HI-TRANSFER

Whether you’re perfecting your double backflip at the park, capturing a flash mob on your phone, or enjoying singing in a subway, it’s not easy to get your video quality perfect. Sometimes videos suffer from symptoms like “shaky-camera-itis” or “augmented-darkness-levels” that keep viewers from seeing just how awesome your video really is. We made a big step last year with the YouTube Video Editor, and now we’re adding a feature that does the work of curing these symptoms for you.

If you upload a video that’s shaky or dark, we’ll automatically offer to fix it for you, creating an updated version of your video on YouTube.

When you upload a video that could use a fixup, you’ll see a notification bar on the Upload page and in your Video Manager. Click the button to fix it, and you’ll see a side by side preview to decide if you want to accept the edits.


Select “Okay” if you’d like us to update your video to the preview version (you can always undo this later). Even if you’re uploading a video from your mobile device, the Video Manager on the desktop will give you a notice if this video can be cured as well. Here’s an overview:



This breakthrough in video awesomeness is possible thanks to our research team who expanded on the “I’m Feeling Lucky” button launched last year, automatically detecting if stabilization or color correction would be helpful for you. The result is a one-click option rolling out over the next few days that cures these two symptoms now, and more planned in the future.

So you keep capturing those awesome moments, and we’ll keep on developing ways to help you make those videos even more awesome.

John Gregg, software engineer, recently watched “Panda,” and then watched “Panda (stabilized).”

Today, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) released their Existing Home Sales Report for February showing an decline in sales with total home sales falling 0.9% since January but climbing 8.8% above the level seen in February 2010.

Single family home sales declined 1.0% from January but rose 9.4% above the level seen in February 2011 while the median selling price increased 0.1% below the level seen in February 2011.

Inventory of single family homes increased 1.4% from January dropping 18.2% below the level seen in February 2011 which resulted in a monthly supply of 6.2 months.

The following charts (click for full-screen dynamic version) shows national existing single family home sales, median home prices, inventory and months of supply since 2005.

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) publishes the results of a weekly applications survey that covers roughly 50 percent of all residential mortgage originations and tracks the average interest rate for 30 year and 15 year fixed rate mortgages as well as the volume of both purchase and refinance applications.

The purchase application index has been highlighted as a particularly important data series as it very broadly captures the demand side of residential real estate for both new and existing home purchases.

The latest data is showing that the average rate for a 30 year fixed rate mortgage (from FHA and conforming GSE data) jumped 12 basis points to 4.06% since last week while the purchase application volume declined 1.0% and the refinance application dropped 9.3% over the same period.

With rates trending ever lower, the economy weak and the FOMC members remaining dovish, it will be interesting to see how far rates on the long end can decline.  All things being equal, falling home prices, declining purchase applications and record low long lending rates all appear to indicate a deflationary for the macro-economy.

The following chart shows the average interest rate for 30 year and 15 year fixed rate mortgages since 2006 as well as the purchase, refinance and composite loan volumes (click for larger dynamic full-screen version).

Today’s New Residential Construction Report showed mixed results in February with single family permits increasing from January while starts declined over the same period.

Single family housing permits, the most leading of indicators, increased a whopping 4.9% from last month to 472K single family units (SAAR), and increased 23.6% above the level seen in February 2011 but remaining an astonishing 73.75% below the peak in September 2005.

Single family housing starts plunged 9.86% to 457K units (SAAR), but climbed 17.78% above the level seen in February 2011 and remaining a stunning 74.93% below the peak set in early 2006.

With the substantial headwinds of elevated unemployment, epic levels of foreclosure and delinquency, mounting bankruptcies, contracting consumer credit, and falling real wages, an overhang of inventory and still falling home prices, the environment for “organic” home sales remains weak and likely very fragile.

Today, the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) released their latest Housing Market Index (HMI) showing a flattening of most measures in March with the composite HMI index remaining unchanged at 28 while the "buyer traffic" index stayed put at 22.

While all indicators have made notable increases as of late, it's important to note that conditions still remain distressed by historic standards though, the last few months results appears to indicate a major change in the builder sentiment.

The new home market will likely not resume any significant form of healthy function until the considerable overhang of inventory is cleared.

Everyday on the CitizenTube channel (and @CitizenTube on Twitter), along with our curation partners @storyful, we look at how the top news stories are covered on YouTube. Each week we post a weekly recap of the top news stories of the week, as seen through the lens of both citizen-reported footage and professional news coverage.

