YouTube

YouTube's on-going battle against hate speech on its platform continues, and the site has just announced new policies that it hopes will help to further curb the problem.

As part of its new rules, YouTube is now taking a tougher stance against discriminatory material, banning supremacist videos such as those that promote Nazism. Also banned are videos that seek to spread misinformation by denying that "well-documented violent events", such as the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting, ever occurred. Holocaust denial is also banned.

YouTube CBO Robert Kyncl has confirmed that all of the company's Originals content will be made available free of charge.

Currently locked behind a paywall, Originals will become free and ad-supported. At the moment, it is not clear exactly when the change will happen, but it is certainly in the cards, meaning shows like Cobra Kai should reach a larger audience.

Amazon Fire TV provides a really great media consumption experience. And yet, I do not use it. Why? Well, I am a huge YouTube user -- both the regular video service, plus YouTube TV, and unfortunately, Google kept those services off of Amazon's TV hardware. In a bit of "tit for tat," Amazon kept its own Prime Video from Google's Android TV and Chromecast devices. Ultimately, this hostility hurt consumers, which is very unfortunate.

Today, Google and Amazon finally bury the hatchet. YouTube apps are coming to Fire TV, while Prime Video is coming to both Android TV and Chromecast. Even Google's YouTube Kids app will be coming to Amazon's hardware!

Often, our social media engagements seem like little more than momentary diversions. Someone might scroll through Twitter when sitting in a waiting room or browse Facebook over breakfast. These time commitments feel small in the moment, to the point of being insubstantial -- but over time, these "insubstantial" moments on social media add up. The average person spends almost two hours on social media every day, while the average teenager spends up to nine hours. One study suggests that most people will end up spending more than five years of their lives on sites like YouTube, Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, and Twitter.

Social media is eating up a lot of your time. While not all of that time is "wasted" -- it’s possible to learn things on social media, network with valuable connections, catch up with friends, and follow important news stories -- five years of your life is a big ask. Have you ever considered deleting your social media accounts? In this article, we’ll explore how to delete your accounts, whether going dark can affect your job prospects, and what you can do instead to limit your social media usage or online exposure.

YouTube has never had the best layout. Despite going through numerous design changes over the years it’s always looked a bit of a muddle, and unearthing great content to watch has never been as easy as it should be.

What Google’s video site has needed for quite some time now is a fresh take to bring it more in line with its newer rivals, like Instagram and TikTok. Something like this.

Amid mounting fears about child predators and pedophile rings operating online, YouTube has announced that it is disabling comments on videos that feature minors.

For now, the efforts are focused on videos that feature young children, but in the coming months it will expand to include older minors that YouTube says "could be at risk of attracting predatory behavior". The site is also stepping up its use of algorithms to not only identify videos that contain children, but also to monitor and moderate comments.

Following criticism of how its strike system was implemented, YouTube has announced an update to its Community Guidelines that helps to make things clearer.

In the past it was often the case that strikes were handed inconsistently, and it was not always clear what misdemeanour had occurred. The updated system comes into force in the next few days, and it is slightly more lenient on first-time offenders.

In recent years it seems that there has been an astonishing increase in the number of Flat Earthers -- people who believe that the Earth is flat, and anything that suggests otherwise is a conspiracy. The thinking is that, for some reason, NASA, international government, scientists and so on are all desperate to convince people that the Earth is round when it is in fact flat.

While Flat Earther numbers are still relatively small, the increasing membership of this school of thought in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary is both confusing and worrying. So just what is going on? The rise in internet usage has been blamed for the spread of fake news, conspiracy theories and all manner of bizarre ideas, and a new study has concluded that one particular site is responsible for the increasing support for the Flat Earth theory. That site is YouTube.

If you don't have an account with a streaming music service these days, you simply aren't living your life right. Look, I don't care which service you choose -- Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal, or something else -- it is foolish to buy and download songs. If you are still buying CDs, you are probably beyond hope, but I digress. Streaming music is simply the best value in entertainment. For a small monthly fee, you get access to more music than you can possibly listen to in a single lifetime.

YouTube Music is yet another streaming music service, although it is not as popular as, say, Spotify. Google seems intent on growing this eventual Play Music successor, and today, the company announces a huge new feature -- Sonos support. Yes, if you have both a paid YouTube Music account and a Sonos speaker, you can finally use them with each other.

So, you want to be the next online star, eh? Maybe your goal is to become a YouTube vlogger or a Twitch streamer. If that’s your dream, I wish you success.

Of course, talent alone won’t lead to fame and fortune. You will need hardware too, such as a webcam -- obviously. After all, people are more likely to watch content with a good picture. With that said, audio is also important -- you should invest in a quality microphone. Today, AVerMedia launches a new such product -- called "Live Steamer MIC 133" -- that is not only for desktop use, but mobile too.

Windows 10 is a very good operating system, but the October 2018 Update has left a bad taste in many users' mouths. It caused a multitude of problems, got pulled, and even after it was made available again, new issues surfaced. The April 2018 Update rolled out to users at lightning speed, but the October 2018 Update has only been installed on about 3 percent of systems to date. Ouch.

Microsoft has said previously that Windows 10 will be the "last version of Windows", but is it time to rethink that idea and give users an operating system that goes up to 11? Take a look and make up your own mind.

When you are a college student in the USA, money is usually very tight -- unless you come from a wealthy family. Sadly, education and housing costs are astronomical these days, often making the stereotype of eating lots of Ramen soup a reality. Finding money for entertainment can be extremely difficult, but hey, at least YouTube is free (thanks to ads)!

Google offers two premium YouTube services -- YouTube Music Premium and YouTube Premium -- which unfortunately cost money. The former costs $9.99, while the latter is $11.99. This puts it out of reach of many university students. Today, however, the search  giant is giving these learners a massive discount on the services.

Facebook's plan for Facebook Watch to be a viable competitor to YouTube seemed a little unlikely -- to say the least -- and it would seem that the pessimists were right. Facebook Watch has proved to be a dud.

A little over a year after launch, the on-demand video service has gained an audience of just 50 million people. This might initially sound like a large number, but YouTube has -- admittedly over a number of years -- amassed over 1.8 billion users. The problem appears to be that younger audiences are simply not interested in Facebook Watch, so Facebook is now switching the focus of the service to an older market.

YouTube only very recently gave people the option to watch big-name movies free of charge -- the only price to pay is enduring a few ads. Now, to celebrate Black Friday and to promote the upcoming release of The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part, you'll have the chance to watch the first film (The LEGO Movie) for free.

While the previously-announced free option means you have to watch ads, in this instance The LEGO Movie is itself an ad.

With little fanfare, YouTube has started to offer ad-supported, feature-length movies, giving visitors the opportunity to watch Hollywood titles for free.

As reported by AdAge, it seems that YouTube introduced this option last month, but gave it something of a stealth launch. It has been possible to purchase movies from YouTube for some time, but until now there has been no (legal) way to access movies for free. And if you are concerned that free might mean that poor quality, you should be reassured to see titles such as The Terminator and Agent Cody Banks in the library of free-to-watch, ad-supported movies.