Luckily for the video’s creator, IAmAhYell, those who are simply fans of Radiohead on Facebook also get to see it, thanks to a Facebook feature that says things like, “Thom Yorke is posting about a Page you like: Radiohead.”

Radiohead has over ten million fans. It should be a good day for IAmAhYell’s YouTube views.

This new design is called the YouTube One Channel, and YouTube has had it in beta for some time now. In that time, over 100 million channels have opted-in to the new look. But for all of you holdouts, your days with the old channel format are numbered. YouTube has just announced that all channels with be automatically and permanently moved to the new One Channel design by June 5th.

“Channels that have already made the switch are experiencing several benefits. Their branding shines through in more places because Channel Art is visible on iOS apps, Android apps and TV. For the channels that have opted in, we’ve seen 20% more page views on their channels because clicks from the YouTube guide go directly to their channel pages instead of to their activity feeds,” says YouTube

Here’s what the new channels look like:

Compare that to the old channels, which will no longer exist come June 5th:

Of course, if you’re a channel owner and you’re just now hearing about this – you can choose to opt-in early here.

And speaking of YouTube and channels, the company just expanded live streaming to any and all channels with 1000+ subscribers.

Which new Google feature are you most excited about? Let us know in the comments.

We’re not going to get into all the announcements here. You can follow this page to see all of that. I do, however, want to draw attention to some of the things Google has announced that have implications specifically for businesses. It’s worth noting that a lot of Google’s announcements came in blog posts, rather than in the keynote.

Maps

One of the biggest announcements to come out the event was a complete overhaul of Google Maps. This was expected thanks to a leak last week, and then another one earlier this week, but it is still a huge deal, as Google Maps is one of the company’s most popular products. It also plays a major role in how people find businesses using Google from the desktop, tablets, and from mobile devices. Google actually announced revamps for each of these devices as well.

The new Google Maps for Android smartphones and iPhones is coming this summer, and will include a new Zagat experience, with Zagat badges appearing in the interface, as well as Google Offers integration. If you find Starbucks, for example, you can see an offer from them, and save it for later or use it.

There is also a new five point rating scale across Google Maps for mobile and desktop.

With the new tablet interface, Google will point users to businesses and destinations by categories with a new discovery feature called “Explore”.

With the new desktop Maps experience, Google highlights things it thinks matter to users. “And the more you interact with the map, the better it gets,” says Google. “When you set your Home and Work locations, star favorite places, write reviews and share with friends, Google Maps will build even more useful maps with recommendations for places you might enjoy.”

“In addition to a customized map, we’ve also made it easier to uncover the best local gems,” the company says. “Search results are labeled directly on the map with brief place descriptions and icons that highlight business categories and other useful information – like restaurants that are recommended by your Google+ friends. Info cards provide helpful information such as business hours, and ratings and reviews so you can quickly decide where to eat, drink and play.”

The interface also allows people to zoom in right into indoor imagery, where available.

More on the new Maps here.

Search

Changes to how Google does search are always of interest to businesses, because it’s the top way people find them. There’s not necessarily a lot in the way of SEO news coming out of Google I/O (though there was certainly plenty from Matt Cutts earlier this week), but you should still be aware of the search announcements that were made.

The biggest thing is that Google is bringing the conversational search that Android and iOS users have been enjoying to the desktop via Chrome. Soon, users will simply be able to talk to Google when they want to know something, and Google will talk back. Google SVP Amit Singhal discusses this on the Inside Search Blog:

People communicate with each other by conversation, not by typing keywords — and we’ve been hard at work to make Google understand and answer your questions more like people do. Already, you can tap a mic, talk to Google in a more natural way and get responses spoken back to you on Android, iPhone, and iPad devices.

Today, we previewed what this conversational experience will look like in Chrome on your desktops and laptops. Soon, you’ll be able to just say, hands-free, “OK Google, will it be sunny in Santa Cruz this weekend?” and get a spoken answer. Then, you’ll be able to continue the conversation and just follow up with “how far is it from here?” if you care about the drive or “how about Monterey?” if you want to check weather somewhere else, and get Google to tell you the answer.

He also announced improvements to Google’s Knowledge Graph, including newly supported languages, and the ability to provide answers to what it thinks will be your next questions.

Singhal explains, “You’ll also get smarter answers to questions like ‘what’s the population of Canada?’ Not only will Google answer that question, but you also get an answer to the next few follow-up questions people often ask. In a single card, you’ll see how Canada’s population changed over time — and a comparison with California and Australia.”

