Google Student Blog: Young Innovators @ Google - Greg Schechter

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Young Innovators @ Google - Greg Schechter

April 27, 2011

Introduction: We recently launched Young Innovators @ Google, a new blog series highlighting the great work of Googlers who, not too long ago, were students like you. In their short careers, these engineers and product managers have had an impact on Google and our products. For our second post, we sat down for a few questions with Greg Schechter, a Web Developer at YouTube.
Tell us about your path to Google and what your current role is.
Greg Schechter: I’m a fearless web warrior, fighting for browser and website progress. While training at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, I published articles with the Opera Web Standards Curriculum. Subsequently, I went on to battle alongside many different web companies, including Amazon, Yahoo!, and Google. I arrived at Google back in 2008 as an intern at YouTube. After college, I worked for a few other companies, but eventually returned to YouTube as a Web Developer.

My current alliance is with YouTube, where I spearhead the movement for HTML5 video capabilities as a front end developer. YouTube understands what it means to be a web developer and gave me a role that fits what I love to work on. Great people, sweet projects and opportunities to drive the web forward creates an environment that is hard for other companies to match.

What was your first project at YouTube, and how has your role evolved since then? What do you see yourself doing next?
GS: The first project I jumped on at YouTube was YouTube Live Streaming. I was the original web developer for the project and built out most of the front end components of the page. It took only about a month for the first significant features to go live, and in about four months, I felt I was really innovating and pushing features I was passionate about. One of the first important features I pushed live was developing a monetizable experience for YouTube Feather, our lightweight version of our watch page. At this time, I’m no longer on Live Streaming, but instead have become the technical lead for two big features at YouTube—the HTML5 Player and iframe embed api. The technical lead is basically the lead developer who makes the major technical decisions.

I absolutely love being at YouTube. I really feel that I have the power and encouragement to work on what I’m passionate about. I hope to become more of a spokesperson and tech evangelist of HTML5 and YouTube. I’m speaking at a few conferences about the work we are doing at YouTube, and I hope I can continue to innovate and teach others how to do the same.

In what ways have you been able to innovate at YouTube? What makes working at YouTube unique?
GS: I generally take initiative and innovate on projects I’m passionate about, which makes YouTube perfect for me. I never feel that there are any walls stopping me from developing, and I’m given the freedom to innovate on my own terms. I’m excited to be spearheading the movement for using HTML5 for video distribution.

YouTube offers so many resources that allow you to work on products that directly benefit users. Even though I’ve only been at YouTube a short time, I’ve had the opportunity to share my findings in HTML5 at conferences around the world (WebDU, Google I/O, Velocity). I really like being a speaker and evangelizing for the company, and I’m fortunate to have had many opportunities to travel and work with others.

Anything else you’d like to share?
GS: On a lighter note, my favorite Easter egg I’ve added is when you are using the HTML5 Player, right click on the player and click “save video as”.

Posted by Jessica Safir, University Programs Coordinator

Labels: Young Innovators

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