I use YouTube a lot and it is my go-to website to listen to music and watch interesting videos. However, recently all the YouTube videos I watched just showed me a green screen while the videos were playing. This happened in all the browser including Google Chrome, Opera, Firefox and Internet Explorer 9.

Due to the Green screen (pictured above) I was unable to watch any videos. However, I was still able to listen to the audio. It turns out that the above problem was with a recent update to Adobe Flash player. If you are seeing a similar problem, here are the steps to fix it.

Step 1: Right click on the video player and select Settings from the menu options. Once the options page opens, click on the "Display icon".

Step 2: Uncheck the box next to "Enable hardware acceleration" to disable hardware acceleration for Flash. Once you have done that close the options box and refresh YouTube.

This should help to resolve your issue with the green screen on YouTube. Alternatively, you can also opt-in to YouTube HTML5 player by visiting http://www.youtube.com/html5. However, not all YouTube videos are HTML5 so you might still have to follow the steps listed above to get rid of the Green screen in videos on YouTube.

YouTube is one of my favorite video players and I usually prefer to listen to my music there. However, like with other Google products, YouTube maintains a history of all the videos you have watched or videos you have searched for to make it easier for you to find and watch those videos again.

Although all of Google’s other products have had an opt-in clause for tracking, YouTube never did or had these options hidden. Although, YouTube is now providing users with an easy option to clear their viewing history as well as their search History along with the ability to pause YouTube from tracking it in their new interface.

According to Ghacks, YouTube now has a settings page where you will be able to clear your viewing history and search history along with the ability to pause them from tracking it as well. Users can clear or pause their viewing history by visiting this page and their search history by visiting this page.

Please note that YouTube only tracks history for users if they are logged in with a Google account, so you will have to login to YouTube before you can manage or pause your search or viewing history.

It looks like Google just does not want to give up on Google TV. GTV has had a disastrous start, and is the sole reason for Logitech’s huge losses last year, but the big-G is in no mood to leave the product alone.

Today, Google announced on the official Google TV blog that the company would start rolling out a new YouTube app for all GTV devices. The new app is way faster and smoother than the current version, and is also much easier to navigate around. The new version of the app also has many new features including, Discover, which as its name suggests allows for easier discovery of new content on YouTube.

The app now also allows users access to playlists and videos via the new channel pages of their favorite channels, see related videos from the same user by pressing the up/down button on their remote, and the ability to thumbs up a video or add it to any of your playlists, all while watching the video itself.

Owners of various Google TV devices can update the in-built YouTube app using the Android Market.

YouTube has an interesting comedy slam page where users can compare two videos and vote the one which appeals to them. YouTube slam, which is categorized into music, comedy, bizarre and cute, is sort of a never ending addictive game where you watch bizarre videos and vote the ones you find interesting, funny or humorous. You get nothing out of this, except a mention as a top voter on the slam leaderboards.

But have you ever wondered how Google measures which video is funnier, which one is bizarre and which one is cute? What are the signals Google counts when ranking videos in the YouTube slam page?

Unlike textual content, Google and other search engines can’t “read” the content of a video or see through it. The only way a bot can have some clue about a video is its associated metadata, the title tags, description, anchor text, links from other domains, user comments and so forth. This mechanism is often, not so accurate and can be quirked for selfish reasons.

Coming to how YouTube ranks videos in slam pages, a Google researcher admitted that there is an algorithm which tries to measure the degree of laughter associated with a video. The algorithm is not entirely driven by view counts or mere votes because of the fact that human feelings are subjective in nature. What appears humorous to one age group might be a complete turn off for another.

The funny thing is that the algorithm tries to extract “textual laughter” from the comments section of a YouTube video. Words such as “hahaha”, “hehehe”, “jajaja”, “kekeke” in user comments counts as a strong signal towards the humorous nature of a video. This algorithm also considers web acronyms such as LOL, ROFL or LMAO and emoticons e.g :D, ;-) xP.

