The "You" in YouTube

When many people think of the website www.YouTube.com, they think of music videos, homemade videos, interviews and much more that is shared over the internet. YouTube.com has recently changed their homepage to allow users to personalize it based on their interests and what clips they watch most often. Being able to 'subscribe' to certain channels allows viewers to browse through highlights that would only be of interest to them based on their interests and recent searches. This personalization technique that YouTube.com has utilized, has enabled more users and has brought more convenience and interest to their website.

I recently have subscribed to the "Official Channel of MLB.com on YouTube's website to receive updates and highlights faster than I would from ESPN.com or Foxsportsnorth.com. Not being able to watch at least part of a big game is always disappointing, especially if you search multiple websites for some highlights and cannot find them, anywhere! YouTube has made it easier to find highlights of any game you missed as well as feature stories, personal interviews, shout-outs, etc. The video on the left is courtesy of YouTube drawing fans attention that at the time, there was eight days until home opener. This was Major League Baseball's way of gearing fans up for the upcoming season and to raise that anticipation so more fans would be inclined to search more YouTube videos promoting MLB and to reach that goal of having those same fans attend more games. Various sports teams have used social media sites such as YouTube to promote their organization or certain individuals within their organization which has helped bring recognition to them in times that their win-loss record is not cutting it. The content is copyrighted to their organization so they have a fairly simple task of expanding past their fans attending the game and spread their game highlights to those individuals who could not get to the game, or who would just like to see what happened while they were away from their television.

 As part of YouTube's social network, I can personalize their homepage to be my homepage with all the latest highlights from various different sports that are going on right now, to different interviews with political people or celebrities, or whomever I am interested in hearing from. It took me awhile to actually sit and play with their homepage since usually I will just type in a keyword that I want and find the video that I am looking for and then go about my usual business. Since I was introduced to this feature, I have, sadly, wasted a lot of time on their site surfing their videos that spike my interest. The video to the right, 'LeBron Makes His Mark All Over Thursday's Top 10' is an example of the different things that I look for when wanting highlights or clips from the night before when I couldn't watch the games myself. I like this particular video since it allows me to stay connected with the National Basketball Association and the players that continuously outperform others.

Having found this feature of YouTube's, I can see myself using it more and expanding into other areas that are both sport related and non-sport related. I have found myself 'following' various sport fanatics on Twitter.com or looking for videos on Facbook.com that are of interest to me. Knowing that I can search in one central location that has already done the work for me will drive me to visit their site more often. Well done YouTube.