Turkey’s President takes your questions

In 2011, YouTube World View has traveled the globe, bringing citizen questions to the world’s most influential leaders. Now, World View is headed to a country that has received heavy news coverage this year -- Turkey. Starting today, Turkish President Abdullah Gül will take your questions at www.youtube.com/worldview and will answer them at the beginning of December.

President Gül wants to hear your questions on topics such as the future of Turkey’s economy, Turkey’s growing role in Middle East, the country’s democratization movement and the recent focus on a new Constitutional draft. Go to www.youtube.com/worldview to submit your question via video or text, and to vote on the questions you think should be asked.

On December 1, the President will answer a selection of the top-voted questions and his answers will be uploaded to YouTube and broadcast by local media partner, NTV. The deadline to submit is November 28.

Zeynep Inanoğlu, Head of Consumer Marketing, Google Turkey, recently watched, "YouTube Space Lab - What will you do?"

Mabuhay, YouTube Philippines!

While YouTube has been available in the Philippines' native Tagalog language since 2010, we have opened a new chapter for YouTube in the Philippines with the launch of a fully localized version of the platform.

As we were launching this new Philippines homepage, we also had the launch of two official government channels from current President Benigno Aquino III at his official channel and news channel. Through his representative Secretary Ricky Carandang, President Aquino also announced his plans to have a livestreamed chat with us with our YouTube World View program on November 4, in partnership with ABS-CBN. President Aquino will be the first Head of State in Asia to participate in the program, and you can ask submit and vote on questions via Google Moderator starting October 21.

This new Philippines homepage spotlights the most relevant videos to Filipinos, as well as more content from an array of Filipino partners such as broadcasters ABS-CBN, GMA Network Inc., TV5, record labels VIVA Records/Vicor Records, Pinoy Tuner, Star Records, and production company Oak3. If you’re in the Philippines, the site will automatically detect your location and send you to the Philippines page, but anyone interested in Filipino content can get there by just selecting “The Philippines” at the bottom of the page in the Location section.

At the launch event in Manila, we also debuted a video interview from one of our favorite Filipino YouTube success stories, Charice Pempengco.



Filipinos have already been using YouTube to make a name for themselves across the globe. Rock band Journey chose Filipino singer-songwriter Arnel Pineda to be their new vocalist after seeing videos of him belting out their hits on YouTube. And of course, the immaculately choreographed prisoner dance routines for Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” and the Black Eyed Peas’ “Bebot” brought world renown to the uniformed inmates of Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center.

With the YouTube Partner Program also opening in the Philippines today, we hope that talented Filipino video creators like the next Charices will sign up and start turning their passions into their careers.

Adam Smith, Director of Product Management, YouTube Asia-Pacific, recently watched “Will Ferrell & Manny Pacquiao Sing ‘Imagine.”

European Commission President Barroso takes your questions on YouTube World View

Cross-posted from The Official Google Blog.

Tomorrow, September 28, European Commission President José Manuel Barroso will deliver his annual State of the Union Address. In these turbulent times, we wanted to give people a chance to make their voices heard and ask their questions about the EU. So we teamed up with broadcaster Euronews and invited President Barroso to answer your questions in a special, live YouTube World View interview that will take place on Thursday, October 6 at 10:00am Central European Time.

Starting today, we invite you to submit your questions for President Barroso via youtube.com/worldview. Questions can be on any topic, from the Euro crisis and austerity measures to growth and jobs, from foreign policy and immigration to ethnic minority issues, human rights and the environment. You can ask written or video questions—and view and vote on other people’s questions—in any of the European Union’s languages, thanks to Google Translate.

During the interview on October 6, hosted by Euronews anchor Alex Taylor, the President will answer a selection of the most popular questions, as determined by your votes. The interview will be streamed and broadcast in multiple languages on both YouTube and Euronews.



President Barroso’s interview will be the first multi-lingual livecast in the World View series, which gives anyone with an Internet connection the ability to pose questions, vote on what’s most important to them and get answers directly from senior politicians and world leaders. President Barroso’s interview follows interviews with U.S. President Obama, President Kagame of Rwanda, U.K. Prime Minister Cameron, Spanish Prime Minister Zapatero and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu.

Whatever your question, President Barroso wants to hear from you. Be sure to submit your question via the World View channel before midnight CET on Wednesday October 5.

Al Verney, Head of Communications, Google Brussels, recently watched “The YouTube Interview with President Obama 2011.”