Google trains classifiers to identify funny videos and finds the reason why this video is funny and to what category or genre this video may belong to. The ranking algorithm is strongly driven by human reaction and their emphasis on emotions e.g a looooooool  is considered a stronger signal than a lol because of the elongation which reflects the viewer’s emphasis. Here is what Google says:

We noticed that viewers emphasize their reaction to funny videos in several ways: e.g. capitalization (LOL), elongation (loooooool), repetition (lolololol), exclamation (lolllll!!!!!), and combinations thereof. If a user uses an “loooooool” vs an “loool”, does it mean they were more amused? We designed features to quantify the degree of emphasis on words associated with amusement in viewer comments. We then trained a passive-aggressive ranking algorithm using human-annotated pairwise ground truth and a combination of text and audiovisual features. Similar to Music Slam, we used this ranker to populate candidates for human voting for our Comedy Slam.

Now they are judging candidates for YouTube slam by how many “lols” are written underneath a video? Like this video which got more than 3000 comments and 1,566,000 views but it’s not funny!

Google is well known for testing the hell out of even the smallest of changes. When it couldn’t decide between two shades of blue, it tested 41 different shades of blue on users to statistically determine which one yields best results. In fact, most of the new features that were revealed in the recent YouTube redesign were spotted by users months in advance. At any point of time, there are dozens (hundreds?) of different variations of Google services being tested in the wild. Earlier this week, two hawk-eyed Neowin users spotted a couple of YouTube features that we haven’t seen before.

The first screenshot, shared by FMH, shows a revamped video suggestions sidebar. The new sidebar looks a lot more attractive, thanks to the increased prominence of images. Compared to the current sidebar, it’s also a lot more compact, but it loses several pieces of metadata about the video, including duration, uploader, and view count.

The second variant, which was spotted by bogas04, features an improved seek bar. When hovering over the video timeline, a thumbnail preview of the frame you are about to seek to pops up. Unlike the first change, which I have mixed opinions about, this seems to be a nice usability improvement that should make rewinding and jumping ahead to a particular moment more convenient.

After Facebook, Google, Yahoo, and Opera, YouTube is the latest bigwig to publish its own annual top 10 list. If 2009 was the year of Miley Cyrus and 2010 was the year of Justin Bieber, 2011 will go down as the year of Rebecca Black. Rebecca Black’s Friday, which often appears to have more haters than admirers, collected more than 180 million views. Other entries in the list include viral sensations like talking dog, talking twin babies and Nyan cat.

YouTube received more than 1 trillion playbacks in 2011, which amounts to about 140 views for every person on Earth! The most viewed channels were Machinama, IGN, and RayWilliamJohnson. Among videos from major music labels, Jennifer Lopez’s On The Floor and LMFAO’s Party Rock Anthem proved to be the biggest hits.

You can head over to YouTube.com/Rewind to browse through some of the biggest sensations of the year. YouTube has put together top 10s for a wide range of categories including fashion, beauty, sports, gaming, travel, fitness, food, science, tech reviews, family, pets, and wedding proposals.

Most viewed YouTube videos globally (excluding videos from major music labels)

Rebecca Black – Friday (OFFICIAL VIDEO)
Ultimate Dog Tease
Jack Sparrow (feat. Michael Bolton)
Talking Twin Babies – PART 2 – OFFICIAL VIDEO
Nyan Cat [original]
Look At Me Now – Chris Brown ft. Lil Wayne, Busta Rhymes (Cover by @KarminMusic)
The Creep (feat. Nicki Minaj & John Waters)
Maria Aragon – Born This Way (Cover) by Lady Gaga
The Force: Volkswagen Commercial
Cat mom hugs baby kitten

Most viewed YouTube channels globally (excluding channels from major music labels)
machinima
IGNentertainment
RayWilliamJohnson
expertvillage
BlueXephos
smosh
realannoyingorange
roosterteeth
thelonelyisland
barelypolitical

Most watched videos from major music labels globally

Jennifer Lopez – On The Floor ft. Pitbull
LMFAO – Party Rock Anthem ft. Lauren Bennett, GoonRock
Bruno Mars – The Lazy Song [Official Video]
Nicki Minaj – Super Bass
Pitbull – Give Me Everything ft. Ne-Yo, Afrojack, Nayer
Pitbull – Rain Over Me ft. Marc Anthony
Jessie J – Price Tag ft. B.o.B.
LMFAO – Sexy and I Know It
Katy Perry – E.T. ft. Kanye West
Katy Perry – Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)

