Doctor Mad Science: The inspiring story behind one of YouTube’s youngest scientists

Today we bring you a guest post from the mother of a 10 year-old autistic YouTube partner, whose life changed dramatically when he took his passion for science online.


I want to introduce you all to my son Jordan, known as Doctor Mad Science to his legion of YouTube fans.

When he was 18 months old, Jordan was diagnosed as severely autistic. He exhibited behaviors like head banging, flapping and fits. It wasn't until he turned five that he started to speak, using just one or two words. At the time I wondered if he would ever be able to have a conversation, go to school, or make a friend. As a mom, these are the kinds of thoughts that keep you up at night.

But, through it all, one things was clear: Jordan LOVED science. Especially the kind of science that involved raiding the cupboards and turning our kitchen counter into a DIY laboratory! About a year ago, he started posting these household experiments on YouTube. And that’s when something changed. Jordan’s confidence grew, his speech started to improve and kids at school wanted to be a part of his videos. While building his online persona, Jordan was suddenly making friends in the real world.



Autism will always challenge Jordan, but I’ve learned it doesn’t have to define him. Today, he’s a ten year-old chatterbox, and (when he’s not getting into trouble with his friends) he continues to explore the world of science on YouTube to share with all of you. As for me? I’m sleeping better these days with my very own Doctor Mad Science in the house.

Stacey Hilkowitz, Jordan’s mom, recently watched “Ivory Soap + Microwave = Snow.”

Take your channels with you on the new YouTube app

Last year we redesigned YouTube with the goal to make it easy and enjoyable to follow the channels you love. We added a guide to the homepage to quickly access your channel subscriptions and a feed of activity showing you the latest and greatest videos from your favorite YouTube channels. Now in the new YouTube app for Android, we’re bringing that experience to the app, while making YouTube better both on the go and at home.

A guide to all your channels
With less screen space on your phone than your laptop or TV, we want to focus the YouTube app on just the stuff you care about. You now have a guide on the left side of the screen that gives you instant access to your channels, and a feed constantly updating with new videos.

Faster on the go
When you’re watching YouTube on the go, watching a video buffer is as fun as waiting for the bus to show up. To spend more time with your video and less time with the spinning circle of boredom, you can now preload and temporarily cache videos from your subscribed channels on your phone anytime it’s charging and your WiFi is connected. Just enable “Preloading” in the Settings menu. You’ll still need a connection to play the video, but once you do it’s smooth sailing through the latest from your subscribed channels and Watch Later queue.

Watch it on the big screen
Back at home and want to watch that amazing video on your big screen? While the video’s playing on TV, with the new YouTube app or mobile website you’ll be able to use your phone to find the next great video to watch, comment, like or subscribe. We’re working to make this broadly available across connected TVs and living room devices, so stay tuned for updates.

To check out the new app, visit the Google Play Store on your Android phone for the latest version. The new YouTube app features are currently just available on phones with Android 4.0 and above, and you’ll start to see these features appear on other Android versions in coming months. If you’re using m.youtube.com or other versions of the YouTube app, you can still access your subscriptions by signing in and selecting “Subscriptions.”

So whenever or wherever you’re ready for some great channels, trust your YouTube app will have them ready to watch.

Andrey Doronichev, head of YouTube mobile, recently watched “JEFF BRIDGES goes Face to Face with "Weird Al" Yankovic.”

Adjust your wardrobe for summer with YouTube style tips

The first day of summer is officially here in the U.S. As the temperature heats up, so do searches for what you can wear to the office to keep cool while not showing too much skin. Web search interest for “summer business casual” is skyrocketing in the U.S., and YouTube search interest for “summer fashion” in 2012 has nearly quadrupled since 2008.

Luckily, YouTube creators have answers to this pressing style challenge. Check out great tips on summer style and how to dress for the office without overheating:



And gentleman, worried about trying to rock a suit in this heat? Don’t fear - there are great summer style tips for you too:



Welcome to summer! If you’re in a part of the world where July and August bring cold weather, there are plenty of tips for how to dress for cooler temperatures too.

Jessica Mason, communications associate, recently watched “DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince - Summertime.”

