YouTube is pushing its Facebook Connect integration further by allowing its users to see the videos that their friends share on Facebook. YouTube users had previously been able to find their Facebook friends on YouTube as well as update their Facebook profile with their various actions from the site.
While it's nice to see YouTube embracing Facebook more and more, it stops a bit short of being an impressive Connect implementation. YouTube is getting there, but seems to be lagging behind a little in this department. An implementation that shares, on Facebook, what you are watching, on YouTube, would certainly make sense, although it might clutter up users' Facebook profiles if they are a prolific YouTube watcher. For now, the addition of this new feature is a welcome inclusion and serves as a great way of getting trusted recommendations for videos to watch on YouTube.
YouTube said this feature is in "test mode" for the time being. In my testing, I was not able to get this feature to actually work. This can be sometimes be expected while YouTube irons out the kinks with new features that aren't quite ready for prime time. If anyone has better luck, let us know in the comments.
It is interesting that Google has waited this long to prompt users to link their YouTube accounts, when Yahoo did it almost immediately after their acquisition of Flickr. Flickr users did not take to the idea very well, but maybe this delayed push will make the transition smoother for YouTube users.
As Google hints to in the transition message, linking YouTube and Google accounts is part of a larger push to integrate functionality of other Google services with YouTube. Looking at Google's master list of services, some likely candidates for integration include Blogger, Google News, and Google Talk. Fellow CNET blogger, Josh Lowensohn, seems to think that Google Finance might get cozy with YouTube. I'm not as convinced.
To me, the most exciting integration would be Google Talk. We are already starting to see a chat room scenario with Streams, but I would look for more chat capabilities to spread throughout YouTube, powered by Google Talk, as a result of account linking. Google News integration also has the potential to be extremely interesting. With videos on current events flowing back to Google News, from YouTube, Google has a killer platform in front of them to be a leader in citizen journalism.
YouTube already allows you to load contacts from a Google account to add as friends, so it's not immediately clear what Google plans to do with the account link, in terms of contacts. Hopefully contacts become a more central focus of YouTube, with a more robust messaging platform, since right now they are sort of hidden in the background.
While linking YouTube and Google accounts might seem innocent enough, under the disguise of making it easier to login, it is clear that Google has bigger plans for the new stream of data that this opens up. What Google services would you like to see integrated into YouTube?
While it is not immediately clear whether or not YouTube will be pursuing longer subject films in addition to short subject ones, it is safe to assume that they are looking in that direction. Their blog post says that, "Today, we're pleased to announce the launch of the YouTube Screening Room, a platform for films from around the world to find the audiences they deserve." Given this statement, it does not appear that the site will be limited to short films.
The YouTube Screening Room could give a great break to films that were not able to find a solid audience or were not even released to the public in the first place. Other than the obvious benefit of exposure, monetary benefits to those who are making these films have not been publicly discussed by YouTube.
The videos include a "Buy Now" button, which, in some cases, directs you to the website of the filmmaker/film and in others links to a place where you can buy a DVD or digital copy. Some of the links don't exactly point to the right place yet and it's a little unclear to me why people would want to buy a short film that they just watched for free online (aside from upgraded quality), but I'm sure the kinks will get worked out. The purchasing model might work better if and when they offer feature length films.
Being a cinephile, I am excited to see the sort of films that come out of this new venture. They are off to a good start already with the four short films that they already have. YouTube Screening Room could prove to be a much needed boost to the indie film community.
YouTube claims that this new service will allow you to determine trends in how long it takes for a video to become popular as well as what happens when they do become popular. Advantages vary for the different groups that will be using Insights. Creators will benefit from looking at viewing trends, partners can use the data to better understand their audience and become more profitable, and advertisers can tweak their marketing strategy based on past trends.
YouTube Insights provides in depth data in the form of graphs and maps.
There are, without a doubt, people who are going to benefit from the addition of this new service, but there is one thing we have to remember. Most of the people who are on YouTube are there to watch the videos, not to create them or advertise there, so the effect of this announcement will not be immediately apparent to most YouTube users.
With all of this in mind, I think that this is an interesting look at video trends, but I'm not convinced that this is a game changer. It may help us to better understand the life cycle of web videos, but I think that this will ultimately be a bigger deal for partners and advertisers than it will be for content creators.
You can get a look at this new service by going to Account > Videos, Favorites, & Playlists > and then clicking on "About this video" for the video that you want to analyze.
The questions in presidential debates have traditionally been determined by whatever media outlet happened to be running the show. CNN and YouTube are looking to change that tonight. As you may know, YouTube is working with CNN to hold a presidential debate where all of the questions will asked through YouTube videos that have been submitted since early June.
Even though users can submit their own questions, CNN is ultimately in charge of picking the questions that are going to be asked. Still, this is a promising development. According to an article on CNN.com, there is a small committee at CNN that is in charge of selecting the questions. David Bohrman, Senior VP for CNN and a member of the selection committee said, "There are questions that we, the journalists, we, the mainstream media, would never think to ask in the presidential debate."
The fact that this debate is even happening just goes to show the enormous impact that user generated-content has had on society. Ten, even five years ago, something like this would have had no chance of happening. I'm really looking forward to seeing how this turns out and hopefully this type of debate becomes more typical in the future.
For those interested, the debate will be on CNN tonight at 7pm ET and available on youtube.com/debates for discussion and critique shortly thereafter. So, set your TiVo, VCR, maybe even watch it live and let me know what you think.
YouTube has started testing a new beta interface on their site. This opt-in test lets users get a sneak peek at what YouTube's designers have been working on.
The new design features easier access to more films by the user that you are currently watching, as well as separate sections for Related Videos and Promoted Videos. According to Nathan Weinberg from InsideGoogle, the actual size of the video has also been upped to 480x395. The look and feel of the links below the video has also been improved and includes new, larger icons. The coolest improvement in this new design is definitely the addition of easy social bookmarking. Clicking on the "Share" link now slides out links to share the current video on Digg, Del.icio.us, Furl, Reddit, and StumbleUpon, in addition to the "share with friends" feature that exists in the old design.
To see the new interface, just click on "Try out the NEW (beta) version of this page!" on any video page. Although this is not a giant leap forward in design overall, it does provide some new features that makes surfing YouTube a little bit easier.
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