The core content of YouTube Secret Weapon was recorded from a live webinar event in October, 2008 for paid monthly subscribers to Paul Colligan’s New Media Inner Circle Group. Since that time, there have been a few minor changes on YouTube.
Such is the nature of the Web 2.0 beast, whereby sites like YouTube are constantly evolving. Not a problem, because Paul and I are on top of things — and as we’re 100% dedicated to making sure you have the absolute most up-to-date information available on what’s happening over at YouTube — we have gone ahead and delayed our product release so we can add a few addendums. The new sections we’re adding will point out a few things you’ll need to know as you consume the content of this DVD.
So what changed, you ask? Several things, but two of the most exciting ones have just been announced in the past few days, and these have to do with the SIZE and QUALITY of your videos.
Note: These changes are NOT going to affect your video optimization. Rather, the reason this is great is because, before this change, the only negative thing I could find about distributing your videos on YouTube was that out of all the video content sharing sites available, YouTube’s video quality was among the poorest (Revver and Blip.TV were kickin’ their hiney). Well, NOT ANYMORE.
Size Does Matter – Hello Widescreen!
All videos on YouTube are now displayed in new widescreen players with an aspect ratio of 16:9 rather than 4:3.
As YouTube notes on its blog though, they expanded the page to 960 pixels and your old videos will still display just fine. Any videos uploaded at the 4:3 ratio (which is the vast majority) are now displayed with black bars on the sides (that’s the empty space not used by 4:3 videos, as illustrated here below).
Next Up, For Your High-Quality YouTube Viewing Pleasure
They’ve been experimenting with high quality videos over on YouTube for awhile. And now, with the new widescreen format, this means HD-quality videos will be able to be viewed at a much higher resolution than previously possible.
No more grainy, ugly videos!
You will, of course, have to upload HD-quality video to make this happen. Once that’s done, you will see an option to watch your videos in HD. (And by purchasing YouTube Secret Weapon, we’ll tell you what you need to know to get great results with HD videos if you choose to upload them).
These are just two of the recent changes over at YouTube, but again, they are merely aesthetic and have little affect on the strategies contained within YouTube Secret Weapon.
You can be assured that Paul and I will be keeping you up-to-date on all of this, as well as future changes to the site, via this blog and email alerts. In fact, rumor has it that a few additional changes are coming in terms of the features available on your YouTube Channel and how to customize those. We’re on it!
And by purchasing YouTube Secret Weapon upon its release, we promise to keep you updated on all the changes to come beyond that…