November 12th Live Stream: YouTube Product Updates and an Interview with OlgaKay

On Monday, November 12th, the YouTube Partner Support team is hosting a Partner Meet-Up in Los Angeles. The event is at capacity so if you’re not already registered to join us in person, be sure to tune in at youtube.com/partnersupport.

During the meet-up, we'll be live streaming an update from the YouTube Product team on changes to your video management features and YouTube / Google+ identity integration. Additionally, we’ll be livestreaming the next episode of “Partner Support Talks With...” featuring OlgaKay. You can find a schedule for the stream below:

Time	Session
2:00 p.m. - 2:30 p.m. PST	Updates on YouTube / Google+ Identity Integration
2:30 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. PST	Updates on New & Upcoming Video Management Features
3:00 p.m. - 3:30 p.m. PST	Partner Supports Talks with... OlgaKay

We want to hear from you! Throughout the stream we’ll be taking live questions from viewers around the world via comments on youtube.com/partnersupport.

We’ll also be soliciting questions in advance for our talk show with OlgaKay. Have questions for Olga? Submit your questions and vote for the questions you like here: http://goo.gl/KWn4i

Can’t tune in? Don’t worry - as always, we'll also post the episode on youtube.com/partnersupport after the show.

John Langan and Devon Storbeck, YouTube Partner Support, recently watched "BUYRAL - Professional Clicking."

Mark Your Calendars: YouTube Stars Show You How to Build Your Audience

On Monday, October 29th, the YouTube Partner Support team will be hosting a Partner Meet-Up in New York. The event is at capacity so if you’re not able to join us in person you can tune in at youtube.com/partnersupport.

During the meet-up, we'll be live streaming the latest episode of ‘Partner Support Talks with...’ starring Charlie Todd of ImprovEverywhere. Additionally, we’ll be broadcasting a panel with other super popular YouTubers, and you’ll have a chance to hear from our product team. You can find a schedule for the stream below:

Time	Session
1:15 p.m. - 2:00 p.m. EDT	Partner Supports Talks with... ImprovEverywhere
2:00 p.m. - 2:45 p.m. EDT	“Cultivating Your Audience Online” with Laura Vitale, Creator of Laura Vitale’s Kitchen Molly Templeton, Director of Talent & Audience at My Damn Channel and Creator of MemeMolly Mark Douglas and Todd Womack, Stars of Barely Political
3:00 p.m. - 4:15 p.m. EDT	Presentations from YouTube Next Lab and YouTube Product Team

We want to hear from you! Throughout the stream we’ll be taking live questions from viewers around the world via comments on youtube.com/partnersupport.

We’ll also be soliciting questions in advance for our talk show with ImprovEverywhere. Want to know what inspires Charlie’s top videos? Want his advice on best practices? Submit your questions (and vote for others) here to be answered live: goo.gl/w4rZa

Can’t tune in? Don’t worry - we'll also post the episode on youtube.com/partnersupport after the show.

John Brandt & Sofia Sheth, YouTube Partner Support, recently watched "CONAN Exclusive: World's Shortest Freefall! - CONAN on TBS.”

Channels just got simpler to navigate

Today we’re simplifying the browsing experience on channel pages by merging the Feed and Videos tabs into one “Browse videos” tab.

This new tab will house all Channel activity: uploads, playlists, likes, activity, and comments. Upon clicking the “Browse videos” tab, by default your viewers will be taken to Uploads, but they can easily view other activity using the menu. For example, everything you used to see on the Feed tab can be viewed by clicking on “Activity.” 



Our testing showed that this change makes Channels easier to navigate. Read about the changes in more detail here, and let us know what you think.

Tim, Software Engineer on the Channels team, recently watched Starry Night - Vincent van Dominogh

Expanding custom thumbnails to more partners

Over the past few months, we’ve been testing the impact of custom thumbnails on viewer watch time and engagement. Today, we’re expanding access to custom thumbnails for more YouTube partners, and over time, we aim to make them available to all partners in good standing.

Why not just give custom thumbnails to everyone?

As we’ve mentioned before, we focus on watch time when suggesting videos because it improves overall audience engagement on YouTube, and opens up more revenue opportunities for you. We’ll continue to recommend videos whose thumbnails help drive viewers to actually watch them, over videos that are clicked and then quickly abandoned.

When custom thumbnails do not accurately reflect the content they represent, they can annoy and disappoint viewers. These videos perform poorly on watch time, so they will become less prominent on YouTube. We’re continuing to test how partners use this feature to see how they better drive viewership on YouTube.

Over the next few weeks, we'll be granting access in weekly batches to partners. Partners need to have been active for 30 days and in good standing. When you get access, you should only upload images that are representative of your video, ideally featuring prominent stills from your video. Thumbnails must comply with our Community Guidelines, so abuse of this feature can result in strikes against your account and account termination.

Displaying thumbnails that accurately and appealingly represent your content is the best way to ensure long-term growth for your channel.

Andy Stack, YouTube Product Manager, recently watched “Written By A Kid: Scary Smash.”