YouTube has just launched an expansion to its Annotations feature that gives users the ability to invite their friends to help spruce up their videos using text boxes, labels, and interactive buttons. In the past I’ve been somewhat critical of these annotations, primarily because they can be really annoying in the wrong hands. But tonight YouTube has also introduced a oft-requested feature that will turn off all annotations entirely, allowing users to peruse videos in their unadulterated form if they wish to. You can find the option under your account’s ‘Playback Settings’ menu. (more…)

On YouTube, Vidal posted a humorous video tribute to John Williams, the man who scored the soundtracks for such blockbuster films as Indiana Jones, and Star Wars. In his clip he included some of Williams’ music. By now, everybody knows that YouTube removes videos that violate copyright law. What’s different about Vidal’s work getting pulled is that when he posted it in October, he was permitted to use Warner’s music. (more…)

YouTube on Monday unveiled a new feature which may prove useful to poor spellers or people suffering from “comment regret.”

Users of the Google-owned video-sharing site can new delete their own comments from the thread which accompanies videos on YouTube. (more…)

Puffs of smoke, speeches in Latin and multipage encyclicals have all been used by the Vatican to communicate with the faithful. Now the pope is trying to broaden his audience by joining the wannabe musicians, college pranksters and water-skiing squirrels on YouTube. In his inaugural YouTube foray Friday, Pope Benedict XVI welcomed viewers to this “great family that knows no borders” and said he hoped they would “feel involved in this great dialogue of truth.” (more…)

YouTube has started to dabble in downloadable videos, offering an new download option for President-elect Barack Obama’s ChangeDotGov channel on YouTube.

Some of the videos, particularly the “Weekly Address” series, now sport a “Click to download” link below the play button. Previously, all videos were offered as streaming videos that required an Internet connection while viewing. (more…)

President-elect “Barack Obama” embraced YouTube when he started broadcasting his weekly address in both audio and video form, so it may have only been a matter of time before the Congress followed suit.

YouTube in conjunction with Congress on Monday launched two new platforms, the Senate Hub and the House Hub, that provide easy access to congressional YouTube channels. (more…)

YouTube’s traffic machine may finally be turning into a cash machine.

For the first time, there are signs that YouTube is driving significant revenue for itself and some of the video site’s partners. In an interview with CNET News this week, Rio Caraeff, executive vice president of Universal Music Group’s eLabs, said the largest of the top recording companies is bringing in “tens of millions of dollars” from YouTube.

“(YouTube) is not like radio, where it’s just promotional,” said Caraeff, who heads up Universal’s digital group. “It’s a revenue stream, a commercial business. It’s growing tremendously. It’s up almost 80 percent for us year-over-year in the U.S. in terms of our revenue from this category.”

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NEW YORK – Dismissing privacy concerns, a federal judge overseeing a $1 billion copyright-infringement lawsuit against YouTube has ordered the popular online video-sharing service to disclose who watches which video clips and when.

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