On the eve of the first Indian Grand Prix, F1 passion has reached its zenith in India. Motorsport fans are trying to get their hands on coveted tickets, searching online for the latest news, and the whole nation is waiting with baited breath for the flag off.

In the midst of all this euphoria, Narain Karthikeyan the first Indian ever to compete in the coveted Formula 1 championships, the only Indian driver racing on the circuit, has now also become the first Indian motor sportsperson to join Google+.

Narain has personified F1 in India and will be providing his fans an insider’s view to the Indian Grand Prix on his Google+ profile. He charted into the unknown territory of F1 at a time when this sport was not popular in India and has been promoting it ever since. On Google+, F1 fans can expect Narain to give sneak peeks on the first ever F1 track in India, the garages, pits and also regular updates with behind the scene news, practice sessions, pictures and videos.

With his recent display of speed and breaks at the Hispanian circuit, all eyes are set to watch him perform in front of the home crowd. Just add Narain to your Google+ circle for the thrills, the adrenaline rush, the madness and the fear of racing in F1, and don’t forget to send across your best wishes, as he makes us all proud.

Posted by Guneet Singh - Lead, Consumer Marketing
On the eve of the first Indian Grand Prix, F1 passion has reached its zenith in India. Motorsport fans are trying to get their hands on coveted tickets, searching online for the latest news, and the whole nation is waiting with baited breath for the flag off.

In the midst of all this euphoria, Narain Karthikeyan the first Indian ever to compete in the coveted Formula 1 championships, the only Indian driver racing on the circuit, has now also become the first Indian motor sportsperson to join Google+.

Narain has personified F1 in India and will be providing his fans an insider’s view to the Indian Grand Prix on his Google+ profile. He charted into the unknown territory of F1 at a time when this sport was not popular in India and has been promoting it ever since. On Google+, F1 fans can expect Narain to give sneak peeks on the first ever F1 track in India, the garages, pits and also regular updates with behind the scene news, practice sessions, pictures and videos.

With his recent display of speed and breaks at the Hispanian circuit, all eyes are set to watch him perform in front of the home crowd. Just add Narain to your Google+ circle for the thrills, the adrenaline rush, the madness and the fear of racing in F1, and don’t forget to send across your best wishes, as he makes us all proud.

Posted by Guneet Singh - Lead, Consumer Marketing

(Cross-posted from the YouTube Blog )


Since launching the first YouTube NextUp, we’ve been working to supercharge the careers of partners from around the world, and now we’re expanding the program even further. Today we’re kicking off two new YouTube Next Creator Programs to highlight the stars of tomorrow on YouTube today: YouTube Next Chef and YouTube Next Trainer.

Each program will have sixteen participants who take part in a three month virtual class held on Google+ Hangouts. Our chefs and trainers will each receive an equipment kit worth more than $5,000, mentoring from industry leaders, filming and editing lessons and more than $10,000 worth of promotion on YouTube. Here’s more info on each and an introduction from our hosts.

YouTube Next Chef
Crafty in the kitchen? Love sharing your family’s recipes with the world? With YouTube Next Chef, you could be selected to learn filmmaking tailored to cooking videos. Shea Hess of Hungry in Brooklyn will be your host.



YouTube Next Trainer
Personal health comes in many forms, and we’re interested in your unique approach. From yoga to 100-yard sprints, this program will help you develop filmmaking talents specifically for fitness videos. Sarah Dussalt ofSarahsFabChannel will be your host.



How to apply
Starting today through October 25, partners from Australia, Canada, India, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States can apply at youtube.com/NextChef and youtube.com/NextTrainer, which also includes all rules and details.

We’ll be back on November 9 to introduce you to the selected chefs and trainers, as we keep working on ways to help YouTube Partners turn their passion into their career.

Austin Lau, YouTube Creator Programs, recently watched, “How To Peel a Head of Garlic in Less Than 10 Seconds.”
(Cross-posted from the YouTube Blog )


Since launching the first YouTube NextUp, we’ve been working to supercharge the careers of partners from around the world, and now we’re expanding the program even further. Today we’re kicking off two new YouTube Next Creator Programs to highlight the stars of tomorrow on YouTube today: YouTube Next Chef and YouTube Next Trainer.

Each program will have sixteen participants who take part in a three month virtual class held on Google+ Hangouts. Our chefs and trainers will each receive an equipment kit worth more than $5,000, mentoring from industry leaders, filming and editing lessons and more than $10,000 worth of promotion on YouTube. Here’s more info on each and an introduction from our hosts.

YouTube Next Chef
Crafty in the kitchen? Love sharing your family’s recipes with the world? With YouTube Next Chef, you could be selected to learn filmmaking tailored to cooking videos. Shea Hess of Hungry in Brooklyn will be your host.



YouTube Next Trainer
Personal health comes in many forms, and we’re interested in your unique approach. From yoga to 100-yard sprints, this program will help you develop filmmaking talents specifically for fitness videos. Sarah Dussalt ofSarahsFabChannel will be your host.



How to apply
Starting today through October 25, partners from Australia, Canada, India, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States can apply at youtube.com/NextChef and youtube.com/NextTrainer, which also includes all rules and details.

We’ll be back on November 9 to introduce you to the selected chefs and trainers, as we keep working on ways to help YouTube Partners turn their passion into their career.

Austin Lau, YouTube Creator Programs, recently watched, “How To Peel a Head of Garlic in Less Than 10 Seconds.”
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The best way to interact with people is face to face as text & voice can never convey the rich emotions of the human face.

