Sunday, April 15, 2012

YouTube Getting a Social Makeover

Do you remember the days before social media took over the web? I do, but boy does it seem like a lifetime ago. Back then, we used to visit websites that didn’t even have comments, never mind a Facebook plugin that allows you to share the article with your nearest and dearest friends. But as some sites have embraced and flourished with social media, others have lagged behind the times a bit. YouTube has been one of those sites. But all of that is about to change.

A YouTube employee told Reuters that the video-sharing giant (a social media site in and of itself) is about to get even more social. In the past, you may have expected or wanted to see a Facebook plugin on the site that allows you to easily share and comment on videos by using your Facebook account. But Google (who owns YouTube) just wasn’t having it. I don’t think the relationship between Facebook and Google is the greatest, but I think Google is also out for world domination (and it’s well on its way).

When Google Plus was launched, everyone anticipated where this was going. You didn't have to be a web guru or software engineer to know what was coming next. Google was about to make up for where it lagged in the past, but it would do so on its own terms – with its own social network. So far, we’ve seen the introduction of social to Google’s search engine (which is a huge step) and now we’re about to see social meet social with the integration of Google Plus into YouTube.

In all fairness, YouTube has been integrated into Google Plus since day one with Plus’s “hangout” feature. With 800 million unique visitors, YouTube is a huge market to tap. Google Plus has taken some time to gain popularity, but I think we’re about to see it get a whole lot more important. Do you have your Plus account ready to go?

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