30 July 2010 | Author: J. Morton Search Copywriter

YouTube encourages more memes and mash-ups with increased video length

YouTube, the ubiquitous video host and star-maker of silly cats, cute babies and arguable Scottish phenomenon Susan Boyle, has encouraged those seeking their 15 minutes of fame by giving them just that: 15 minutes.

The video portal, owned since 2006 by Google, dominator of all things tech, has upped its upload limits by 50 per cent - giving users five more minutes, on top of the previous ten, to record their throaty renditions of classic ballads or overdub old cartoons and adverts.

The company says it had not previously increased the length due to ongoing combat against piracy, which some claim the site has facilitated in the past.

However, "because of the success of these ongoing technological efforts, we are able to increase the upload limit today," Joshua Siegel, YouTube's product manager for upload and video management wrote in an official blog post on Thursday.

These technological efforts include YouTube's Content ID system, which provides tools for copyright owners to hone in on copyright infringers.

"We will continue our strong commitment to provide advanced technology and tools to protect the rights of small and large copyright owners worldwide," Siegel said.

"We'll also do everything we can to release incremental improvements like this one that benefit our video creators."

Siegel said that the increase in the length of videos available to view and upload has been the most-requested improvement submitted to the Web 2.0 site.

In a celebration of the five-minute increase, as well as to promote it, the website has enacted a "15 minutes of fame" contest, where users are encouraged to make a video explaining themselves to the world.

One can only wonder if Keyboard Cat has five minutes more of material to plonk out on the ivories.