Finally, Google Now got some new cards, and the ability for users to set reminders. More on all of this here.

While not part of the Google I/O announcements, Matt Cutts also made another announcement via Twitter. He said, “It’s safe to assume webspam will continue to tackle link networks that violate” Google’s quality guidelines, and that they just took action on thousands of linkselers in a “paid-link-that-passes-PageRank” network.

YouTube Gets New Ecommerce Feature

Also not part of the keynote announcements, Google announced a feature for YouTube, which could prove to be a pretty big deal in ecommerce. They’re now letting businesses include “Buy Now” buttons on their YouTube channels, so users can purchase products through various retailers.

“Every day, millions of people turn to YouTube for advice, from learning how to do the perfect smokey eye to trying out a new recipe for mashed potatoes,” says Danielle Tomassini from the Google Shopper team. “People are using YouTube not just for entertainment, but to learn a new skill, find more information, and shop for products. This presents a unique opportunity for consumer goods brands to reach shoppers in the moment and provide them with an easy way to go from watching a video to purchasing the product.”

The new offering comes in the form of a new channel gadget, and lets users shop for products from various retailers from the comfort of the YouTube channel they’re already browsing.

“This new channel gadget will enable shoppers to seamlessly move from browsing how-to videos and featured products to finding which retailers carry them, check availability, compare prices and make a purchase, all with fewer clicks than today,” says Tomassini.

Google has launched the gadget with Unilever to highlight hair products from TRESemmé.

Curiously, the offering is not part of the Google Shopping ecosystem Google has created, but rather utilizes GloTo.

More about this here.

Google Wallet And Gmail

There are a lot of interesting things happening with Google Wallet.

For one, there’s a new API that could have a huge impact on converting mobile sales. According to Google, 97% of mobile shoppers abandon their shopping carts. This is mostly due to all of the hoops they have to go through to complete the process (like filling out big forms). The Instant Buy API makes the process much faster and easier.

“The Instant Buy API is designed for merchants and developers selling physical goods and services, who already have a payment processor and are looking to simplify the checkout experience for their customers,” says Prakash Hariramani, Senior Product Manager for Google Wallet. “Developers selling digital goods within their apps will continue to use Google Play In-app Billing, which offers full payment processing capability, including support for carrier billing and gift cards.”

Google has also introduced the ability to send money with Google Wallet through Gmail. They’ve basically added the functionality to send money as an attachment.

And speaking of Gmail, Google is adding quick actions to let people RSVP, check-in and leave reviews right from their inboxes. Buttons will appear next to certain types of messages, and people can take actions without even having to open the email. Businesses can add custom actions to their emails.

Google announced the Google Wallet Objects API to let businesses connect loyalty programs, offers, etc. to Google Wallet.

“Consumers want access to all of their loyalty cards, offers, and more on their smartphone,” says Group Product Manager Pali Bhat. “An average household has 18 loyalty cards but use less than half of these cards regularly because of the inconvenience. And the same goes for tickets, membership cards and other items.”

Users will be able to save loyalty programs, offers, etc. directly to their Google Wallet, and businesses will be able to showcase their brands, acquire users and engage them through instant loyalty sign-up, real time updates and offers.

“With Google’s location services, your users get timely notifications about their saved Wallet objects,” notes Bhat. “Additionally, with a simple upgrade path to Google Offers, you can distribute your offers across Google properties — including Adwords, the Google Display Network and Google Maps for Mobile — and benefit from Google’s targeting capabilities.”

They also announced that more phones – Samsung Galaxy S4 (Sprint), HTC One (Sprint) & Samsung Galaxy Note II (Sprint & US Cellular) – get the Google Wallet app.

Google+

Google+ has received a total of 41 new features, and a general redesign, and it could present some new opportunities and challenges in getting your content seen in Google’s growing social network. Included is a multi-column layout, bigger media, new animations, and a “related hashtags” feature:

“Suppose, for example, that you’re reading about your favorite sports team,” says Google SVP Vic Gundotra. “We’ll look at the post, determine what it’s about, and tag it accordingly. Behind the scenes, we’ll also identify and rank relevant conversations across the network. When you click on the related hashtag, we’ll flip the card, and let you browse related content inline.”

It looks like Google+ optimization could get more complex (as it certainly has with rival Facebook, not to mention Google’s crown jewel – search). More on the rest of the features here.

