What's Next for YouTube (Video Editing, Recommendations, Advertiser Analytics)

youtiube-logo.pngLast night at an event in NYC dubbed “Videocracy,” YouTube gave marketers a sneak peak at some upcoming initiatives. Silicon Alley Insider‘s Michael Learmonth tried to get in, but was thrown out. Luckily, Deep Focus CEO Ian Schafer took notes. Here is what he learned:

—YouTube is excited about its active sharing feature that lets YouTube watchers signal to other viewers when they are watching a particular video (if you turn the setting on, anyone watching the video at the same time as you will see your username on the right side of the screen).

—Better video-editing tools are on the way. (What took you so long?).

—Video recommendations will soon be launched based on what you have already watched (similar to Amazon’s collaborative filtering, people who liked this book also liked that one).

—YouTube wants to be everywhere. It will continue to distribute its videos beyond the Web browser to mobile devices and large, flat-screen TVs in the living room.

—For marketers, the “real news was YouTube’s announcement of an impending launch of advanced analytics tools. You’ll be able to see where video views are coming from (geographically and site-wise), as well as many other data points. This will be a huge help to advertisers trying to extract more success metrics and data from their YouTube efforts.”

YouTube is also planning some more “Tentpole Content Initiatives” to draw a mass audience, much like its presidential debate partnership with CNN. These will include:

The YouTube Games. A takeoff on the Olympics featuring homemade videos of the “wacky wide world of weird sports.”
Living Legends. Videos of living legends like the Rolling Stones.
The YouTube Global Gathering. A worldwide event that will be broadcast from multiple locations on YouTube.

Thanks for sharing, Ian!