YouTube is keen to help us all become video creators. But good video creators. And to help us all wring the most out of the clips we’re uploading to the site, YouTube Analytics has been created. If you like statistics you’ll be in hog heaven with this offering.

YouTube Insight

It’s all well and good creating a video and uploading it to the Web. People may watch it, and it may even go viral. But unless you know who is looking, how they learned about your video and arrived on your YouTube page, and which parts of the video they liked or disliked then there is little chance of learning what worked and didn’t work. Which is where analytics come into play.

YouTube has been offering video analytics on the site since March 2008 when it rolled YouTube Insight out to all users. This gave video creators a detailed set of statistics about who viewed their videos, how long they viewed them for, and from where they came. But there was definite room for improvement.

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YouTube now not only offers a place to easily and speedily upload videos to, but also the ability to edit them after the process has been completed. And the new YouTube editor has proved a big hit in the two months since it debuted.

YouTube Editor

YouTube has long been keen on improving the quality of content on the site. Cute cat videos are great, but premium content is better. And while badly-shot video is better than no video, video you can actually watch without having to skint to see any detail is better.

YouTube has offered editing options to its users for some time, with simple, on-site tools having been available since 2010. And in September 2011 YouTube launched a new editor which upped the number of options and usability of the features on offer by a considerable margin.

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Disney is seeking to move with the times and use the Internet to sell its content and brand in a big, bad way. First up is movie rentals, next is original content being created just for the Web. And YouTube is at the heart of it all.

Disney Movies On YouTube

The first Disney movies have landed on YouTube, at least in the U.S. Current movies available to rent from YouTube.com/movies include classic such as the original Alice in Wonderland and Winnie the Pooh, as well as more recent fayre such as Pirates of the Caribbean and Cars.

These are just the first of what is expected to be a steady stream of Disney movies coming to YouTube. Extras, such as you would find on a DVD or Blu-ray, are also on the way. These include cast interviews, behind-the-scenes looks, and outtakes.

But even this is only the start of a much wider partnership planned between YouTube and Disney.

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YouTube is getting a makeover. Yes, another one. I know it only feels like a few months since the last one, because it is only a few months since the last one. But this one has a point to it in the form of Google+

YouTube Redesign

If there is one thing YouTube loves as much as videos it’s redesigns. The site is constantly being tweaked, or so it seems. I guess it’s good to keep things fresh, especially when you’re the most-trafficked website in the world, but still.

The latest one, which is currently being tested by some users but which is likely to be rolled out to everyone in the near future, tweaks lots of different aspects of YouTube. But the biggest change by far is the Google+ integration, which signals Google’s continued belief that its social network has a future.

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Life In A Day was a spectacularly well-made look at how different people around the world lived their lives on one day in 2010. But could the same work on a country-specific basis? The BBC intends to find out with Britain In A Day.

Britain In A Day

You will hopefully have watched Life In A Day by now. I’ve watched it twice, once on YouTube and once on the BBC. After it aired on the BBC a trailer for a British-only version was shown. Titled, rather predictably, Britain In A Day.

The BBC is inviting everybody in the U.K. to video themselves on (Saturday) November 12 and upload the results to YouTube. Director Morgan Matthews will then sift through the footage before cutting it into a feature-length documentary film that will be shown on BBC2 prior to the 2012 Olympic Games.

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YouTube has managed to add another big name to its line-up of partners for its new channels full of original content. But this one isn’t doing it for the money or the opportunity, but in the hopes it’ll help its own online offering.

Original YouTube Channels

At the end of last month Google unveiled its plans for original programming to land on YouTube in a big way. Initially there will be 100 channels headed up by the likes of Madonna, Jay-Z, Tony Hawk, and The Young Turks, with many more to follow.

Each channel will be assigned a budget to be spent on creating content. This will then be clawed back through advertising revenues. Or at least that’s the hope. YouTube stands more chance of doing that when it gets really big names to come on board. And there are few bigger than Disney.

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The world of online video has become something of a political battleground, with Glenn Beck on one side and The Young Turks on the other. But their strategies for spreading their views and making money from doing so are very different from each other.

Glenn Beck Vs. The Young Turks

Glenn Beck and The Young Turks differ in many ways. For a start their political ideologies are clearly at odds, The Young Turks being liberal, Glenn Beck being as conservative and right-wing as it’s possible to be without summoning the spirit of Hitler.

Also different is how they’re now offering their talk shows up for public consumption on the Web. Glenn Beck has launched an online network just for paid subscribers, while The Young Turks are on YouTube and in the first wave of select producers running one of 100 premium TV-like channels.

Both strategies have positives and negatives attached, but Cenk Uygur, The Young Turk himself, argues that Beck has got it all wrong on this occasion. As he so often does.

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