Customize entertainment for your dad this Father’s Day

This year on Mother’s Day we suggested gifts besides macaroni necklaces and other children’s artwork. So what do we suggest for fathers? Well, Dads can actually be a lot like kids’ art—they are sometimes a little messy, but they bring you joy, and should certainly be appreciated more than once a year.

Whether you’re old man is a finger painted sunset or a clay sculpted football, whether he loves the outdoors or technology you can find YouTube channels that he will love. This Father’s Day, give your dad the ‘no-mess’ gift of entertainment in a personalized playlist that caters to his interests. Here are some suggestions to get you started:

For Mr. Sports Fanatic:



For the Dad behind the grill:



For the Music Lover:



For Mr. Fix it:



Happy Father’s Day!

Jessica Mason, communications associate, recently watched “Military Dad Surprises Daughter at Spelling Bee After She Spells 'Sergeant'.”

Have your own YouTube party in Google+ Hangouts

Ever been to a party where you start showing friends your favorite YouTube videos? Compete for the screen to see who knows the latest and greatest hit? Now you can get the same experience even if you’re a world away, with the new YouTube app in Google+ Hangouts.

Create, control, save and even share playlists of videos with your friends—all inside a Hangout. Just start a Hangout, have everyone load the YouTube app at the top of the screen, and start adding videos. It’s like your own VIP table at the world’s coolest YouTube party.



Crowdsourcing awesomeness
Everyone can add videos in the Hangout through a search tool in the app, or remove the videos you don’t like. All your friends in the Hangout can drag and drop videos to sort the order in the playlist, or skip forward or backward to play the next one. Click the “Push to talk” button to chat with the group to give props to the best curator, or to hand out reprimands to the friend who keeps adding the 10-hour Nyan Cat video.

Save and share those precious memories
If you like a video that’s playing, you can share the video with your Google+ circles at any time. Since great playlists are works of art, you can also save the playlist that you and your friends created to your YouTube account as public or private to enjoy later.

So gather the team to watch the last night’s game highlights, hangout with your friends for a haul-a-thon, assemble the audiophiles to review the newest tunes, or come up with a whole new way to enjoy (and let us know!). The new app is available worldwide in 60 languages.

Ullas Gargi, software engineer, recently watched “Ken Block Gymkhana Practice.”

U.S. Olympic Team rolls out new channel on YouTube

In just over a month the Summer Olympics will kick-off in London with thousands of athletes competing for their countries to bring home the gold. While the world will watch the summer games, YouTube will bring a new dimension to the competition.

Today, the USOC is launching their TeamUSA channel on YouTube that will give fans all over the world an inside look into the lives of Olympic and Paralympic athletes’ as they train and prepare for one of the world’s most prestigious sporting events.

At TeamUSA on YouTube, you'll be able to:

• Follow 17 Olympic/Paralympic athletes on their way to potentially making the 2012 Olympic Games in Qualified and the 2012 Paralympic Games Returning Veterans: London Bound
• Learn from Olympic coaches and athletes in Olympic Coaching Tips
• Relive past Olympic memories with Olympians and the Olympic footage with Gold Medal Moments

Tommy O'Hare, YouTube Sports content partnerships manager, recently watched “Maya Moore: Qualified First Look.”

YouTube creators can help make Mother's Day a piece of cake

Remember the days when you could give your mom a macaroni necklace, a crayon drawing of her face, or a clay imprint of your hand and her Mother’s Day was complete? Well, those days are over, but that doesn’t mean Mother’s Day can’t still be simple. Great YouTube creators are here to help make this special day as easy as possible with wonderful ideas for food, gifts, and entertainment for moms. Treat your mom’s taste buds to some home cooked grub this holiday with great tips and recipe ideas. Channels like Food. Farmer. Earth. and Kin Community are offering recipes that moms everywhere will love.

 

Forgot to get a card or a gift? Or are you looking to make something memorable, but higher quality than a pipe cleaner tiara? Look no further. Channels like ClevverStyle have great last minute gifts ideas you can go out and buy, while other channels like Digs will teach you how to whip up a DIY gift, like an indoor herb garden.

