subscribers to his own YouTube channel. The Orange is set to go mainstream with talks under way about a TV pilot.
$181,000. Views: 248,735,032
Voted the world's sexiest geek by Wired.com readers in 2008, DeFranco created his Sxephil channel for YouTube while studying at East Carolina University. His eponymous video blog focuses on politics and gossip.
4. Ryan Higa
$151,000. Views: 206,979,909
Also known as Nigahiga, the Hawaiian-born Japanese-American evolved from lip-synching to original comedy and has had more than 150 million hits. VideosHow to be Gangster and How to be Ninja went viral for him and his Yabo Crew.
5. Fred
$146,000. Views: 200,656,150
Lucas Cruikshank, 16, is the creator of the precocious, helium-voiced six-year-old whose videos shot with a $100 camera are said to have earned him more young fans than Hannah Montana. Soon to appear on Nickelodeon.
6. Shay Carl
$140,000. Views: 192,309,247
Behind the Shaycarl channel is a father-of-three from Idaho who used to be a radio DJ. He first broadcast his comic routines on YouTube in 2008 and has since produced more than 100 films. He now has three channels of his own.
$116,000. Views: 159,030,703
Comedy channel created by Greg Benson in 2006. Benson dismissed the findings of the survey as wrong, insisting he should not be in the Top 10. His best known work is Gorgeous Tiny Chicken Machine Show, written with his wife, which appeared in 2007.
8. Smosh
$113,000. Views: 154,936,876
Described as the Saturday Night Live of YouTube by Time magazine, shaggy-haired comedy duo Anthony Padilla and Ian Hecox uploaded their first video in 2005. They were the No 1 YouTube channel in 2007 and are now the fifth most popular.
$112,000. Views: 153,807,362
Hosted by Cenk Uygur, the longest-running online (liberal) political talkshow in the US was started in 2002 and averages 13 million hits a month. The company believes it can take on the networks at breaking stories.
10. Natalie Tran
$101,000. Views: 138,871,829
The 24-year-old Vietnamese-Australian is the No 1 Down Under. Her most popular video is How to Fake a Six-pack, parodying internet users' apparent obsession with getting a flat stomach. She has had 250 million hits worldwide.
The 71st anniversary of the Wizard of Oz, the 1939 film starring Judy Garland, has been commemorated with a Google doodle.
