WebProNews

YouTube Launching Automatic Video Captions

YouTube is readying the launch of an automatic captions feature for the site's videos. This and a new automatic caption timing feature will make it easier for anyone to add captions to their videos, and will enable anyone to read captions on more videos.

YouTube On Verge Of Supporting 1080p Video

YouTube will soon put even more distance between itself and its old reputation for being a repository of crummy-looking, user-generated content.  Support for watching 1080p HD videos in full resolution is due to be introduced on Monday.

Vevo Gets Official Launch Date

Vevo, the highly anticipated music video site from YouTube, Universal, and Sony, now has an official release date. Vevo was previously announced to be launching in December, but now the date of December 8th has been set. Vevo is striving to be the Hulu for music videos. Watch this guy talking about the launch party (not the woman pictured):

YouTube Connects News Outlets With Citizen Reporters

YouTube has launched a new video platform called YouTube Direct that allows users to submit relevant videos to participating news organizations for broadcast. All videos submitted to news organizations and approved by their editors will appear on YouTube with a link back to the news site. Key features of YouTube Direct include:    

YouTube, Univision Announce Partnership

YouTube's struck another content-sharing partnership, and it's a big one.  Univision, which is the top Spanish-language broadcast network in America, has agreed to supply the video-sharing site with both short clips and full shows.

YouTube Talks Up Social Side

YouTube wants you to know that it's not just a place for individuals to watch videos.  This afternoon, the site released some stats (and used the word "social" about six times) to show that users are interacting with each other and with different sites in all sorts of ways.

Has YouTube Found the Right Ad Solution?

YouTube has begun testing a new kind of ad format on some of its videos - skippable pre-rolls. These ads let users choose whether or not they want to watch the ad as it appears at the beginning of a video. YouTube says that when it first began testing in-stream ads a couple years ago, abandonment rates on videos were as high as 70%. They found that users were much more likely to view and engage with overlay ads.

35 Ways to Improve Your Online Video Performance

There was an interesting session on online video at Search Marketing Expo (SMX) East, which WebProNews attended. The session was called "Video Search Marketing Beyond YouTube". The following tips come from a combination of presentations from that session from speakers: William Leake of Apogee Search, John McWeeny of TurnHere, and Eric Papczun of Performics.

YouTube Videos in AdSense Could Drive Clicks

Update: Google has now announced that you can buy Promoted Videos directly in AdWords.

Nearly Half Of Consumers Would Recommend A Product On Facebook

Consumers are more willing to engage with and buy from brands on social networking sites, according to a new study by Performics and ROI Research. The study found thirty-four percent of respondents who have used a search engine to find information on a product/brand after seeing an advertisement on a social networking site. In addition, thirty percent have learned about a new product, service or brand from a social networking site.