We've also had a lot of great questions and comments this year from you, our audience. It's now an annual tradition for us to turn the tables on Nilay for our final episode of the year, so we pulled together all the feedback we've received on topics like CarPlay, Monday episode guest suggestions, and - of course - AI. We also received a lot of great questions over the last few weeks asking about how Decoder is put together,
Songs streamed on YouTube will no longer count towards the Billboard charts, the platform announced in a blog yesterday (December 17). The change will take effect on January 16, 2026, according to Lyor Cohen, YouTube's global head of music. Cohen blamed a long-running dispute over Billboard 's decision to weight subscriber streams more favorably than ad-supported streams in its chart tallies.
Alphabet is best known for Google, which is the most dominant search engine on the planet. Google commands an approximate 90% market share in search, in large part due to the distribution advantages it has. The company owns both the world's leading web browser in Chrome and the No. 1 smartphone operating system in Android. Alphabet also has a search revenue-sharing deal with Apple to be the default search on all its devices.
Billboard uses an outdated formula that weights subscription-supported streams higher than ad-supported. This doesn't reflect how fans engage with music today and ignores the massive engagement from fans who don't have a subscription,
the company removed dozens of videos featuring Deadpool, Moana, Mickey Mouse, Star Wars characters and other Disney IP as of Friday, just days after Disney accused it of "infringing Disney's copyrights on a massive scale." The letter, seen by both publications earlier this week, called out Google not just for hosting these videos on YouTube, but also for using copyrighted works to train models including Veo and Nano Banana.
While not every Open Cul­ture read­er dreams of mov­ing to Japan and becom­ing a wood­block print­mak­er, it's a safe bet that at least a few of you enter­tain just such a fan­ta­sy from time to time. David Bull, a British-Born Cana­di­an who got his first expo­sure to the art of ukiyo‑e in his late twen­ties, actu­al­ly did it. Though he's been liv­ing in Japan and steadi­ly pur­su­ing his art there since 1986, only in recent years has he become known around the world.
YouTube's expanding access to some of its experimental generative AI features, while it's also got some new updates for Communities, as per this week's update. First off, on AI tools. YouTube says that it's expanding to various AI editing features, including standalone clips, green screen backgrounds, its "AI playground," and more. That could be an interesting addition, providing all new ways to create with YouTube's evolving AI tools, though YouTube has presumably also enacted restrictions on the use of such with copyright-protected characters and scenes.
We know how much effort you put into your content, and that sometimes, Community Guidelines violations are unintentional. To help you avoid the frustration of a removal or strike, we've been testing a new feature that checks for some Community Guidelines violations in the video upload flow, similar to Copyright and Advertiser-friendly Guidelines checks.
Morris Cornbread is the charismatic force behind one of New York City's most recognizable TikTok shows, Subway Oracle. Born and raised in Queens, Cornbread began his creative journey with pranks, subway stunts, and fortune teller bits, all recorded with friends on YouTube. He later moved to Instagram and TikTok before returning to YouTube with the Cornbread Show, a late-night-style talk show on the train.
After YouTube discontinued its private messaging feature in 2019, the platform is now reintroducing this functionality for a select group of users. Users with access to the test are able to share videos directly on the mobile app, including long-form videos, Shorts, and even live streams. They'll be able to tap the Share button to open a full-screen chat within the app, allowing them to start a private one-on-one conversation or a group chat. Friends can reply with a video of their own, or simply type a response or use emojis.
In its early days, the odds seemed good that YouTube was destined for failure. After a false start as a dating website, it wasn't clear whether the company could cover the cost of streaming video content, or avoid the fate of Napster, which was sued out of business for copyright infringement.
Hey! You want to get noticed on YouTube. It's tough. Videos are uploaded every minute. You must have high-quality video. That's why you need a smart, quick workflow. This is not optional. It's your channel's foundation. Your best partner? A great YouTube video editor. This tool is your magic. It takes raw footage and builds a great, polished story. This hooks your viewers.
However, many YouTubers have reduced their reliance on ad revenue and brand deals. There are several reasons for this shift. First, ad revenue can be unpredictable. With YouTube continually updating its policies, some creators find it challenging to secure ads for their videos, which can negatively impact their earnings. They've also realized that income from these streams can vanish unexpectedly.
That appears to be what's going on today. Earlier this morning, a spike on DownDetector made it seem as though YouTube was experiencing a partial outage, but users quickly found out that ad blockers were to blame. Affected users saw a mostly blank webpage when trying to load up YouTube, as pictured below. As would be the case with any outage, some users tried to access YouTube via other browsers and found that the platform started working again. The difference? Ad blockers.
There's hardly ever such a thing as truly free money. We pay for everything, in some way: with labor, with time, with suffering. So getting a payment from a tech or social media settlement isn't exactly free - it's likely the company messed up in some way and it legitimately owes you that cash - but it certainly can feel like getting free money. And if you're already using the tech or platform, then you might as well get paid for the issue.
Influencer marketing can be a challenge for business owners. Working with content creators can be expensive, time-consuming, and-worst of all-risky. It's not uncommon for marketing teams to shell out thousands of dollars to influencers in exchange for social media posts that result in sparse engagement and shockingly few sales. Still, if done right, influencer marketing can help elevate a small business into a household name. Just this year, better-for-you soda brand Poppi sold to PepsiCo for $1.95 billion after blowing up on TikTok.
Originally announced back in July, YouTube's live leaderboards list the most engaged viewers within a broadcast, ranked by "XP," which is a cumulative score based on how many comments, Super Chat, Super Stickers, and/or gifts that each viewer has submitted during a stream. One of the main pieces of feedback we heard from creators is that you would like to be able to opt out of the leaderboard experience, either before or during a live stream. We're happy to share that this is now possible.
