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YouTube adds one-click video editing for busy videographers

The company says that it'll be able to fix shaky video and auto-correct dark clips.

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Don Reisinger
Former CNET contributor Don Reisinger is a technology columnist who has covered everything from HDTVs to computers to Flowbee Haircut Systems. Besides his work with CNET, Don's work has been featured in a variety of other publications including PC World and a host of Ziff-Davis publications.
Don Reisinger
A look at YouTube's new automatic video editor.
A look at YouTube's new automatic video editor. YouTube

YouTube has launched a new feature to help those of us who don't have the time to edit videos before we pop them onto the Web.

Upon uploading a video to YouTube, users will find a notification bar that will ask them if they want to allow the video site to auto-correct their clip. If the user chooses to fix the video, YouTube will automatically tweak the video's color and shakiness.

"Sometimes videos suffer from symptoms like 'shaky-camera-itis' or 'augmented-darkness-levels' that keep viewers from seeing just how awesome your video really is," YouTube software engineer John Gregg wrote yesterday in a blog post. "We made a big step last year with the YouTube Video Editor, and now we're adding a feature that does the work of curing these symptoms for you."

YouTube last year released a built-in video editor designed to help users touch up clips they upload to the site. The editor is by no means a powerful tool, but it can handle some basic tasks, like fixing color or stabilizing a shaky recording. The tool's big draw is its built-in effects, giving people the chance to turn their clips into black-and-white or modify the video to appear as though it was recorded with an old camera.

YouTube's auto-correction feature is rolling out now. The company says it plans to address more "symptoms" in future updates.

Here's a video from YouTube detailing how the new feature works: