Google is developing a new mobile management app for people who post a lot of video to YouTube, part of an effort to help creators on the site get more out of the service.
The app is based on feedback from people who operate YouTube channels to connect with fans, build a brand and in some cases try to make a living. Google said it recognizes that some of those users have been frustrated with the service and it wants to keep them more up-to-date about what it's doing.
In the coming months it will release an app that provides access to management controls for YouTube channels that either weren't available on mobile or were hard to get at.
"We saw creators struggling a lot with not being able to do basic YouTube management stuff on their phones," an engineer says in a video preview of the new tools. It's collecting feedback via the comments, Google+ and Twitter about the features people want.
It's important for YouTube to keep its independent creators happy. They drive a lot of viewers to the site but it's sometimes hard for them to make money, while corporations and media companies are using the service successfully for marketing.
So Google will explore new business models to help content creators make more money. For instance, a lot of creators raise funds for their work offline, away from YouTube, so Google said it will introduce a feature to let fans contribute directly through the site.
Around 80 percent of YouTube's viewership is from outside the U.S., so it's also working on a "community captions project" to make content accessible overseas. It will also provide more royalty-free music and a way to collect revenue from popular music covers users make.
The Creator Preview is the first in a series of videos that YouTube will produce to keep people better informed about what it's up to.
Susan Wojcicki, a longtime ad executive at Google, was recently named the new chief executive of YouTube. Google bought YouTube in 2006 for roughly US$1.6 billion.
Zach Miners covers social networking, search and general technology news for IDG News Service. Follow Zach on Twitter at @zachminers. Zach's e-mail address is zach_miners@idg.com