 

Finally, they say a picture is worth a thousand words. Well then a video must be worth about a trillion. Show your mom how much you love her a trillion times over by building her entertaining video playlists that she will love. There are great videos for moms all over YouTube. Check out channels like CafeMom Studios, ModernMom, or The Mom’s View. Or turn to ForMom, our online survival guide for moms, with Tide and Downy that curates videos on a wide range of topics your mom might be interested in. There's everything from styling tutorials by CuteGirlsHairstyles, to budget-conscious gourmet recipes from the wcfoodies channel, to provocative conversation starters from momversation.

 

Happy Mother’s Day!

Jessica Mason, communications associate, recently watched "HELP! MOM'S MAKING A MESS!"

Finding and following new channels you love

If you’re interested in aerial silk or Rubik’s Cubes or anything in between, we want YouTube to have a channel ready and always updating for you.

In our goal to help you find great channels and videos you care about, we created Topics on Search to narrow your search results using commonly-used phrases. We took this a step further by auto-generating whole channels of topics in the ‘Top YouTube Collections’ tab, giving you constantly updated and uniquely-focused channels. Now, you’ll start seeing these channels more broadly available around YouTube, like in ‘Recommended for You’ section of our channels page and on a video watch page.

So if you’re into surfing, you could find the Big wave surfing channel, get introduced and subscribe to the NetworkA channel, and then enjoy this video of Garret McNamara surfing one of Poseidon’s finest. Here’s what the channel looks like:



Lots of complex algorithms are working behind the scenes to give you the channel you’re looking for, for example, being able to tell when the word ‘Chicago’ means the music band and when it means the movie/musical. We’re still tweaking everything to make sure it works just right for you, so let us know what you think of the channels or learn more in our help center.

So when you see a channel “auto generated by YouTube” around the site, give it a browse to find whole collections of channels and videos you might like, updated everyday with the freshest and finest videos you’re sharing on YouTube.

Mur Viswanathan, product manager, recently subscribed to the Parkour channel and Palash Nandy, software engineer, recently subscribed to the Brickfilm channel.

No fresh snow? No problem with The Ski Channel on YouTube

If you’re a skier like me, you may have experienced some highs and lows this winter in your search for epic powder. Though spring has sprung, you can now get more of a downhill fix than ever by checking out The Ski Channel on YouTube.

The folks at The Ski Channel partnered with Epic Planks to create a new series called Germination. The series features some of the best young shredders around the world, doing what they do best on some of the coolest slopes and most creative urban environments. Here’s the first episode, kicking off big from Norway:



There are many more adventures to come on The Ski Channel, and you can subscribe to get the first runs delivered right to your homepage. For even more channels where adrenaline meets snow, head to YouTube Sports to keep winter alive all year round.

Julie Kikla, YouTube Sports content partnership manager, recently watched “Yard Sale skiing ski crash free skiing extreme.”

19,000+ episodes of Indian TV on YouTube Shows

India is one of world’s largest producers of TV shows. With more than 400 terrestrial and local channels available, Indians often face the challenging question: What am I going to watch?

The good news is that we increasingly don’t have to worry about when to watch. Over the last few years, major Indian broadcasters such as Sony Entertainment Television, Colors, ImagineTV, Star India, and VikatanTV have been bringing their shows to YouTube so that you can watch them whenever you want.

Now that our Indian TV partners offer more than 19,000 full episodes of 300 programs in six different languages (Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, Gujarati, and Punjabi), we wanted to offer our Indian viewers an updated Shows page at youtube.com/shows to help you better follow shows you love and discover new favorites. For the rest of the world, you can still find the shows through youtube.com/shows/other-languages.



You’ll find programs into genres like drama and comedy, as well as the latest and top watched episodes featured on the page. Missed the last episode of Bade Acche Lagte Hai? It’ll be right there in the channel waiting for you. If you’re looking for a few good places to start, check out popular shows like Balika Vadhu, Ramayan, CID, Devon Ke Dev...Mahadev, Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah and Thendral.

These 19,000+ episodes are just a start, so we hope we can keep delivering more and more content that viewers across India—and around the world—want to see.

Ajith Rao, software engineer, recently watched “Adaalat - Episode 104,” and Gowri Ramkumar, technical account manager, recently watched “Kuch toh log Kahenge - episode 118.”