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TECH TIPS

SPONSORED BY THE COMPUTER CLUB

ou’ve probably heard of YouTube, but if you haven’t used it, you may not realize

Yhow useful it can be.

YouTube , a subsidiary of Google, is an American video-sharing website and is one of the most frequently visited websites in the world, getting over 30 million visitors per day. As of January 2019, there were more than 300 hours of content uploaded to YouTube each minute.

Media on YouTube covers a wide range of categories. Most uploaded videos are from individuals, but media corporations like CBS, the BBC and Hulu also upload movie trailers, TV show clips and music videos.

Content

Examples of the content categories you will find on YouTube: film and animation; autos and vehicles; music; pets and animals; sports; travel and events; gaming; people and blogs; comedy; entertainment; news and politics; how-to; education; science and technology; and nonprofits and activism.

Good resource

It can be a great resource for finding out how to deal with almost any kind of everyday problem.

Perhaps you are having trouble installing a new battery in your 2016 Toyota Camry’s key fob. Simply open YouTube and search “Key fob battery 2016 Camry” and you will discover numerous videos showing you exactly how install the battery.

Or perhaps you are considering buying a robotic vacuum cleaner, and want to see it in action before purchasing it. Just input the make and model, and undoubtedly someone will have uploaded a video review and demonstration of how it works.

Companies like Lowes and Home Depot have “channels” with a series of videos dedicated to home repair and improvement projects. You can also find specialized “channels” of video collections from How Stuff Works, National Geographic and others. Just input their name into the search box to access their “channel.”

Registered users

You don’t have to be a registered user of YouTube but registered users can do more than unregistered users.

YouTube is now promoting YouTube Premium, which carries a monthly $12 charge. Among other benefits, it eliminates the commercials that accompany most videos.

However, you can use YouTube for free – as a registered or unregistered user – and still have access to its library of 7 billion videos.

Registered users can upload, view, rate, share, add to favorites, report, comment on videos and “subscribe” to content uploaded by other users. Unregistered users can only watch videos they find on the site, or share a link so their friends can watch the same video.

Benefits to subscribing

Content creators can publish several “channels” on YouTube, and all their videos are uploaded to one of their channels. If you like the quality of a particular content creator’s channel, as a registered user you can “subscribe” to that channel.

You can then use a “playlist” to watch a series of how-to videos in the correct order. You will also be notified when the next video in a series is published. Most subscriptions are free (monetized by ads), but YouTube does offer paid subscriptions (YouTube Prime) that are ad free.

Have a tech question or want to see an archive of previous Tech Tips columns? Go to the Computer Club website, caccor.com, and click on the LINKS menu choice at the top-right of the page.

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