REVIEW: YouTube goes mobile with polished service

Editor’s Note: Welcome to Yay or Nay, a feature for RCR Wireless News’ new weekly e-mail service, Mobile Content and Culture. Every week we’ll review a new wireless application or service from the user’s point of view, with the goal of highlighting what works and what doesn’t in the mobile content industry. If you wish to submit your application or service for review, please contact us at rcrwebhelp@crain.com.
Application: YouTube’s mobile service
Running on: Moto Razr with Sprint Nextel service
Yay: So many videos, so little time
Nay: An unknown number of videos are unavailable on mobile, and, not surprisingly, many of the Web site’s features have been stripped out of the mobile version.
We say: One of the world’s most popular Internet destinations is now mobile. Why aren’t more carriers and handset makers providing links to this?
Following the end of its exclusivity deal with Verizon Wireless, YouTube earlier this year unveiled a WAP site for cellphone users of any carrier. The company’s wireless Web destination includes what appears to be hundreds and hundreds of videos.
A quick spin through the company’s mobile home page offered up the same list of “featured” videos available on YouTube’s desktop Internet site. On the day after Halloween, featured videos included “Big spider-Tarantula” and “How to make tombstones,” among others. The videos themselves were clear and played surprisingly quickly over Sprint Nextel’s EV-DO network.
At the bottom of YouTube’s mobile home page, the company offered additional lists of videos including “most viewed,” “top rated” and “grab bag.” The site was relatively easy to navigate, and stood out from most other WAP sites with its black background and white links.
However, many of the features on the standard YouTube site were unavailable on mobile, including the ability to comment on videos.
Further, a mobile search for some previously uploaded family videos returned this warning: “Only a portion of YouTube videos are available on mobile at this time. We are working hard to bring you more!”
YouTube’s mobile service also allows users to upload videos taken with their cellphones via multimedia messages. After setting up a YouTube account on a desktop computer, I was instructed to enter my cellphone number and carrier in order to upload videos from my phone.
To test the service, I composed a video message on my phone and sent it to the unique e-mail address YouTube provided. Shortly after sending the video, I received a message confirming that YouTube had received the video. Then, after a few minutes, the video popped up on the desktop YouTube Internet site. Pretty slick.
(The video itself was almost unwatchable thanks to the relatively low quality of my phone’s video camera.)
However, I was unable to find my video on YouTube’s mobile site. When searching on my phone for the very same video I had just uploaded via my phone, I got the same warning: “Only a portion of YouTube videos are available on mobile at this time. We are working hard to bring you more!”