Report claims Yahoo! plans to lure YouTube stars to its own video service

Yahoo! is reportedly working on a new video site geared towards having more established stars and networks use the service than the more open-to-all approach of YouTube. And to do so, it would seem they are trying to lure away YouTube’s big stars with more money, including better ad revenue, boosted marketing, and guaranteed ad rates. Recode claims Yahoo! is planning to get the ball rolling on this project in the coming months.

Make YouTube your music player with Tuner

iPhone users who want to use YouTube as a music source are in for a treat. Tuner app lets you search and select a song and plays the music without the video. It even lets you create playlists and you don’t even need a YouTube account to do so. The app has a pretty straightforward and simple design and looks ad-free at the moment.

Source: Lifehacker

Google Search update turns spotlight on YouTube for music searches

Google wants to make sure you keep using its services with a new update for its search engine. If you search for a song on Google, a Google Now-style card will appear with a link to the YouTube video plus information such as artist, album, and release date.

Search Engine Watch reports the feature has been available since September last year. A Google spokesperson said, "This was already available in September 2013 when you searched for an artist and then clicked on a song—you’d see a preview of the music video if it was available to display. Yesterday we made it easier to get to—you can now just search for a song directly and see the video screenshot right away.”

Google to clamp down on phony YouTube views

Google wants to make sure the video viewing count on streaming site YouTube remains accurate to not just help keep trust of users but to make sure the advertisers were assured the ads are seen by actual people. That is why the tech company plans to validate view counts periodically and take out fraudulent views.

YouTube software engineer Philipp Pfeiffenberger said in a blog post, “We don’t expect this approach to affect more than a minuscule fraction of videos on YouTube, but we believe it’s crucial to improving the accuracy of view counts and maintaining the trust of our fans and creators.”

Source: Ubergizmo