Some highlights from other categories:
Zach Wahls Speaks About Family was the most-watched political video
Japan Earthquake: Helicopter aerial view video of giant tsunami waves was the most-watched news video
25 Ways to Wear a Scarf in 4.5 Minutes! was the most watched how-tovideo
iPhone 5 Concept Features was the most-watched science/technology video
Immortals was the most-watched movie trailer
Mountain Biker gets taken out by Buck was the most-watched sports video was the most-watched political video

YouTube has unveiled what is possibly the biggest redesign since its launch. The new design makes a conscious effort to increase user engagement by leveraging channels and social media. The homepage makes it easier than ever before to view videos that you want to watch. A Facebook-like activity stream is at the front and center of the new design. Tabs on the left hand side allow instant switching between different streams, while the right hand side houses video and channel recommendations. Facebook and Google+ streams feature videos shared by your friends and contacts, while Trending and Popular steams house the latest viral sensations from across the web.

Channels themselves have been updated with new templates to make discovering videos easier. Users can check on their favorite channels without leaving the homepage or subscribe to channels while watching a video. The overall design has also been improved vastly. Google has incorporated the best aspects of Cosmic Panda to create a livelier and richer experience. “We’ve used your feedback to improve our overall design, and today, we’re presenting a cleaner and simpler YouTube, with a consistent gray background, bigger video thumbnails and a more streamlined watch page”, read the official announcement.

Head over to YouTube.com or view the video embedded above to check out the new YouTube. In the short time that I have used it, I have found the new design to be a lot more intuitive and elegant, besides being functional. There are a few oddities here and there though. Videos shared by people not in my circles show up in my Google Plus stream on occasions, and videos that you have watched aren’t automatically replaced with newer ones. However, as is typical with any redesign, there is already a minor backlash against it from avid YouTube users. Don’t forget to let us how you feel about the new YouTube.

YouTube is probably the only Google service which hasn’t been redesigned for a while. We have recently learned that YouTube is testing another major design overhaul in the lines of Cosmic Panda, a fresh version of the 6 month old redesign experiment. No wonder the upcoming YouTube redesign is synonymous with the redesign of Gmail, Google Reader, Google Adsense and other Google services;   the sole aim being Google Plus integration.

The new homepage and design changes on YouTube haven’t been rolled out yet, but you can preview it using the following hack:

1. Open YouTube.com on Google Chrome and fire up the developers tools panel by hitting Control + Shift + J. Firefox users should use Control + Shift + K instead.

2. Click Console and enter this string as it is:

document.cookie=”VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE=ST1Ti53r4fU”;

3. Hit the Return key once.

5. Refresh the page by hitting F5 on your keyboard.

Done!

The page will reload and YouTube’s hidden design will be brought into light. Have a look below:

Instead of the classic 2 column layout, YouTube plans to go three column over a subtle grey background. The subscription timeline is centered while channel recommendations and related videos lay on both sides of the timeline. Video pages will remain 2 column though.

The left column has a new member in the form of G+, clicking which shows all the YouTube videos your Google Plus friends have shared recently. You can also click trending videosand currently popularon the left column to see which videos are being watched by the entire community of YouTube users across the globe.

The new design feels good to my eyes and unlike Gmail or Google Reader, this one is a little more compact and has better calls to action. Barring colors, Google Plus video stream and minor modifications on the layout, it is still the old YouTube where I spend more than an hour daily.

If you would like to take an inside peek into YouTube’s upcoming design changes, watch the following screencast:

Thanks Jatin for the tip

Katy Perry can breathe a little easier now. It turns out she wasn’t the steamiest thing to hit Sesame Street after all. According to ABC affiliate, KGO, YouTube took down the children’s entertainment channel for  ”repeated or severe violations of our Community Guidelines”. The violation you ask? Porn!

