YouTube is now experimenting with videos longer than 10 minutes (current limit) and extending the storage capacity to 1GB – this equates to around 80 minutes of standard definition video. It’s limited to YouTube’s “content partners” at present but has the potential big to explode into far greater things.

Content partners received the following in an email:

Long Form Content
You now will be able to upload and monetize videos in your account that are longer than 10 minutes. This feature is exclusively for partners. Independent Film makers that partner with us will now be able to upload their feature films on our site. Please note that for long form content, the maximum file size is 1GB.

The long term aim will be to monetize videos with ads running before, after and, in one format or another, during the replay of the video. This may well create a situation where Hollywood blockbusters are available for viewing free of charge so long as the viewer is prepared to watch the ads as well. I don’t there will be a lot of resistance when the word ‘free’ is used.

For advertisers, the opportunity to access virtual cinema at probably a fraction of the cost of cinema or tv advertising will be quite appealing. The concept of free viewing in exchange for included advertising is not new to media marketers and I am sure they will find way to capitalize on the concept fairly quickly.

It will be interesting to see how it pans out in the longer term. If Google can see an increase in revenue then it wont be long and the file size limitations will be changed to include quality high definition videos from the top studios. The revenue may well flow then.

YouTube offers provides an opportunity for businesses to upload videos on a wide range of subject matter. Now that YouTube is becoming available on many TV sets the opportunity exists to get your message out onto a much bigger screen and to a much wider audience.

Video’s in the ‘how to’ format may become popular and what better way is there to promote your brand and your expertise, all virtually at no cost. The only cost would be the production of the short videos. In this day and age many people are able to produce good quality videos using their home video camera.

YouTube’s post on the subject is quite interesting in itself.

We’ve heard many users say, “YouTube is the new TV!”. Well, the YouTube Syndication team is excited to now offer a number of options to actually consume YouTube on your television sets. We’re also proud to have helped many leaders in the consumer electronics space create YouTube experiences on TV.

The post goes on to list the various TV manufacturers who are providing the required setups to view the YouTube.

If you haven’t thought of using YouTube to promote your products or services, now might be a good time to get some footage shot and uploaded. You have nothing to lose and perhaps everything to gain.

YouTube blog has announced the release of the beta version of Video Annotations. Video annotations allows you to add commentary to your videos – interactive commentary at that.

To quote the YouTube blog:

With this feature, you can add background information, create branching (“choose your own adventure” style) stories or add links to any YouTube video, channel, or search results page — at any point in your video.

As the uploader you have complete control whether or not you want to use Video Annotations. You are able to insert commentary by adding speech bubbles, notes and highlight boxes at any point in your video. You can insert an unlimited number of annotations in each video as well.

Annotations, once published, are shown by default. You can turn them off while watching a video through the player menu—just click the button on the bottom right of the video player.

I particularly like the branching idea which would be ideal for training and how to videos. ‘How to’ type videos are always popular and with an interactive function will become even more so. As web publishers, being able to add videos to YouTube is becoming an important tool and those who have done so already are starting to see traffic generated from them. This new function provides more reasons to join the throng.

YouTube continues to grow, and as it grows it is constantly updating its features. There are number of new features, the most important for social marketing interests is the ability to import contacts from Google. From the Youtube blog:

To import your Google contacts into YouTube, click “Import” on the “My Contacts” page, then log in to your Google account. Once we’ve finished importing, click “Share” to easily send a video you’re watching to any of your contacts. You can even “friend” your YouTube contacts and we’ll help you stay up to date on the videos they’re favoriting, rating, and uploading.

Other changes include query suggestions and changes to your comments. The Query changes are an option where you can “Display query suggestions as you type”. Changes to comments include:

Comments made to your videos are separated from comments left in response to your comment on someone else’s video. The actual text of the comment is also now displayed and you can approve or reject a comment in-line.

If you are into social marketing and use YouTube to store and share your videos, you now have a new audience to share them with. YouTube continues to be popular and is a valuable social marketing tool if used effectively.

If you are a regular user of YouTube to spread your video campaigns, you are probably aware of Insight, YouTube’s analytics area. Until now Insight has been handy but lacked a lot of information that is generally required from an analytics program.

YouTube have now announced the inclusion of Demographic data within the Insight program. As YouTube’s blog announcement stated:

….new features to Insight. One is a new demographics tab that displays view count information broken down by age group (such as ages 18-24), gender, or a combination of the two, to help you get a better understanding of the makeup of your YouTube audience. We show you general information about your viewers in anonymous and aggregate form, based on the birth date and gender information that users share with us when they create YouTube accounts.

If you use YouTube as part of your marketing strategy, the inclusion of demographics will be a great source of information. You will be able to tell which gender and age groups are finding your videos appealing and either refine your demographic targeting or include extra content suited to that demographic.