10 Killer Improvements YouTube Needs

YouTube's recent new look has brought on some great usability improvements, and their adoption of VP8/WebM video codec/format released by Google is even better. Still, there is much more to be done to increase YouTube's openness, foster a respectable community, more fairly promote quality content, fill the remaining gaps of missing features, and further improve and clean up the interface.

1. Do not be like MySpace

• Nobody misses that atrocious monstrosity. Firstly, do not push this "new" bulletins feature back out. Spamming is not a feature. 
• Secondly, stop covering the homepage with advertising, especially all the deceptive sponsored content with fake video players, "close" buttons, and other misleading imagery. If more ads are needed, the partner program shouldn't be so exclusive (mentioned below). Take a look at this screenshot of a common occurrence, labeled with YouTube's #1 most popular comment, which leads us to the next idea. 
2. Fix commenting
• Promote better comments through a cleaner user interface. YouTube has improved slowly since being acquired, but still isn't what would be expected from Google. Site designs that waste space and don't make efficient use of screen real estate encourage short mindless posts. 
• Repeated comments could be filtered based on their length and uniqueness in the same vein as ROBOT9000. Short and common posts like "GAY" could be prevented entirely or at least made very inconvenient by requiring a captcha and displaying a prominent warning. Perhaps a minimum comment length should be adopted, at least temporarily. 
• Posting URLs should be allowed, but requiring a captcha would prevent spam. 
3. Specify copyright
• Allow publishers to specify their level of copyright with licenses like Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike (CC-BY-SA), GNU FDL, Kopimi, Creative Commons Zero (CC0), which is a "stronger" Public Domain dedication that functions even in countries without a public domain, etc. 
• Allow us to search for such videos by what we want to be able to do with them: share, remix, and/or use for commercial purposes
• Provide a directory of music for publishers to use in their videos, perhaps partnering with Jamendo
4. Sensible accounts, contacts, and messaging
• Now that YouTube uses Google Accounts, there is no excuse to separate channels and users. The current system is like if Blogger limited a each account to one blog. One should be able to have multiple channels and channels should support multiple admins. Another Google Account shouldn't be needed to create another channel for a different purpose.
• It is entirely redundant to import contacts from GMail instead of simply using Google Contacts to begin with. 
• At the very least, YouTube's messaging interface needs to be fixed and cleaned up. It might even be better off eliminated. Neither Blogger or Picasa Web Albums have a special messaging interface, and YouTube's inbox seems to mainly collect spam. Instead, a contact form could be used much like on Google Profiles. 
5. Automate featured videos
• Replace the hand-picked "featured videos" system with something automated. Featured videos are unfair, impractical, and against the Google way. You can do much better to promote quality content from lesser-known YouTubers with algorithms.
6. Expand monetization
• Let viewers easily donate to producers they like on YouTube using Google Checkout without forcing them to pay to download or rent the video. This will be especially useful for free culture works or anyone using the pay-what-you-want model.
• Most people who apply to for the YouTube Partner Program get an email which opens with this: "Thank you for your interest in the YouTube Partner Program. Our goal is to extend invitations to as many partners as we can. Unfortunately we are unable to accept your application at this time. The current level of viewership of your account has not met our threshold for acceptance." If YouTube really wanted to extend this program to as many partners as possible, why is there even a viewership threshold? Anybody eligible for an AdSense account should be able to make money off of ads displayed with their videos. It's mutually beneficial. 
7. Live streaming

