youtiube-logo As previously covered by TechCrunch, YouTube was preparing a huge announcement today. Everybody entered the comment frenzy and started guessing different feature announcements: high definition videos, live streaming, white label video solution, revenue sharing program world wide, partnership with Hulu, etc.

The actual news is that YouTube is introducing a new set of APIs that will turn them practically in a white label video sharing solution.

For users, the exciting news is that they will be able to actively participate in the YouTube community from just about anywhere, including the online destinations and web communities they already love and visit regularly. For partners and developers, YouTube has grown into much more than a website. It has become an open, general purpose, video services platform, available for use by just about any third-party website, desktop application, or consumer device. We now provide a complete set of (CRUD) capabilities for uploading, managing, searching, and playing back user videos and metadata from the YouTube “cloud,” managed by us. We do all of the hard work of transcoding and hosting and streaming and thumbnailing your videos, and we provide open access to our sizable global audience, enabling you to generate traffic for your site, visibility for your brand, or support for your cause. Meanwhile, we provide full access to our substantial video library, enabling you to attract users and enhance the experience on your site. It’s all free, and it’s available to everyone, starting now.

Technically, we have introduced some new APIs. (This is just a geeky acronym for Awesomely Powerful Interactions, which is what users are now capable of performing from just about anywhere.) Building upon our existing APIs for querying the YouTube library and playing embedded YouTube videos, we have added the following new API services for external developers and partners:

    * Upload videos and video responses to YouTube
    * Add/Edit user and video metadata (titles, descriptions, ratings, comments, favorites, contacts, etc)
    * Fetch localized standard feeds (most viewed, top rated, etc.) for 18 international locales
    * Perform custom queries optimized for 18 international locales
    * Customize player UI and control video playback (pause, play, stop, etc.) through software

11061As a fun fact, Hulu is opening to public today (world wide).

Hulu is NBC Universal and News Corporation’s online video joint venture. The site, which is currently in private beta, focuses exclusively on professional content and does not take on YouTube directly as a viral video destination. The site raised $100 million in financing from Providence Equity Partners.

Check out the new YouTube APIs and Tools and also the case studies for sites already taking benefit of the new YouTube APIs.