Written by Craig Rubens
Posted Sunday, June 17, 2007 at 4:54 PM PT

YouTube’s Disappointing New Editing Tools

Late Friday evening YouTube rolled out its new on-site editing service, YouTube Remixer. Powered by Adobe Premiere Express, the software allows YouTubers to remix their existing videos adding new music, borders, clip art graphics, and transitions (though I’m very sad that the star wipe did not make the cut). YouTube Remixer is exactly the same as Photobucket’s Remixer (previous coverage here), except that Photobucket launched theirs back in February and it has far more features.

While definitely not for the savvier of video uploaders, the Remixer might be useful for the increasing number of users uploading from their mobile phones. Adding credits to your camera-phone documentary on that cute puppy you saw in the park ensures that The Academy will know who to give the Oscar to.

Additionally, YouTube rolled out a beta version of its new video page layout, “Watch 3.0.” Mostly just a rearrangements of the old page elements, the beta prominently lists the current videomaker’s other videos and has a (very) slightly bigger video player. YouTube has also revamped its search results page, allowing you to view the results in either “list view” or “grid view.” On the uploading side of things, YouTube now includes a Google maplet allowing users to geotag their videos with new precision.

Choosing Adobe as a vendor is a blow to startups who have made online video editing their sole purpose. Last week one such company, Cuts, sold itself, admitting it did not see great opportunity in the crowded market.

Honestly, this is a massively underwhelming showing from YouTube. Since Google acquired YouTube, not much has happened to the technical capabilities of the site. Last week YouTube finally rolled out a beefier embed player but it still lacks many of the features that other video sites offer. While far and away the most popular video site, YouTube seems to be stagnating. All of these features have been available elsewhere for months.

Giving its users a watered-down, glitchier version of Photobucket’s four-month-old Remixer is downright insulting. I would have expected more from YouTube. Last month’s Wired Magazine was right: “Expired, Buying YouTube. Tired, Suing YouTube. Wired, Competing with YouTube.”

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Topic: Software

Comments (10)

One problem…

“wired, competing with youtube.”…

Competing with a company with no decent business model that was clearly massively overvalued?

You have got to be kidding me. Not to say there isn’t plenty of competition out there but youtube is the largest by far and only made $15 mill last year. Not likely that many of the others are doing all that crash hot.

Pat — 8:59 PM on June 17, 2007 Reply
Just tried the new Youtube online video editing service. Great for simple cuts and sub-titles…

Adrian Lee :: VideoLane.com — 12:48 AM on June 18, 2007 Reply
What part of “cash out”, as in “check has already cleared” don’t you understand? ;-)

Great review, by the way.

Basic Science — 1:52 PM on June 18, 2007 Reply
Nice one @ basic

Mike - get paid for surveys — 2:36 PM on June 18, 2007 Reply
Craig, I proposed a partnership between YouTube and Adobe three months ago. I was thinking more along the lines of a limited edition version of Premiere’s software, but maybe they’re just making baby steps. Check out my posts about it:

Original Proposal: http://socialstrategist.com/2007/03/28/a-profitable-partnership-how-youtube-can-re-revolutionize-personal-publishing
Successful Prediction: http://socialstrategist.com/2007/06/18/youtube-adobe-partnership-it-happened

Best,
Jay

Jay Neely — 4:57 PM on June 18, 2007 Reply
Geotag Video http://www.videomap.it/en

mark — 2:27 PM on August 3, 2007 Reply
This sounds good for people who aren’t experienced in professional editing and who can’t afford a decent package just to edit their mobile phone videos.

So I support Youtube’s video editor :)

Marie — 4:00 AM on February 5, 2008 Reply
thanks for the informations

izlesene — 10:16 AM on July 14, 2008 Reply
Great article very informative
Kattie
xx

Snickers Trousers — 8:27 AM on February 12, 2009 Reply
Basic funtionality, but for simple editing it is very useful for unexperienced users. Thanks for review!

Ирина — 6:09 AM on September 7, 2009 Reply

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