The video website, owned by Google Inc., said in a blog post Thursday that the longer upload time was the single-most requested feature that its users have been asking for.
YouTube says it's raising the limit now because it believes its "Content ID" technology, which automatically removes copyright violations by digitally sifting through the site's archives, is working.
"Because of the success of these ongoing technological efforts, we are able to increase the upload limit today," wrote Joshua Siegel, YouTube product manager for upload and video management in the post.