Google Cloud Platform

Google made some announcements about its Cloud Platform, including making Google Compute Engine available to all businesses and developers. It comes with sub-hour billing charges for instances in one-minute increments with a ten-minute minimum, so you don’t pay for minutes you don’t use.

“Shared-core instances provide smaller instance shapes for low-intensity workloads,” says Google’s Urs Hölzle. “Shared-core instances provide smaller instance shapes for low-intensity workloads. Advanced Routing features help you create gateways and VPN servers, and enable you to build applications that span your local network and Google’s cloud. Large persistent disks support up to 10 terabytes per volume, which translates to 10X the industry standard.”

This is really all just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to new stuff Google has in store, but these are some of the things businesses should be paying attention to. Of course, it really depends on what type of business you run. Android developers have a ton of new stuff to dig into that we didn’t even mention here, for example.

Which new Google offering (if any) do you think will have the greatest impact on your business? Tell us in the comments.

In the letter, Google explains, “It appears that the application: (1) allows users to download videos from YouTube; (2) prevents the display of advertisements in YouTube video playbacks; and (3) plays videos that our partners have restricted from playback on certain platforms (e.g. mobile devices with limited feature sets). These features directly harm our content creators and clearly violate our Terms of Service.”

Here’s the letter in its entirety (via The Verge):

Microsoft has responded to the situation. The Verge quotes a spokesperson as saying: “We’d be more than happy to include advertising but need Google to provide us access to the necessary APIs. In light of Larry Page’s comments today calling for more interoperability and less negativity, we look forward to solving this matter together for our mutual customers.”

You can hear Page’s comments near the end of the Google I/O keynote here.

Google has so far given Microsoft until May 22nd to remove the app. It launched last week.

Now, Google is taking the YouTube ecommerce thing to a whole new level by essentially letting users shop for products right through the business’ YouTube channel.

“Every day, millions of people turn to YouTube for advice, from learning how to do the perfect smokey eye to trying out a new recipe for mashed potatoes,” says Danielle Tomassini from the Google Shopper team. “People are using YouTube not just for entertainment, but to learn a new skill, find more information, and shop for products. This presents a unique opportunity for consumer goods brands to reach shoppers in the moment and provide them with an easy way to go from watching a video to purchasing the product.”

The new offering comes in the form of a new channel gadget, and lets users shop for products from various retailers from the comfort of the YouTube channel they’re already browsing.

“This new channel gadget will enable shoppers to seamlessly move from browsing how-to videos and featured products to finding which retailers carry them, check availability, compare prices and make a purchase, all with fewer clicks than today,” says Tomassini.

Google has launched the gadget with Unilever to highlight hair products from TRESemmé.

“There is a growing interest for ‘hair how to’ videos on YouTube with millions of users going to YouTube to learn about hairstyles and hair care,” says Tomassini. “By providing hair tutorial videos, tips and tricks, and interviews with trendsetters, TRESemmé has already generated more than 2.7 million views on their channel. Through their newly designed channel, TRESemmé can also now connect these consumers with the products they’re watching in the demo videos in a faster more efficient way, shortening the shopping journey.”

You can see the feature in action at the TRESemmé YouTube channel.

As you can see, this includes not only a “Buy Now” button, but product reviews and a “Learn More” button, which enables the business to share details about the product, to hopefully help convince customers to buy it:

When the user clicks “Buy Now,” they’re presented with the option to select the products they want to purchase. While TRESemmé only has a single product highlighted here, one can only assume that businesses can include more. It’s unclear what the limit on this might be.

From there, users can comparison shop from stores that have the product available, and see if it is in stock. When they click on one of the stores, they’re taken to the product page on that store’s site.

It’s interesting that Google isn’t tying this into Google Shopping (otherwise, you wouldn’t be seeing Amazon there). That doesn’t mean they won’t in the future.

Google is actually offering the gadget as a premium offering for its consumer goods clients, produced through GloTo.

So far, Google isn’t making it incredibly easy to just go and set one of these channels up. Right now, you have to speak with a Google representative to determine “if the shopper channels is the right solution for your brand”.

The feature could play a major role in turning YouTube into a major driver of ecommerce. However, there are some things greatly holding it back. One is the aforementioned lack of Google Shopping integration, but another major factor is that it requires users to actually be on a channel page. How much YouTube viewing do you do from the channel page? If your’e like me, probably not a whole lot.

People consumer videos from their YouTube homepage stream, when they’re shared via social media, and when they’re embedded on other web pages. None of these scenarios will cater to sales through this new feature (unless ads pointing to to the channel as the landing page are placed within the videos).

