Google on Wednesday launched an analytics tool for YouTube, the better to convince “premium” content creators to host their material on the massively popular online streaming video site still somewhat dogged by a reputation of being primarily a source for clips of piano-playing cats and surfboard-riding squirrels.

It’s a bump up from Google’s previous YouTube analytics tool — dubbed “Insight” — offering users more granular information about viewers’ watching habits. That includes everything from finding out how much of your video users are watching to which users are commenting the most, as wel...