YouTube Mobile Slated For Q2 Launch

Paul Glazowski,

on March 28, 2007,

“YouTube Mobile” has been in the labs for what seems like a century, but we can expect Google remove the veil soon. The mobile annex of the video sharing site will escape from the confines of its lair to greet the public by May for European viewers and June for Americans. The wrap would be taken off sooner – like…now – but somewhere along the line in YouTube history Verizon Wireless signed an exclusivity deal with the company (prior to its purchase by Google) to provide mobile video from the site to Verizon customers only. Come late spring, when the YouTube-Verizon bind no more, anyone and everyone – as long as the individual has a data plan – will be able to consume YouTube’s finest Coke-and-Mentos experiment in the palms of their hands.

This news comes out of CTIA 2007, where all things cellular come out to play, battle for eyes, ears, and in some cases, hearts.

But hold on. Don’t get too excited, yet. There are details you might like to be aware of before you do that whole jumping up and down routine (You don’t have to hide your love for YouTube. Not on Profy, dear reader.) you’ve been practicing night and day. (And probably posted to the video host at least once.)

The major “but” has to do with the number of videos that will be available to visitors at YouTube Mobile: 800 is what a company spokesperson has stated. 800 “editorial picks,” to be precise. If you’ve ever been to YouTube (there really are people who haven’t been), you know they’ve got at least a few more than 800 at their main location.

It’s important to consider just how much 800 videos is in terms of sheer content. It’s a lot. My guess is it’s a lot more than you can muster sitting through in a 24-hour span of time. Imagine doing so on a 2-inch screen while walking about – in a single day. There’s something for the Guinness Book of World Records.

800 videos picked by an editorial board (I use “board” very loosely here) isn’t small, and it’s likely to change frequently, even continuously. YouTube Mobile will certainly post the most popular clips “front and center” by default, and of course allowing users to customize what they do and do not see. That seems like an ample amount of video to start with. Eventually, Google hopes to expand the experience to encompass the entire webspace that is YouTube, but until all involved with the project figure out what goes where, what will get cut, and what the mobile site needs that it’s missing the most, it seems natural that YouTube plans to limit to what we get to see.

If you’d like to view a demonstration of what to expect when “YouTube Mobile” launches officially, point your mobile phone’s browser to:

http://m.youtube.com/?client=ytdemo

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Last week, the YouTube Video Awards were presented. The winners for the best videos of 2006 are:

Most Creative – “Here It Goes Again”, by OKGo

Best Comedy – “Smosh Short 2: Stranded”, by Smosh

Best Commentary – “Hotness Prevails”, by thewinekone

Best Series – “Ask A Ninja”, by digitalfilmmaker

Best Music Video – “Say It’s Possible”, by TerraNaomi

Most Inspirational – “Free Hugs Campaign”, by PeaceOnEarth123

Most Adorable – “Kiwi!”, by Madyeti47

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