YouTube announces ‘voluntary exit program’ for US staff | TechCrunch

November 3, 2025 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

YouTube announces ‘voluntary exit program’ for US staff

YouTube is conducting a “voluntary exit program” with severance for U.S.-based employees, the company confirmed to TechCrunch on Wednesday. The news was first reported by Sources.

YouTube CEO Neal Mohan told employees about the program via an internal memo on Wednesday.

The memo also announced that the Google-owned company was reorganizing its product teams into three separate organizations that all report directly to Mohan. The “Subscription Products” team will focus on YouTube’s subscription products across YouTube Music & Premium and OTT.

YouTube is bringing more ads to Premium Lite plans | Mashable

June 9, 2025June 8, 2025 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

When YouTube introduced its Premium Lite tier in March, the goal was to give people a way to see fewer ads on YouTube. It took only three months, but YouTube is already increasing the number of ads that Premium Lite subscribers will see, according to Dextero.

News of the ad hike spread to subscribers through email, as spotted on the TWiT Community forums and reported by German news site Deskmodder.

“We are writing to let you know that beginning 30 June 2025, ads may appear on Shorts, in addition to music content and when you search or browse,” the email reads. “Most videos will continue to remain ad-free.”

YouTube will be slower if you’re using an ad blocker | Mashable

January 16, 2024January 15, 2024 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

YouTube is furthering its crusade against ad blockers by slowing down load times, our friends at PCMag report.

This is a continuation of a crackdown that started last fall. In October, YouTube warned users of their ad blocker usage with a prompt, “Ad blockers are not allowed on YouTube,” and options to either allow ads or subscribe to YouTube Premium ($13.99/month).

This move upset users, who scrambled to find alternatives to YouTube’s rules. As Mashable’s Alex Perry stated at the time, however, “The problem with this is that YouTube will almost certainly weed out working alternatives over time, so some degree of adaptability may be required here on the user end.”

YouTube Unveils New AI-Powered Music Ad Solutions | Small Biz Trends

May 4, 2023May 3, 2023 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

In a strategic move to help small businesses capitalize on Gen Z’s engagement with music, YouTube has launched innovative AI-powered music ad solutions. As a small business owner, these tools can offer you an effective avenue to reach and connect with Gen Z audiences who are highly active on YouTube.

The announcement came on the heels of the Coachella music festival, one of the industry’s largest stages. YouTube serves as a hub for festival content, especially among Gen Z. The platform is flooded with videos ranging from performance highlights to outfit inspiration, vlogs, and more, making it a fertile ground for businesses targeting this age group.

YouTube’s new music ad solutions aim to get your brand in front of trending music, such as from festival headliner BLACKPINK. They will be available across devices and formats, including long-form, audio, and, in the near future, YouTube Shorts.

YouTube Unveils New Features for Healthcare Professionals | Small Biz Trends

November 9, 2022 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

YouTube Unveils New Features for Healthcare Professionals

The health product features were launched in the United States last year and include health source information panels which help viewers identify videos from authoritative sources. There are also health content shelves which highlight videos from such sources when a viewer searches for specific health topics.

A Wider Group of Healthcare Channels

The YouTube Health department believes the expansion of the health product availability will help doctors, nurses, mental health professionals and healthcare information providers to bring high quality health information into a space that people visit throughout their day.

YouTube services worldwide are experiencing issues, the company confirms | TechCrunch

April 13, 2022April 12, 2022 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

YouTube today confirmed the site is experiencing a variety of issues that are impacting users worldwide. The company acknowledged the service’s problems after numerous users reported error messages when trying to watch videos or noted various site elements weren’t available — like the sidebar navigation or the Setting menus, for example — among other things.

Some users also found they couldn’t sign in to their YouTube account or switch between profiles. Others said they were unable to cast YouTube to their TV or use the app on their gaming console.

When trying to play videos, some would see an error that said “No Internet Connection” even though they weren’t otherwise having connectivity issues.

YouTube will no longer show ‘dislike’ counts on videos | Mashable

November 10, 2021 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Say goodbye to “dislike mobs” on YouTube.

YouTube has announced that it’s making dislike counts private on all videos across YouTube.

The thumbs down button isn’t going away. Users can still click thumbs down to dislike a video in order to inform the YouTube recommendation algorithm about content they didn’t like.

However, when a user presses thumbs down, there will be no dislike count letting users know how many people also disliked the video.

YouTube warns creators it will start to demonetize low-quality kids’ videos next month | TechCrunch

October 28, 2021October 25, 2021 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

YouTube says it will soon begin to demonetize some of the channels on its platform that market themselves as “made for kids” if the content they produce is low-quality, encourages negative behavior or attitudes, or is heavily commercial. The company had previously warned this sort of content would no longer be eligible for inclusion in its dedicated YouTube Kids app, but starting next month YouTube will also begin to enforce new monetization policies as well, which may impact the creators’ eligibility for or possible removal from the YouTube Partner Program.

YouTube first announced its plans to increase its protections for minors in August, saying that some of the updates would directly address upcoming regulations, while others were going beyond what would be required by law. At the time, YouTube said it would shift the default settings on videos for users ages 13 to 17 to private, would enable “take a break” and bedtime reminders for minors, would stop leveraging “interests” data for targeting teens and kids with ads, and more.

This Week in Apps: Google Play slashes commissions, Apple sued over scammy apps, YouTube launches a TikTok clone in the US | TechCrunch

March 22, 2021March 21, 2021 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Welcome back to This Week in Apps, the weekly TechCrunch series that recaps the latest in mobile OS news, mobile applications and the overall app economy.

The app industry is as hot as ever, with a record 218 billion downloads and $143 billion in global consumer spend in 2020.

Consumers last year also spent 3.5 trillion minutes using apps on Android devices alone. And in the U.S., app usage surged ahead of the time spent watching live TV. Currently, the average American watches 3.7 hours of live TV per day, but now spends four hours per day on their mobile devices.