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How to view YouTube videos from people near you

You've probably seen people take videos of street performers or their dog doing funny tricks at the park, but how can you find videos like these later? Aside from hoping that the person who took the video added all the appropriate tags and other information to make finding it easy, why not use a tool that does the work for you? A developer at labnol.org has created a simple and useful Web site that will allow you to view videos based on a two-mile radius of a chosen geographical location. Here's how to find the videos:

Step … Read more

Google Translate boasts 64 languages and 200M users

Ever wanted to know how to turn a phrase in Esperanto, Bengali, Chinese, or some other language? Seems lots of people do, in fact millions.

Google announced today that more than 200 million people actively use Google Translate monthly. Add up all those words and that equals roughly the same amount of text per day as there is written in 1 million books.

"To put it another way: what all the professional human translators in the world produce in a year, our system translates in roughly a single day," Google Translate research scientist Franz Och wrote in a … Read more

No, Comcast is not breaking the Internet...again

Comcast annoyed media activists last week by announcing it wouldn't count television programming retrieved through a customer's Xbox console against a monthly "excessive use" threshold for Internet access.

As with any change to existing Internet services -- even one that sounds like a good thing -- the response in Washington was to sound the doomsday alarm. "The reports that Comcast is offering a video product through the Xbox 360 without the data counting toward the customer's data cap," Public Knowledge said last week, "raises questions not only of the justification for the … Read more

How to download videos from YouTube, Vimeo, and more

At some point, we'll all experience being sucked into the black hole that is YouTube. Minutes or hours can go by as you browse through videos uploaded by everyday people like you and me. Some are funny, others useful, or (believe it or not) thought-provoking.

Whether you consume most of your videos on YouTube or another service like Vimeo, downloading a favorite video for offline viewing or personal use has probably crossed your mind.

Before we continue, note that policies for the many video Web sites vary, so review those policies and move forward at your own risk. Distributing … Read more

Win-Win: Hulu's custom clips fight piracy and enable fans

Like many people, I often want to share a television or video scene with others. Unfortunately, finding quality clips of want you want can be hard. The good news is that Hulu has been making my life easier.

For example, The Office recently did a hilarious sendup of what it would be like if the fictional Sabre company tried to have its own stores like Apple. There was a great scene in which Dwight Schrute explains the importance of bloggers to the store's success on launch day.

His awesome rant: "For a tech company, … Read more

YouTube Add-on

YouTube is still one of the top video-sharing Web sites in the world. If you're a Google Chrome user who spends time on the popular site, Mixesoft has released Magic Actions, a free add-on for your browser that is designed to enhance the experience of watching YouTube videos.

Magic Actions provides a number of functionalities that are easy to use and help streamline and customize your video viewing. These include such features as automatic high resolution and pre-defined color themes. Adjusting the settings to your desired preference will provide a default resolution for all videos to be played. Other … Read more

Nonprofit's 'Kony 2012' viral video stirs emotion, controversy

If you're on Facebook, chances are a link titled "Kony 2012" has appeared on your news feed this week.

The video, which was uploaded to YouTube on March 5, tells the story of filmmaker Jason Russell's personal mission to take down Joseph Kony, the Ugandan leader of the guerrilla group Lord's Resistance Army (LRA).

Produced by the nonprofit group Invisible Children, it has all of the elements of a powerful viral video: heroes and villains, heart, purpose and a call to action (the filmmakers also make good use of Facebook Timeline as storytelling tool). In … Read more

Chinese get past censors and onto Facebook, YouTube, Twitter

China's "Great Firewall" is the tongue-in-cheek way to refer to the Chinese government's blocking and censorship of Web sites. And, somehow, that wall has been fractured this week.

It all started when Chinese citizens flooded President Obama's Google+ page over the weekend, leaving thousands of messages ranging from jokes to begging the U.S. president to do something about China's civil rights issues.

Now, Reuters reports that Chinese Internet users have accessed YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter--all sites normally blocked by the Great Firewall.

"I used Facebook for the first time yesterday," Zhang … Read more

Google launches underwater endeavor with Seaview

Imagine if Google Earth could take users under the ocean. People on laptops sitting hundreds of miles away from any body of water could dive down and spot colorful reef fish, coral forests, sea snakes, and rare turtles. A program just like this was officially announced today.

In a partnership with Google, the global insurance company Catlin Group Limited and nonprofit Underwater Earth launched the Catlin Seaview Survey. The goal is to let people explore the ocean from afar and also carry out the first detailed study about the composition and health of coral reefs. The mapping expedition is expected … Read more

How to skip ads on YouTube

Advertisements are a great way for Web sites that provide free services to help recoup the cost of operation. When ads pop up on YouTube, they're not too much of an issue, and are generally viewed as inevitable. However, if you're trying to find a specific video, waiting through a 20- to 30-second ad each time can become very frustrating. Fortunately for Chrome users there's an extension called Skip ads on YouTube - No illegal block, which allows you to skip the ads and get straight to the video.

First you'll need to grab a copy … Read more