• YouTube has done a few live video streams for the past couple years but it hasn't been a standard feature available to anyone. It looks like that might finally change as an image on the Moderator help page shows a "Live Stream" button at the end of the bar (not the circled button towards the middle). When this feature become available, it would be cool to be able to broadcast to YouTube live from Jabber (Google Talk) with a video call. 
8. Downloads and video blogging
• If a publisher wants to allow free video downloads, this should be allowed. For videos where downloading is allowed, they should be available to download in WebM but also whatever the original file was. 
• Viewers should be able to subscribe to channels using RSS and Atom feeds like blogger. These should be easily accessed instead of requiring any special knowledge of how to find them.
• Video files should be linked to directly as enclosures in channel feeds to enable proper video blogging. I understand YouTube may begin allowing audio uploads, so this would be an absolute must for podcasts, but it should be added now for videos to enable videocasts that can be listed on Miro for example.
• If Blogger's reading list could by moved to Google Reader or some independent social subscription management site, then YouTube subscriptions might be better moved there so that people could follow channels using Google Friend Connect. 
9. Publishing options
• A video should not be published upon upload. The uploader should be given the chance to add captions, change video settings, allow encoding to finish in HD, wait for monetization approval, set a future publish date, etc, before having it pushed to their subscribers. Publishers are currently forced to set a video to private and change it to public once all the changes are made which pushes based on upload time, resulting in videos being buried in users' subscriptions.
• Lift the ten minute limit which forced longer videos to be broken into segments. 
10. Edit: Make HTML5 with VP8/WebM default
• A number of you have pointed out that basic counting skills reveal that there were only 9 ideas here, so i'm adding a tenth. YouTube should work on making sure that all of the features used in their flash interface (ads, annotations, etc), are also supported by their HTML5 interface. 
• The HTML5 interface should then be defaulted to with Google's free and open video codec and format, VP8 and WebM, respectively. The proliferation of a free video standard for the web is damn exciting, and this will help make VP8 and Ogg Theora dominate video and audio offline as well.

Edit: Add your support here

http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/youtube/thread?tid=3177f94981a8ec05

Doesn't Independence Day Deserve More? A call to arms

Happy 4th of July, America. When was the last time that actually meant anything real?

Forgive me if i feel strongly about this, but it seems us Americans are only good at complaining, blaming others, and consuming. I am aware that many of us are patriotic Americans who take pride in their country, but how many of us actually do our part to make it better? We all consume irresponsibly, complain about the state of things, and blame "them" for all of our problems. Democrats and Republicans blame each other, but i'm an Independent, and although my views are very Left (Liberal) Libertarian, i put the blame on all of us, the citizens. Our apathy and inaction is what maintains the status quo. We as a nation have the potential to be so much greater than we are, and no single issue is as sad as the total of all that wasted potential. It seems we won't rise to action until things are bad enough that we can't tolerate it anymore. I, for one, refuse to conform to this mentality.

I will do everything in my power to make a difference because as Bill Clinton stated so eloquently at the funeral of Coretta Scott King, "the difficulty of success does not relieve one of the obligation to try". Those words have ever since resonated with me, and regardless of how you feel about Clinton, i hope they will do the same for you. People always argue that nobody cares, but this hyperbole needs to disappear. If everyone has the mindset that they can't influence change, then true change will never come. If most people are not going to take action, does that mean that nobody should? No, because the right thing to do is not what most people actually do, but what everyone should do. "Nobody cares" is a shameful denial of all the grassroots progress that has been made. "Nobody cares" is a pathetic excuse to shirk one's collective social responsibilities. "Nobody cares" is a weak will that ignores the efforts of all those who do care. We all have an obligation to do something, so for those of us who are already active, we should encourage others to care as well.

I propose that we don't just use July 4th as a day to spend time with family, grill some barbecue, and watch fireworks come nightfall, but that we give the day some true justice and do something meaningful with it. The Fourth of July should be a day on which we not only celebrate our independence, but also exercise it: embrace the principles that this country was founded on by putting our freedom of speech into action. This should be a day where we give back to our country, care about it, and help shape it. Democracy is participatory; it depends on us.

Today, as we're celebrating, let's reflect on the rights we take for granted, the ones that give us reason to celebrate the founding of our country. Think hard on your responsibility to be a part of this country that is your home. The greatness of this nation is in its limitless potential. When the next Independence Day comes around, let's act to protect and fulfill the purpose of those rights. We can gather together in every major city to rally for the causes we care most about, no matter what they are or what side we take, and grow stronger together. Join your favorite organization(s) in holding up signs, handing out informational materials, and simply discussing your views and ideas with others. Or create your own materials and head out on your own or with friends. By sharing knowledge and opinions, even conflicting views, we can reverse the dividing polarization that has separated and pulled us apart and we will reunite our states. Doesn't Independence Day deserve something like this?

