Chris Botello

Article / Updated 09-14-2023

Multiple sources say there are now more than 800 million videos on YouTube and about 37 million channels. That's a lot of videos to sort through! If you're interested in looking at which videos are most viewed by YouTube visitors, you'll need to search by a category or channel. Here's how to do it. Search by category Go to YouTube and notice the Search field at the top of the page. In the Search field, enter the kind of videos you're interested in, such as "photography," or "dog training," or "Saturday Night Live." YouTube will then load your category of videos on the page. Click on "Filters" toward the upper right side of the page, and then under the heading "Sort By," select "View Count." YouTube will then sort the videos according to the most viewed, from top to bottom. Search by channel Go to YouTube. Click on the channel of your choice. You can find channels by searching with keywords in the Search field at the top of the page. For example, enter "football," and after the videos load, click on a channel name, which is always preceded by the @ symbol — such as, @MiamiDophins. Once you're on the channel of your choice, click the "Videos" tab. Next, click on the "Popular" button under the Videos section. If you don't see that button, click on the "Sort By" filter toward the top right of the screen and select "Most Popular" from the menu. Browse trending videos on YouTube If you're interested in seeing what is popular on YouTube in general, you can look at the Trending page. To find it: Go to YouTube. In the sidebar navigation on the left side of the screen, under "Explore," select "Trending."

Article / Updated 10-19-2022

If you forget your YouTube username or password, don't panic. YouTube has your e-mail address, and you can retrieve your forgotten username or password from them. (When you first register with YouTube, jot down your username and password, especially if they’re different from those that you use regularly on other websites.) Go to YouTube.com and click the Sign In link at the top-right corner of the page. Bam — the sign in page appears. Click either the Forgot Username link or the Forgot Password link. Enter your username. Enter the verification code from the multicolored text. Be sure to copy it exactly, using uppercase or lowercase, as shown in the code. Click the Reset My Password! button. YouTube sends an e-mail containing your password to your registered e-mail address. If you still can’t log in with what you’re certain is your correct username and password, it’s probably because you don’t have cookies turned on in your browser preferences. If you’re using Chrome, for example, at the top-right corner of the screen, click the three vertical dots icon. Choose Settings. Under Security and Privacy, click Site settings. Scroll down and click Cookies and site data. From here, you can choose Allow all cookies, Block all cookies, or select other options.

Step by Step / Updated 01-25-2022

Creating a YouTube account is free, quick, and painless. To create a YouTube account, just submit a few bits of basic information and create a username and password. That's it — you don’t need to add your street address or phone number, and YouTube doesn’t ask you for a credit card number.

Article / Updated 05-05-2016

Viewing videos on YouTube is easy. To watch a YouTube video, just click an image icon — the page changes, and the video begins playing in a little window. Viewing a video is just that simple. Each video comes complete with a controller that lets you Pause the video. Click the button that has two vertical lines. Change the screen size. Click the button with the big triangle on it. Control the volume. This button looks like a little megaphone. View the video in full screen. Look for the button that has a little rectangle in it. If you don't like the widescreen, go back to the smaller screen by clicking Esc on your keyboard. You can even choose to see the video in closed caption or with annotations (comments) — if available. You'll see two sets of numbers next to the volume control: The one on the right side shows how long the video is in minutes and seconds — for example, 4:21. The number on the left is a little timer that counts how long you've been watching. When the video finishes playing, you can replay the video, share it with a friend, or look for another video. After you view a couple videos, click one of the blue tabs near the top of the screen to gain access to all the videos in the YouTube vault: The Home tab is where you update your subscriptions (favorite channels), check out featured videos, see your friends' videos, and more. The Videos tab leads you to all of the eye candy. Videos are organized by category, Featured, Rising Videos, Most Discussed, Most Viewed, and more. The Channels tab takes you to a huge place full of channels that offer, well, more videos. Pick a channel, any channel. The Community tab takes you to forums, blogs, contests, and more.

Article / Updated 05-05-2016

YouTube is a great place to promote your product or message. To promote on YouTube, grab your camcorder, take a video of the product or tape your message, and upload the video to YouTube. When you do create video to promote a product or service, make sure that you add ending credits with the URL to your Web site or to the site where YouTubers can actually purchase your product or service. You might even find some prospects for your product or service by surfing the Tube. You can also embed your product video in your Web site; the great news is that your site doesn’t get the bandwidth hit. If you have a warehouse full of product to sell, you can embed a YouTube video on your site’s home page that shows site visitors your facility and the awesome merchandise you have available. Embed your product video in your Web site. Here, a YouTube video in an eBay auction is being previewed via eBay’s Turbo Lister software. Physical products aren't the only things to promote on YouTube. You can promote yourself — or rather, the knowledge or services you can provide. You can be an online guru. YouTube's Guru account applies to anyone who wants to share knowledge about anything: needlework, car repair, cooking, home improvement, relationships, manga . . . you name it! For example, do you teach people how to use software applications, like Adobe Photoshop and Dreamweaver? Well, don’t limit yourself to students in seminars. Being a guru online is different than being a guru in person. Instead of using a projector to display your computer screen to the audience, you use an application to capture video of every move you make while using a software application. You can record audio at the same time.

Article / Updated 05-05-2016

When registering on YouTube, you create a username the same way as with any other website registration. But when you choose a YouTube username, remember that YouTube is a video-sharing site. It's a wholly different thing from a retail or auction site because a YouTube account is much more personal. Viewing other people’s videos is a very personal thing. Sharing your own videos with an audience of millions is an even more personal thing. Because of this, some of the procedures common on other websites are worth a bit of rethinking on YouTube. When registering at YouTube, consider creating a username that protects your anonymity. Using your full name as your username isn't wrong or against the rules, but you probably don’t want the millions of people who might watch your videos of you and your family to know your full name. Creating a username that’s anonymous is a much safer bet. On the other hand, many users use YouTube for exactly that purpose: to get their name out there. Say that you’re a musician or a comedian, and you’re uploading your videos to YouTube to showcase your talent. In that case, you might very well want your username to be your full name. The same goes for your business. If you own a taxi service, for example, and you upload videos that advertise your business, it’s probably a smart idea that your business and usernames are the same.

Article / Updated 05-05-2016

If your username is your identity on YouTube, remember that deleting your account means the end of that identity. Closing your YouTube account means that all the unique qualities of your account (your groups, subscriptions, search histories, and so on) will no longer be available to you. Breaking up with YouTube is pretty painless — there's no crying involved. After a few quick keystrokes, your YouTube identity is erased: Log in to your YouTube account. Click the Account link at the top of the page. In the Account section at the bottom of the page, click Delete Account. This takes you to the Delete Account page. Enter the reason you’re closing the account. As with any breakup, the other party deserves to have some idea why you’re leaving. If you’re closing your account because you’re unhappy with its service or had a bad experience on the site, that could be valuable information to the YouTube team for improving the site. Enter your current password. Click either of the Delete My Account buttons. Your account is closed forever and ever.