Before you fall out of your chair, know that Sesame Street’s channel was hacked. The hackers uploaded several porn movies to the site. According to an article by Naked Security (no pun intended) author, Graham Cluley, the porn was available for the world to see for about 20 minutes before being taken down. At this time, YouTube and Sesame Street are staying silent about it.

Not only did the hacker’s upload porn, they also managed to change the profile page for the channel. Here is an excerpt, which was caught by Naked Security’s blog:

WHO DOESN’T LOVE PORN KIDS? RIGHT! EVERYONE LOVES IT! IM MREDXWX AND MY PARTNER MRSUICIDER91 ARE HERE TO BRING YOU MANY NICE CONTENT! PLEASE DON’T LET SESAME STREET TO GET THIS ACCOUNT BACK KIDS :( PLEASE…LET ME AND MRSUICIDER91 HAVE IT AND WE GONNA MAKE ALL THE AMERICA HAPPY!

The YouTube profile MrEdxwx, mentioned in the quote is a legitimate channel, but they are adamantly denying having any role in this hack. It appears they are a gaming channel. According to their profile  they state, “Please understand i did not hack sesame street , i RESPECT youtube community guidelines !” They also posted a plea in the form of a video, which you can view below.

It has barely been a year since Sesame Street pulled a duet between Katy Perry and Elmo from their show. Her outfit is pictured at the top of the article. You can see why some parents were a little concerned about the amount of cleavage their 6 year olds were going to be exposed to. Compared to today’s events, Katy Perry pales in comparison.

I remember back when Miss Piggy and Kermit were the only “steamy” romance on the block. It is a real shame that people have nothing better to do with their time than try to expose millions of children to pornography. I have to wonder if this has anything to do with Reddit’s recent decision to ban /r/jailbait, which was a very controversial child porn site, being shut down recently. Who knows? What I do know is that if these folks have the knowledge to hack a site like this, they ought to have the knowledge to do something constructive for society at large. Instead, they spend their time victimizing the most innocent of us all, our children.

The much anticipated and very soon-to-be-announced Nexus from Google and Samsung has been teased. If you watched the video, you’ve been longing for a bit more. A bit more has been provided.

If the snapshot above looks a bit too curvy, it’s because it’s emphasised by the contrast and then drawn out by a razor-thin light shining from behind. We can easily make out 3 contact pins which are likely for a dock, a camera shutter button and a rather bulbous housing at the rear. Chances are, you’re going to watch the video again and pause it to try and make out some more detail. Don’t bother.

A cleaned up and modified image from the Samsung Teaser video has been floating around the web. Some kind chap took the liberty of putting his photoshopping skills to work. After removing the backdrop, punching up some color compensation and I’m sure a bit of the clone tool was used, the image left is one to behold.

If the rumoured specifications are true, the next Google flagship is going to absolutely be the next clamoured-after device. BGR, having a penchant for posting ‘sourced’ exclusive rumours, has published full specs of the upcoming device.

• Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich
• 9mm thin
• 4.65-inch 1280 x 720-pixel Super AMOLED HD with curved glass
• TI OMAP 4460 dual-core Cortex A9 processor clocked at 1.2GHz
• 1GB of RAM
• 32GB of built-in storage
• 5-megapixel camera on the back, 1.3-megapixel in the front
• 1080p HD video capture support
• LTE/HSPA depending on carrier
• Wi-Fi a/b/g/n
• NFC
• 1,750 mAh battery

The specs are nothing crazy, making them that much more believable…except the powerhouse stuffed inside the Android slab. TI’s OMAP 4460 is a beast of a SoC to dump into a phone, but OMAP4 is the reference platform for Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0) so, again, it’s very likely believable. The screen size and resolution are perfectly aligned with what’s been trending in the industry. Competitor devices, such as the recently announced HTC Sensation XL, are hitting 10mm measurements and come packed with the full gamut of connectivity. Huge batteries are getting shoved inside small phones in order to power larger screens and NFC chips, while still allowing you to get a day’s worth of work done on a single charge.

Even if none of the extremely likely, highly believable and trending rumours are true, one thing is for sure, Samsung’s UNPACKED event is highly anticipated and I hope they can deliver.