Google+ stems from the concept of real-life interactions, brought to the web. And to make your interactions as spontaneous and direct as possible, Google+ has Hangouts where you can get on to a multi-person video chat with a number of your friends. So even if you can’t walk up to them, get on a hangout for a face-to-face-to-face chat in real time from anywhere.

And now hangouts are enabling different form of connections. How often is it possible for a fan to come face to face with their favourite star and enjoy a live conversation? Well later today it will be possible with none other than the Bollywood Baadshah himself - Shah Rukh Khan. The man of many firsts, Shah Rukh Khan is the first ever movie superstar globally to connect with his fans on a Google+ hangout.

To join the hangout, go to Google+, search for Shah Rukh Khan on Google+ and add him to your circles. You’ll get a notification in your stream, as soon as Shah Rukh is Live! Nine fans can join Shah Rukh Khan in every hangout, and everyone else will be able to see the video chat live on his Google+ profile! Shah Rukh Khan will host multiple hangouts to meet as many of his fans as he can.

Check your hair and make sure your mic works. And login to Google+ at 1500 (IST, UTC +5:30), its time to Hangout with Shah Rukh Khan!

Posted by Guneet Singh Lead, Consumer Marketing
The best way to interact with people is face to face as text & voice can never convey the rich emotions of the human face.

Google+ stems from the concept of real-life interactions, brought to the web. And to make your interactions as spontaneous and direct as possible, Google+ has Hangouts where you can get on to a multi-person video chat with a number of your friends. So even if you can’t walk up to them, get on a hangout for a face-to-face-to-face chat in real time from anywhere.

And now hangouts are enabling different form of connections. How often is it possible for a fan to come face to face with their favourite star and enjoy a live conversation? Well later today it will be possible with none other than the Bollywood Baadshah himself - Shah Rukh Khan. The man of many firsts, Shah Rukh Khan is the first ever movie superstar globally to connect with his fans on a Google+ hangout.

To join the hangout, go to Google+, search for Shah Rukh Khan on Google+ and add him to your circles. You’ll get a notification in your stream, as soon as Shah Rukh is Live! Nine fans can join Shah Rukh Khan in every hangout, and everyone else will be able to see the video chat live on his Google+ profile! Shah Rukh Khan will host multiple hangouts to meet as many of his fans as he can.

Check your hair and make sure your mic works. And login to Google+ at 1500 (IST, UTC +5:30), its time to Hangout with Shah Rukh Khan!

Posted by Guneet Singh Lead, Consumer Marketing
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Enjoy mega blockbuster movies of Shah Rukh Khan all month long for free

With all the action surrounding Shah Rukh Khan and Ra.One on YouTube, we decided to line up a treat for all his fans with a month long film festival dedicated to the super star. YouTube Box Office (www.youtube.com/boxoffice), the special destination for all movie buffs in India, will host five mega blockbuster movies of Shah Rukh Khan absolutely free. Starting with the mega hit Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, YouTube Box office will host a new movie every friday. The festival will showcase super hit movies like Chak De India, Kal Ho Na Ho, Om Shanti Om and Kuch Kuch Hota hai.

Four months into its launch, the Intel sponsored YouTube Box Office channel continues to be popular with our users and has already garnered over 15 million views in India making it the #19 most subscribed (all time) channel in India. The channel is available to all Indian users absolutely free and users based in India can enjoy the movies by directly streaming it online. We are grateful to all our partners who continue to embrace the YouTube platform and offer our users, the most entertaining and premium content available on the web.

Apart from featuring full-length movies, the channel also engages users with movie trivia and contests. Users can also choose to watch movies from YouTube movie catalogues which offers over 1500 movie titles including over 400 titles from regional movies in languages such as Gujarati, Marathi, Telugu, Tamil and Bengali.

Now playing:

Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge A romantic comedy, the film marked the directorial debut of Aditya Chopra, and stars Shahrukh Khan and Kajol. All Time Blockbuster and remains the longest-running film in the history of Indian cinema. Kajol plays a young girl from India, brought up in London who falls in love with Raj, played by Shah Rukh Khan, much against her father’s wishes.

Catch the excitement on http://www.youtube.com/boxoffice

Posted by Amit Agrawal Head Content Partnerships YouTube - India.
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We all know how easy it is to impersonate a celebrity across various social platforms today. It’s not uncommon to view fake profiles of our favorite celebrities online or even bump into these numerous simulated profiles before we reach the authentic one. Very frequently, we end up following or liking celeb profiles only to realize later that it was an incorrect one.

Google+ stems from the concept of real-life sharing, brought to the web. And to ensure that you connect with a real celebrity, a simple identification process with the Google Team allows celebs to have a web presence that is real. This simple verification process, places a small "verified profile" flag in front of the name.

Globally a number of key celebrities on Google+ have verified profiles, including Britney Spears, Ashton Kutcher and Paris Hilton. Needless to mention their fan base is only increasing by the day while helping them manage friends, fans and family using the concept of circles on one social platform. Not to forget, keeping privacy intact.

The growing popularity of Google+ in India has encouraged us to keep fake profiles away from Google+. And now, in order to give our users the best experience of this platform, Shah Rukh Khan is the first verified Indian celeb on Google+. Infact over the last 2 weeks, the team has reactively removed many fake Shah Rukh profiles.

An interesting fact is that, out of the 4Mn monthly SRK search queries on Google worldwide, more than 1Mn searches happen from countries like Germany, Finland, Malaysia and other Middle East nations. Therefore, being the 1st verified celebrity on Google+, allows the superstar to connect with his fans in India and worldwide. Stay tuned in as more stars from India, get onboard the fast growing Google + social network.

Posted by Guneet Singh, Lead Consumer Marketing
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