People who create content for YouTube today come from all walks of life: aspiring filmmakers, moms with cooking shows, teenage gossip vloggers, fantasy football commentators, ironing skydivers "the list goes on and on. Very often, these dedicated YouTubers wear several hats at once: actor, writer, director, producer, cinematographer, studio head, and lead marketer"in other words, to get their videos to the world, they need to know how to do it all.

Music's biggest night is almost upon us, and this year YouTube has your ticket to the pre-show and the parties! Starting today at 5 p.m. ET/2 p.m. PT, tune into youtube.com/thegrammys to watch live coverage of events leading up to the big night. The live stream starts Friday night and continues all weekend, including some never-before-seen footage of Grammy moments. You can also be a fly on the wall at the storied,

It's been hard to open a laptop or turn on the television over the last week without hearing news of the unrest in Egypt. On YouTube, thousands of videos of the protests have poured in, whether as unfiltered footage from the demonstrations themselves, or as news reports from our media partners around the globe. We understand how closely the world is following these events, and want to help people access and share this information quickly and easily on YouTube.

Few things can be more frustrating than waiting for what feels like years for that amazing video you just shot to finish uploading to the site so you can publish it and share it with your friends. Whether it's the speed a video plays back, or the speed a video uploads, at YouTube speed matters. Why do we care so much about speed? Because we know that speed can mean the difference between you having a good experience, or you leaving YouTube in search of a better, faster one.

This Sunday marks what would have been the 100th birthday of Ronald Reagan, America's 40th President. Although his Presidency ended 20 years ago, his legacy as a transformational politician has lived on, with Democrats and Republicans alike trying to adopt his mantle of change and openness. President Reagan, widely referred to as "The Great Communicator," is also a particularly interesting study of the President as Orator-in-Chief.

Can't make it to Park City, Utah to mingle with independent film's glitterati at the Sundance Film Festival this year? We'll bring the magic to you. To celebrate the kickoff of one of the world's most acclaimed independent film festivals, YouTube and the Sundance Film Institute are teaming up to present a collection of past and present short films in the YouTube Screening Room . Over the next few weeks,

January is a generally a cold month, so rather than getting out your winter coat and travelling to a partner meetup, we thought we'd kick off 2011 with live event on the YouTube channel . This meetup will be product-focused and near and dear to many of your wallets: we'll cover how to make money on YouTube, advertising options, and some new innovations coming your way soon. YouTube Product Manager Phil Farhi will be leading the discussion,

Congrats to Josh Sundquist , who edged past Luke Conard in the final hours to win this month's edition of On the Rise , the program where you decide who goes on the homepage based on a shortlist of channels that've experienced fast growth in the last month. Josh is on the homepage today, thanks to your support. Josh's list of talents seemingly has no end. He's an author , a skier , a rapper , a motivational speaker and, naturally,

Ready for some football? Or perhaps some Garlic Ginger Chicken Wings ? For the third year running, we're proud to launch the Ad Blitz Pre-Game program , sponsored by Chrysler. Ad Blitz is a one-stop shop for anything and everything related to the NFL Playoffs, the Super Bowl and Super Bowl parties. This includes, but is not limited to, NFL Playoff coverage from Fox Sports,

Check it out, people! This month's " On the Rise " nominees are in - and we need your help to choose a winner. Just to remind you how this works: we identify a handful of channels who've rapidly increased their subscriber base in the last 30 days but haven't yet hit the 100,000 mark. You watch their videos, and then vote for your favorite in the top right-hand corner of this blog. You have until noon PT on January 14, 2011, to make your choice. Once we have a winner,

2010 was a breakout year for video advertising, which is an unmitigated good thing for advertisers and viewers alike. As audiences, platforms, channels, and devices continue to fragment into ever-more-specific niches, earning people's attention has become ever more challenging. To find audiences and break through all the noise, brands must create content that people seek out, love, and share with others. On the coattails of YouTube Rewind ,

Just after Representative John Boehner was sworn in as the 61st Speaker of the House earlier today, he and new House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa made an early move to make the activities of the House of Representatives more accessible to citizens via YouTube. Starting in this 112th Congress, all committee hearings of the House Oversight committee will be available on YouTube, on a new channel called HouseResourceOrg .

Over the last 13 weeks, we've seen over 2000 submissions pour in from people around the country, all looking to have their play make it onto ESPN's SportsCenter . We've thoroughly enjoyed the incredible catches , buzzer beaters , game-winning goals , and most of all, the indomitable displays of competitive spirit. That's what sports on YouTube is all about! Along those lines, we're thrilled to announce the winner of the YouTube | ESPN Your Highlight Presented by AT&T ,

Your creativity isn't bound by a time limit, so why should your video uploads be? Back in July we raised the upload limit to 15 minutes for all users. Starting today, we'll begin allowing selected users with a history of complying with the YouTube Community Guidelines and our copyright rules to upload videos that are longer than 15 minutes. So go find that movie you wrote and filmed last year and share it with the world!

With 35 hours of video now being uploaded to YouTube every minute, keeping up with the latest goings-on around here can be a challenge. Last week, we officially unveiled YouTube Trends ) youtube.com/trends (, a new set of tools designed to help you stay on top of the latest popular videos and trends on the world's largest video site.

Imagine a momentary glimpse into 80,000 perspectives from around the world. A goat farmer in the Ukraine heads to work in the morning. Three Angolan women sing a song as they beat corn into meal at lunchtime. A young man in the United States comes out to his grandmother. You'll see these scenes and more in the final cut of " Life in a Day " when it premieres globally on YouTube and at the Sundance Film Festival at 8:15PM EST on Thursday, January 27.

In this post, we're turning the floor over to the proprietors of DFTBA, a community-owned and run record label whose moniker stands for "Don't Forget to be Awesome" )not too hard for these guys(. On their label's second anniversary, they announce a significant milestone and predict a promising future. Somehow in the last hundred years "musician" became a nearly impossible profession. The best of the best could get by,

Ask any working parent and they'll tell you they have two jobs; the day-job, and the one that takes up all the other hours of the day - that of "Chief Household Officer." Today's multi-tasking CHOs are full-blown owner/operators of their households, employing all the same methods as corporations"from programming the daily calendar to Tweeting the kids home for dinner, from running weekly budget meetings to implementing long-term financial strategies.

I'm a movie buff, and love getting excited for upcoming releases by checking out trailers on YouTube . It's easy and convenient to watch the trailers online, but I've often wished I could get closer to the theater experience in my browser. So I did some research, and found a few really handy Chrome extensions that can make your YouTube viewing experience bigger and better. For example, Window Expander for YouTube maximizes YouTube videos to fill your entire browser.

November 20 will mark the 100th anniversary of the start of the Mexican Revolution and we're looking forward to observing that anniversary on YouTube by celebrating a new revolution that's taking place in Mexico today: a cultural revolution that has pushed Mexican filmmakers onto a global stage. A number of the nation's most talented filmmakers, including Gael Garcia Bernal )who starred in Amores Perros, The Motorcycle Diaries and Pedro Almodovar's Bad Education(,