• We witnessed devastating scenes from Afghanistan, as 16 civilians were killed and five injured after a US soldier allegedly went on a shooting spree in the south of the country.
• We were saddened to hear of the deaths of 28 Belgians, including 22 children, who were killed in a coach crash inside a Swiss motorway tunnel near Sierre.
• We followed George Clooney as he witnessed the horrific effects from the war crimes that have taken place in Sudan's Nuba Mountains.
• We marked one year since the revolt against Assad's regime began in Syria, even as towns where the uprising began, such as Daraa, continued to be mercilessly bombed.
• We observed a 'mini-Tuesday' for GOP candidates on the US campaign trail, as Rick Santorum pulled off a southern sweep with wins in Alabama and Mississippi.
• We viewed solemn reflections in Japan one year after the most powerful earthquake in their history struck, causing a devastating tsunami and the now infamous Fukushima nuclear plant incident.
• We saw heightened violence between Israelis and Palestinians leave at least 20 people dead.
• We were awestruck as a massive tornado hit Dexter, Michigan on Thursday, leaving several homes destroyed as it swept through the town.
• We watched David Cameron receive a warm White House welcome from President Obama as the UK and the US celebrated their 'special' relationship.

Today's early release of the Reuters/University of Michigan Survey of Consumers for March indicated a decline in consumer sentiment with a reading of 74.3 but climbing 10.07% above the level seen last year while one year inflation expectations jumped to 4.0%.

The Index of Consumer Expectations (a component of the Conference Board's Index of Leading Economic Indicators) declined to 68, and the Current Economic Conditions Index climbed to 84.2.

It's important to recognize that consumer sentiment has seriously eroded over the past few months with the current results remaining near levels not seen since 1980, a major indication that consumers are in the process of tightening even further on spending.

Today, the Federal Reserve released their monthly read of industrial production and capacity utilization showing a flattening with total industrial production increasing just 0.02% from January and rising 4.03% above the level seen in February 2011.

Capacity utilization declined 0.06% from January climbing 2.83% above the level seen in February of 2011 to stand at 78.70%

It's important to recognize that though the "recovery" is well over two years old, both industrial production and capacity utilization are notably below the peaks set in late 2007.

From brewskies to Bradshaw and celebs to salsa, the 2012 Super Bowl brought millions of you from across the globe to YouTube's Ad Blitz channel to vote on your favorite commercials. When the final tallies came in, Ad Blitz saw more than 89 million views worldwide, and the day after the game, 26 percent of those came from outside the US.

The Ad Blitz team was so excited by all of you that participated, so to thank you we pulled together an infographic about the activity from the big game.


If you’re as inspired as we are by some of these commercials, check out more creative campaigns on YouTube to spark some ideas of your own.

Lexi Turpack, YouTube interactive programs analyst, recently watched ‘Vitalic - Poney Part 1.’

India is one of world’s largest producers of TV shows. With more than 400 terrestrial and local channels available, Indians often face the challenging question: What am I going to watch?

The good news is that we increasingly don’t have to worry about when to watch. Over the last few years, major Indian broadcasters such as Sony Entertainment Television, Colors, ImagineTV, Star India, and VikatanTV have been bringing their shows to YouTube so that you can watch them whenever you want.

Now that our Indian TV partners offer more than 19,000 full episodes of 300 programs in six different languages (Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, Gujarati, and Punjabi), we wanted to offer our Indian viewers an updated Shows page at youtube.com/shows to help you better follow shows you love and discover new favorites. For the rest of the world, you can still find the shows through youtube.com/shows/other-languages.



You’ll find programs into genres like drama and comedy, as well as the latest and top watched episodes featured on the page. Missed the last episode of Bade Acche Lagte Hai? It’ll be right there in the channel waiting for you. If you’re looking for a few good places to start, check out popular shows like Balika Vadhu, Ramayan, CID, Devon Ke Dev...Mahadev, Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah and Thendral.

These 19,000+ episodes are just a start, so we hope we can keep delivering more and more content that viewers across India—and around the world—want to see.

Ajith Rao, software engineer, recently watched “Adaalat - Episode 104,” and Gowri Ramkumar, technical account manager, recently watched “Kuch toh log Kahenge - episode 118.”