Thursday Buzz: YouTube Takes on Membership

Say hello to YouTube Red. The video-hosting juggernaut has officially launched its own subscription service  (opens in a new tab) for viewers looking to upgrade their YouTube experience.

YouTube Red will cost $9.99 a month ($12.99 for iOS users) and allows subscribers  (opens in a new tab) to nix ads, save videos for offline viewing, and run videos in the background while using other apps. Users will have full access to the new YouTube Music app and Google Play Music. Red subscribers will also be able to stream via YouTube Gaming. The service is set to launch Oct. 28.

In addition to those user-centric features, YouTube Red has promised to deliver a slate of original shows and movies  (opens in a new tab).

All of this is a huge move by YouTube, and its parent Google  (opens in a new tab), to compete with entertainment content subscription services such as Netflix, Hulu Plus, Pandora, Spotify and Amazon Prime. But will this attempt be successful, and will it prove to be useful not just for consumers, but for organizations hosting content on YouTube as well? Only time will tell.

Priority of The Day

No rush on getting ur website optimized? Google now has 100B searches per month & fully 1/2 are occurring on mobile. https://t.co/toDUi2fvkF  (opens in a new tab)

— Mo Cheeks (@MoCheeks) October 21, 2015  (opens in a new tab)

Here’s yet another sign of the mobile-focused times: More than half of Google searches take place on mobile devices  (opens in a new tab).

Google gets 100 billion searches a month, and a majority of them are conducted from screens no bigger than 6 inches  (opens in a new tab). Given that, it should have come as no surprise that in April the search engine began prioritizing mobile-friendly results over mobile-unfriendly sites.

Other Good Reads

“It’s not about the technology, it’s what you do with it.” Over at CMSWire, Doculabs  (opens in a new tab) Vice President and Practice Leader Joe Shepley shares his truths about technology today  (opens in a new tab).

Facebook’s Instant Articles are now available to iPhone users. Wired magazine looks at how Facebook rolled out its latest publishing venture  (opens in a new tab).

Boost your leadership skills with this fall reading list, courtesy of Switch & Shift CEO Shawn Murphy, who shared his suggestions on Inc  (opens in a new tab).