Whether enabling voters to interview their President , or connect underwater in a project to photograph the ocean floor, Google+ Hangouts are being used in amazing ways. Not only do Hangouts have the ability to connect people on opposite sides of the planet, they can also connect people on opposing sides of the social and political spectrum. We're delighted to announce that a new series of global debates, that will be live streamed on YouTube, will do exactly that. Versus ,

Since we missed Music Tuesday this week, we wanted to take you back to Australia for another dose of the local music scene. Enjoy! From big-time dream-pop to big-haired rock & roll , there are plenty of reasons to love festival season in the Southern hemisphere. Following the pumped up kicks , rockabilly licks , and modern-day lullabies that brought sold out crowds across Australia for Big Day Out , we spent the day hanging at St. Jerome's Laneway Festival in Sydney.

At the end of January, we invited you to choose your favorite YouTube Space Lab experiment ideas from sixty finalist teams, and today we have our winners! More than 100,000 of you cast your votes that combined with the scores from our panel of judges to decide the regional winners for the final stage of the competition. Find out who won below and you can meet them all on the Space Lab Channel.

Cross posted from the Google New Zealand Blog On the one year anniversary of the Christchurch earthquake, the New Zealand Herald is providing full coverage of the city's memorial services on YouTube, commemorating the lives that were lost and those who are still affected by the tragedy. The live-stream of the memorial services starts today on NZ Herald's YouTube channel . On February 22, 2011, Christchurch was rocked by a magnitude 6.3 earthquake ,

Today we welcome Paul Kontonis of the International Academy of Web Television and Digitas to get us ready for Social Media Week, with a look at video on the web. 2012 is being touted as being THE year for web video. Between YouTube's investment in original channels, Netflix's original content deals, and Tom Hanks partnering with Yahoo on original programming, there is confidence that these investments help make this a game-changing year.

Ever been among the thousands of screaming fans rocking out to Tiësto and wanted to see what life is like from the other side of the DJ booth? Check out "In the Booth," a new series on YouTube that documents the world-traveling, beat-making life of Tiësto, aka Tijs Michiel Verwest. The first episode is available today: If you add the Channel to your homepage guide you'll regularly get exclusive commentary and personal insight into Tiësto's life and work,

Since the dawn of YouTube, we've been sharing the hours of video you upload every minute. In 2007 we started at six hours , then in 2010 we were at 24 hours , then 35 , then 48 , and now...60 hours of video every minute, an increase of more than 30 percent in the last eight months. In other words, you're uploading one hour of video to YouTube every second . Tick, tock, tick, tock " that's 4 hours right there!

If you want to get even more excitement from the NFL Playoffs, check out YouTube's new Ad Blitz Pre-Game program, sharing news coverage, party tips and videos from YouTube partners and sponsor Dodge Durango. The Pre-Game program is the warm-up for our annual Super Bowl Ad Blitz advertising extravaganza, which kicks off February 5. On Ad Blitz Pre-Game we've got fan-friendly recipes from food partners like FoodWishes and AverageBetty . You'll also find football news,

A few months ago we set 14-18 year olds the bold challenge to design a science experiment that could be performed by NASA aboard the International Space Station, something that has traditionally been the preserve of qualified astronauts and scientists. Coming up with a suitable idea required huge imagination, passion and scientific curiosity, which is why we were thrilled with your response"we received a total of 2,

One person can make a difference. Just ask Geoffrey Canada , an education reform advocate whose groundbreaking work in Harlem schools set a precedent across the United States. It's even inspired U.S. President Barack Obama to apply his model to cities across America. On December 28 at 3:00pm PT, Geoffrey Canada will deliver a keynote speech about education reform, hosted by Capella University and streamed live on YouTube.

From squabbling over the family holiday photo, to filming a child unwrapping a dream toy, 'tis the season for recording cherished family moments. Whether you want to share them with the world, or keep them in the family, here are tips for using YouTube to record your family's memories: Save a few Christmas trees, and send a holiday video card . Compile your family's favorite moments from the year, add season's greetings, and blast it out to your family and friends.

This is part of an ongoing series sharing tips from the YouTube Creator Playbook , a resource of best practices and tips you can start using on your channel and videos right away. As we move along in this series, some posts will be focused for more advanced YouTubers or YouTube Partners, like this week's tip. With YouTube seeing 48 hours of video uploaded every minute, it's important to think how you can get your content seen by your regular and new viewers. In many cases,

You put a lot of work into your videos, so we're putting a lot of work into making sure they look their best on YouTube. Today we're rolling out an updated Video Manager with some new features that'll help you handle all your videos. To try out the new design, go to the Video Manager and click "try it now.

Today, the first of hundreds of The Walt Disney Studios movies from Disney, Disney·Pixar and DreamWorks Studios are coming to YouTube. These titles join thousands of full-length feature films from major Hollywood studios that already are available to rent at YouTube.com/movies . Fans of animated movies? We've got the beloved animated classic, Alice in Wonderland and the newly envisioned Winnie the Pooh . Love Disney·Pixar? We have hits like Cars and Cars 2 all in one place.

The battles from the Koprulu Sector between Terrans , the Zerg and the Protoss are coming to the Major League Gaming channel on YouTube. Starting now we'll be broadcasting live to the world Major League Gaming Pro Circuit video game national championships for Starcraft. Thousands of the world's best video game players are descending on the Rhode Island Convention Center starting today through November 20 to compete for more than $600,000 in prizes. Together,

This is part of an ongoing series sharing tips from the YouTube Creator Playbook , a resource of best practices and tips you can start using on your channel and videos right away. There is no substitute for great content, and when you make great videos, your audience will want more. This post will teach you about frequency of new content on your channel and how you communicate when it will be coming out, to help build a loyal and consistent audience on YouTube.

With 800 million people per month coming to YouTube , you have a pretty big stage to share your music, and now we're adding features to also make YouTube your box office, merchandise table and music store. The Merch Store We're launching a feature called the Merch Store that will allow YouTube partners to offer fans merchandise directly on your channel. Fans will be able to buy artists' merchandise, digital downloads,

Each month, we identify four YouTube Partners who are growing their subscribers but haven't yet reached the 100,000 subscribers mark for our On The Rise program. You vote for your favorite in the top right corner of this blog, and the winner will be featured on the YouTube homepage and videos page. This September, our nominees are here to help you learn and play. So go grab a football, arts supplies, headphones or popcorn and check out the nominees are below.

As the world is starting to see Life in a Day "the documentary distilled from 80,000 videos submitted to YouTube from 190+ countries"many people have asked us how the film is structured. Woven into the collage of videos from Australia to Zambia, from the heart of bustling cities to the remote reaches of the earth, are responses to three universal questions: What do you love? What do you fear? What's in your pocket?

Each month, we identify four YouTube Partners who are growing their subscribers but haven't yet reached the 100,000 mark for our On The Rise program. You vote for your favorite in the top right corner of this blog, and the winner will be featured on the YouTube homepage and the videos channel. For July, we're bringing you two partners who combine education with entertainment, and two performance artists we think you'll enjoy. Check out the nominees' videos below,