Google has announced that uploads from mobile phones to YouTube have increased by 400% since last Friday, when Apple’s new iPhone 3GS went on sale. The handset lets users shoot video clips and upload them directly to the video-sharing site.

It’s part of a wider trend, though: mobile uploads to YouTube have grown by 1,700% in the last six months, according to Google. The full text of the company’s announcement is below.

Mobile Uploads to YouTube Increase Exponentially

In the last six months, uploads from mobile phones to YouTube have jumped 1,700%; just since last Friday, when the iPhone 3GS came out, uploads have increased by 400%.

This growth represents three things coming together: new video-enabled phones on the market, improvements that make it easier to post a video to YouTube from your phone, and a new feature on YouTube that allows people’s videos to be quickly and effortlessly shared through social networks. It takes just a minute to connect a YouTube account to Facebook, Twitter and Google Reader accounts. People can complete a simple, one-time connection on the upload page to allow all their friends and followers to get a real-time stream of their uploads to YouTube, which can be essential in this age of citizen reporting and ubiquitous sharing.

Already, YouTube users are teaching each other how to use this technology, are doing product reviews and comparisons, and they are even making test videos… lots and lots of them. In fact, look at them closely — where they’re shot, who’s in them — and they stitch together a great patchwork of, well, life, from the little moments to the big ones:

* At grandma’s house — http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9i8Z8HLpfw
* At a baseball game — http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YTcpwpGhVg
* In a Cambodian liquor store — http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQ0TU-eFfB8
* Observing carnivorous plants — http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSr2Vo0OH4Q
* Drumming — http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfmpC7evD8E
* Swinging kids — http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBcKjoorjCc
* On a roadtrip — http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-SNA6awMjA
* At a wedding — http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SEbKE3SG8A
* Capturing a wistful, rainy day — http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNZWZ9NYyis
* “Live” from the Apple Store — http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-JctOfGKbQ
* Squashing a can — http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3J-0ttr1p8
* Pulling a giant stump out of the backyard — http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHB5M9-yDac
* Poolside, complete with a drop in the water (it keeps working) — http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qbWjaW25mQ

More information about creating YouTube videos on your phone is available here: http://www.youtube.com