World’s leading video streaming service YouTube has launched a face blurring technology the developers say is specially designed for use in cases where video footage requires anonymity.
Google in its official blog said the technology is inspired by the rising number in citizen reporting worldwide that are aimed at lobbying for human rights.
The blurring faces is under the Video Enhancements tool for editing already uploaded videos. Additional features include an apply button to blur the participants faces. Video users can see a preview of the blurred faces in the video before they save the changes and publish it.
Visual anonymity will allow users to upload videos that voice their grievances freely. Google claims YouTube has more than 72 hours of video uploaded each minute and over 4 billion views a day.
According to a new Pew report, citizen reporters upload 39 percent of the videos worldwide while 51 percent are owned by news organisations. The report however says most of the videos were likely shared by individuals than professional journalists while around 5 percent originated from corporate or political groups and around 5 percent were unidentified.
The report from Pew Research Centre also claims that YouTube is set to emerge as a top news source.
In the past 15 months, YouTube news videos topped the search list for close to five months. With over 90 million views related to the disasters in Japan and the tsunami.
Although the report claims that conventional media channels like TV remain the first stop for such news, YouTube viewers like it because they determine what to watch in their own time, Google says.
The interest for YouTube news goes for long due to the availability of videos online.
According to Pew, the shift to YouTube poses both a challenge and an opportunity.
The report says the broadcasters can still use YouTube to reach out to a wider audience and find content created by citizens, the firms can then launch ads on their YouTube channels and earn income from it as they grow their brand.
YouTube, which was acquired in 2006 by Google at around $1.7 billion, now claims to be the third top visited site behind its parent firm Google and the giant social networking site Facebook in that order.
