Most new devices loaded with video capture capabilities like mobile phones, camcorders, digicams and pocket camcorders all have YouTube video settings in common it seems. While that makes it real easy to capture and upload, there are those times when you might just want to do a bit of editing before uploading and finding the right editor can sometimes be a bit of a pain. So trust Google to make things simple and easy. They’ve now got an online video editor for YouTube that should simplify the whole deal.

With this new editor, you’ll be able to:
• Combine multiple videos you’ve uploaded to create a new longer video
• Trim the beginning and/or ending of your videos
• Add soundtracks from our AudioSwap library of tens of thousands of songs
• Create new videos without worrying about file formats and publish them to YouTube with one click—no upload necessary

There’s no need to install any software on your PC and while that’s a good thing, online editing would also depend considerably on bandwidth. A lower bandwidth would mean slower work so it would be easier to provide users with a downloadable app.

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Google is to add automatic captions to the tens of millions of English-language videos it hosts on YouTube, the web search giant said Friday.

The move will make the videos more accessible to deaf viewers but will also help Google index the content and supply relevant ads alongside it, analysts said.

Google has been experimenting with the automated captions for several months with a handful of high profile partners like the University of California, Berkeley, Yale University and National Geographic. All other captions on YouTube videos were provided by the videos’ producers.

Google has been working on speech recognition technology for some five years, and uses the technology to transcribe audio voice mails through its Google Voice service, and to provide spoken Web searches from smart phones.

However, engineers warned that the technology is far from perfect and that the machine translations are sure to contain mistakes.

“We know it’s not perfect, and sometimes it will be funny,” said Google engineer Ken Harrenstien, who is deaf. “But it’s better than nothing.”

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YouTube shuts down its short-lived video downloads program. Some of you must be wondering, if there even was a ‘video downloads beta-program’

YouTube in February, launched this service which allowed content creators to post both free and paid downloads to YouTube.

YouTube sent emails to the users who were allowed to upload content to this service saying that current downloads will be available, but no new ones can be posted.

David Rodriguez of StuffWeLike.com posted a video explaining the move.

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YouTube has taken its first tentative steps into the movie rental business and confirmed rumors that have been circulating for some time.

Google’s video sharing site, YouTube, is currently sponsoring the Sundance Film Festival. Yesterday, the YouTube team announced that starting tomorrow, titles from Sundance 2010 and Sundance 2009 would be available for rent for U.S. Youtube users.

While there are only five titles on the bill (including “One Too Many Mornings,” “Homewrecker,” and “Children of Invention”), and these are only available for rent through Sunday, January 31, the YouTube team says a small collection of rental videos from other U.S. partners across different industries, including health and education, will be made available in the weeks ahead.

“These are early days and in the coming weeks we’ll also invite a small group of partners across other industries, in addition to independent film, to participate in this new option. Anything that brings more content to the YouTube community is a good thing.”

In addition to all of this, YouTube is putting out the call for more independent filmmakers to join the rental program as part of their “Filmmakers Wanted” campaign at the festival.

It’s not yet clear if this kind of move will eventually spread to include titles from Hollywood studios. Certainly there’s nothing of the sort hinted at in the post but wouldn’t it be nice, eh?

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Google India and IPL have inked a deal wherein a dedicated IPL channel on YouTube will stream all the action of the latest season live, on http://www.youtube.com/ipl

According to this agreement Google will have exclusive online rights for IPL content for two years and both Google and IPL will jointly share revenues from sponsorships and advertising.

This is the first time Google is live streaming – a mega cricket tournament spanning 60 matches over 45 days – for a major global sport on YouTube.

Apart from the 60 matches, cricket fans will also enjoy special content which will include match highlights, player interviews, wickets of the match, top sixes of the match, award ceremony, pitch reports and much more, at any time convenient to them. Those watching IPL matches live on youTube will also get a special treat – an exclusive “YouTube view” that will provide viewers with an alternative view of the match not available on television or any other media.

In addition to live streaming of matches on YouTube , Google will also host a special IPL branded Orkut community which will host live chats with Man of the Match, team owners, contests and match polls to engage fans and audiences while the tournament is on. Users will also be able to enjoy short clips of highlights and other special video content on YouTube mobile.

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