But this could just be a starting point, and could grow into something much bigger.

Starting today, all YouTube channels in good standing (you know, following the YouTube Community Guidelines) with over 1,000 subscribers are eligible for live streaming. If you want to know if you are eligible, simply check your account features page. If you’re eligible, you’ll see an “enable” button and there you’ll be able to sign up. YouTube says that live streaming capabilities will officially come to these channels in the following weeks.

Here’s what YouTube has to say about what content creators will get with the YouTube Live expansion:

YouTube Live allows you to offer your audience a great viewing experience, with great streaming quality and instant scalability and reliability. Here are some key features:

Last month, YouTube for iOS finally got live streaming. And last week, YouTube pulled the curtain back on their long-rumored paid channels. Only a few select partners currently have access to those paid channels at launch, but in the future you can see how expanded live streaming and paid channel subscriptions could prove an interesting match.

And here’s the second part:

It appears that the whole thing was staged, which is apparently a surprise to some people who can’t believe that anything on the Tonight Show would actually be staged. The Smoking Gun was on the case, and reported:

Will and Monifa are both trained actors who founded a theater company in Chicago before relocating to Hollywood. Monifa, whom Chicagoist once described as a “Chicago actress of some reknown,” previously won a nationwide dramatic auditions contest by the cable network TNT.

In the original segment, Sims is seen at the same Burbank gas station where she was filmed singing with her husband. In fact, Monifa conversed with Stack both times while parked at pump number 16, the area used for the “Pumpcast News” bits. On both occasions, Monifa was in the same Chrysler sedan (she drove during the first taping, while her husband was at the wheel during the recent shoot). Additionally, she is seen wearing identical workout pants in each segment.

Uproxx posted the YouTube video of the original appearance, which interestingly has since been taken down by the user. Good thing The Smoking Gun still has a non-YouTube version of the video. They also point to a Facebook status update where Monifa asked her friends if they saw her on Jay Leno (in March of 2011). It looks like that might have been deleted as well.

“You may know me for being the most muscular man in the world, or maybe for being the action star that kills a bunch of bad buys and predators, but what you didn’t know was that I’m a big fan of comedy,” he says.

Predictably, he also turns out to be a Terminator.

YouTube Comedy Week will include: The Lonely Island, Vince Vaughn, Epic Rap Battles of History, Tim & Eric, Seth Rogen, Key and Peele, Colllege Humor, Reggie Watts, Smosh, Jenna Marbles, Michael Cera, Grace Helbig, Epic Meal Time, Lil Bub, Jash, Pete Holmes, Craig Robinson, Rainn Wilson, Jeff Ross, Sarah Silverman, and Ben Stiller, to name a few. There will be new comedy videos, live events, and “fan challenges”.

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Some people (including myself and others around me) are seeing a weird message at the top of YouTube search results pages. It says: “Experiment: There may be confidential content in your search results. Please do not share outside Google.”

It is unclear what this experiment is exactly, but as reddit user tk338 suggests, “This is mere speculation, but it looks like something only employees should be seeing. Someone could have changed some privileges or something accidentally? In which case a privacy breach for Google!”

Another user suggests that it could have something to do with new social media tie-ins.

We’ve reached out to Google, and will update if we hear back.

[via reddit]

YouTube announced today that it’s launching a pilot program that sees a number of its partners offering exclusive content behind a monthly fee. It says the move to paid channels was made after its partners requested more ways to make money beyond ad revenue.

As for details, every paid channel charges a small monthly fee starting at $0.99 a month. The most expensive channel comes in at $7.99 a month. One channel, Smart.TV, gives access to 7 channels under its brand for $9.99 a month. Some channels also offer yearly subscriptions with some as low as $24.99 a year or as high as $67.99 a year.

The selection at the moment isn’t super great, but there are definitely a few standouts. For starters, film studio Asylum is offering its full movies on YouTube for $2.99 a month. My personal favorite is the DHX Retro TV channel which offers episodes of the Super Mario Bros. Super Show and the infamously bad Legend of Zelda cartoon for $2.99 a month.

YouTube notes that subscribers will be able to watch content on PCs, mobile devices and TV. They will also soon be adding the ability to subscribe via mobile devices.

For now, paid channels are only available to specific channels that YouTube picks out. In the coming weeks, however, it will open up a submission process for qualifying channels to apply for a paid channel. If you’re a YouTube creator and are interested in paid channels, you’ll want to tell Google that you’re interested today.