I know this idea may sound crazy, even hopeless, but I know that it can make a difference-- that it should make a difference. We need this, an annual day of action to reaffirm our independence, to bring us together around all of our disagreements, to take control of our own country. What better day than the anniversary of our Declaration of Independence? Imagine it: the entire country coming together not just to celebrate its past, but also to improve its future; thousands of people in the streets connecting with others and sharing information on the causes that matter to them; activism on a scale we've never seen before; real change in the hands of the people; us taking genuine ownership of our own country. This is the perfect way to commemorate this day and honor the value behind it. Plus, we can still enjoy the fireworks come nightfall. Consider this a call to arms. Let's transform our Independence Day, together! Who's with me?

If you support the idea, please repost it somewhere else and start organizing! Post to (micro)blogs, forums, YouTube, flyers on the streets, or anywhere else. Contact any organizations or groups you care about and get them involved. So far, all i have is the Facebook event from which the idea originated. We should get this to go viral or something. If you have any ideas or suggestions on making this a more successful effort, please post in the comments. 

Have you ever considered a 4 Day Work Week?

Now, there's a lot to be said about a 4 day work week, and this time, rather than sum it all up for you, i'm going to rely mostly on a few links that i hope you'll investigate. Basically, a 4 day work week has a lot of environmental and economic benefits. Less pollution, less traffic congestion (one extra day without a rush hour!), less accidents, all the while increasing productivity and decreasing absenteeism as well as labor costs, and more. [The Oil Drum via Groovy Green]

The idea has caught on and as always, schools would make a great catalyst! [Groovy Green via Reuters]

Utah did it and it's worked out great! Why aren't we all following along? [The Boston Globe]

If you're self-employed, you should give it a try. [A List Apart]

Why Google Should Learn Lojban

Lojban is designed to be perfectly logical and allow for exact specificity of meaning. Why does this matter for Google? Well, it has huge potential, not only for computer applications based on the language since it's structure can be processed by computers easily, but also more prominently as an intermediate language in automatic machine translation of natural languages. Currently, Google uses English which often yeilds some funny results.

It would be incorrect for me to say that Google needs to use a language like lojban instead of English because their translations are actually pretty great. The issue is that lojban has much more potential for this purpose and English is holding them back. If lojban were used instead of English as Google's intermediate language for automatic translation, it would be much easier to extract the exact meaning of a word used in some context in one language, and translate it into another language. Instead of using a language which does not have a perfectly regular and logical structure, exact meaning, and completely unambiguous grammar, they currently rely on English which doesn't function well to preserve meaning while carrying it from one language and then into another. Lojban, on the other hand, was designed with this in mind.

This isn't to say that Lojban is perfect, or even ready to be used like that on such a large scale yet. Many terms, like computer-related technical terms have not been created yet, and the language needs further development, not to mention the lack of widespread adoption. For this reason, it would be unwise for Google to just go ahead with using lojban and unreasonable for me to request that.

Like many of my ideas, this requires a bit of an investment for the future. Something may not be entirely practical now, but adopting it to a reasonable level will payoff later. For now, it would be safe for Google to simply hire some lojbanana's to work on a lojban translation for Google Translate. If Google is worried about the language being dead and never developing or spreading, this move would get a lot of coverage and get a lot of people interested in it. If Google really wanted to, they could sponsor lojban. I doubt that would happen, but damn it would be cool!

At the very least, they could add lojban to the Google in Your Language program to allow users to translate Google services into lojban for them. We should ask them for it: translation-services@google.com

Windows? No! LINUX: Life without walls!

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OpenID for FriendFeed (and Reddit)

I've already brought up the idea of FriendFeed going open source in a blog post and on the FriendFeed Feedback room, but something a little more basic, OpenID would be a nice addition that can be done sooner than open-sourcing. Like and comment on FriendFeed if you support this! I also proposed the idea for Reddit which recieved as much opposition as support (for some reason people thought i meant that Reddit should require OpenID), but check it out there too. 

Better Customer Support Systems

I posted earlier on the fundamental problem with customer support and i've been having some serious problems with Facebook recently. Although in the comments, all i've recieved so far is people having similar issues, i've thought of a few solutions on my own.

Firstly, companies like Google and Facebook could have (paid?) "super users". Now, i know that sounds like a bad thing. Everybody always hates the super users, but the only power these ones have is to be able to report bugs directly to the company. For example, i am a heavy user of Facebook and Google services, so i'm more likely to know how to use them, how they work, and when a problem is on their end. Their systems could detect that i'm a very heavy user, and they could look at my activity online (only things that are public, not go through my account activity), and invite me to become a super-user. This would put me in contact with the company over any problems that should be reported, and they could contact me to test to make sure something works.

Second, customer support could function more like a bug tracker. This way, every question submitted could be open for answers from other users (which is already the case), new posts would detect old duplicates (which should also already be the case), and real bugs could be reported as such. This could easily be combined with my first idea, and super-users could be the one with the privileges to confirm a bug as being on Google's end instead of a user error.

What do you all think? Do you have any better ideas? Post in the comments! 

(Google) Customer Support Issues

This isn't a problem specific to Google, but it just happened to bother me while waiting on these two help requests which to this day have still not been solved and Google is a company i would've expected to have come up with some brilliant solution to this issue.

Most issues are from users who don't know what they're doing, but for issues that are on the company's end, it's almost impossible to get them fixed. Facebook deals with this in a great way...they make it impossible to find a way to contact them. There needs to be some way to sort out the issues that are no on the user's end and then prioritize them. Anybody have some brilliant ideas? Post them in the comments!

5 Things I'd Love to See From Digg

There are a few things that have always bothered me about Digg and i hope i'm not the only one. If there rumors are true about Google buying Digg (which i hope they are), and actually, even if they aren't true, here are some things i'd love to see.

1. A completely redesigned interface.
   
   I'd like to see Digg with a completely new interface, one that's cleaner and will work better as the number of Digg users, and subsequently, Digg submissions, increase. Also, the following ideas wouldn't work well at all with Digg's current look.
   
2. Tags, not Sections
   
   Sometimes the sections Digg offers don't fit your article perfectly, or your article fits just as well into two or more sections. Although tags might seem hard to manage, i think they would actually handle organizing submissions better than sections. Tags are more scalable. There would always be the most popular tags (which would be the main sections) and tags could be given more value depending on factors like how many people place a specific tag on a submission. This way, one submission can't spam every tag attributed to it.
   
3. Region-specific view
   
   I'd like to be able to view Digg in a region-specific mode. I can see how people are Digging differently in different countries, and how people in my country are Digging. This is pretty simple and would be really useful for Diggers around the world. Every page in Digg should be visible in region-specific view from the frontpage, to the top in [period of time],  within sections, etc, down to individual submissions.
   
4. Groups
   
   This might seem cumbersome at first, but i think if done right could be really cool. Let's say you're an involved activist. You could be in a specific group with it's own mini-digg which displays the Diggs of other group members and lets the group Digg appropriate submissions to share with each other. I'm sure if you gathered a few smart brains they could find a way to make this work really well. 
5. My Digg
   
   I'd love to be able to create my own Digg site. It would be neat to be able to customize it to how you plan to use it. Perhaps you're throwing a party and trying to see what music requests the most people agree with. I know that each of these suggestions is slightly more farfetched than the last but i still think they're worth working on. 

I also wanted to give mention to OpenID. I know they're supposedly working on this, but i'm getting impatient! I hate having to manage multiple online identities and Digg will be a big boost for OpenID. I don't just want Digg to be an OpenId provider-- if everyone just did that, it ruins the whole point of OpenID-- i want Digg to fully support logging in with OpenID.

Also, making Digg as open source as possible would be awesome. I'm a big fan of the free software movement :)

If Digg really wants to expand without falling apart i think we can all agree that some serious changes are necessary. Digg this if you like some of these ideas!