Earlier today we reported on YouTube’s plans to roll out a new real-time product that adds a new social layer to YouTube, allowing friends to share the videos they’re watching with each other in real time, without having to turn to outside chat programs or Twitter.
I’ve just taken the new product for a spin, and it’s pretty clear this will add another dimension to YouTube’s virality and its role as a social site. Before now, there hasn’t been a particularly compelling reason to establish friends on YouTube, aside from subscribing to videos a user uploads. If you had a funny video to share, it was easier just to do it via IM. RealTime changes that.
RealTime appears as a toolbar at the bottom of every YouTube page with three main items. The most prominent button is an indicator showing when you have Realtime sharing turned on, obviously to ensure that you don’t accidentally share some videos you aren’t too proud of watching. The ‘Online Friends’ tab shows which videos your friends are currently watching (if any) and their recent history. It also allows you to send an invitation to come watch the video you’re watching, which will pop up on their screen (you can turn notifications off). This is where the real power of the new product lies, as it allows friends to instantly share videos with each other.
Finally, there’s a button for ‘Watching Now’, which allows you to see any random YouTube users who happen to be watching the same video as you. This isn’t a privacy issue because you’re only shown in the list if you opt-in, but it seems pretty pointless. A chat feature with other users could potentially be entertaining (though I’d hope for some decent filtering given the YouTube comments I’ve seen), but what’s the point of a list of people I don’t know?
Aside from that that, I have a few more gripes with the toolbar. Unlike the toolbar on Facebook and some other services, the YouTube toolbar disappears and reappears every time you load a page. This is hardly a game-breaker, but it’s still sort of annoying. I also think that there should be an option to have all of the videos your friends are watching pop up as notifications – in the current version, they have to invite you in order for a notification to appear. But the product is still an early Beta, so there’s still plenty of time for these issues to get squared away.
YouTube is using an invitation system to deploy RealTime, which in some ways parallels the approach Gmail took when that product first launched. Every user to get invited gets another 25 invites of their own, which makes invitations hard to come by at first, but sufficiently accessible to allow the service to grow quickly. In order to invite someone to RealTime, you have to become their friend on YouTube – you can’t just send them an Email to activate it. This is a bit of a hassle, but it also gives YouTube a chance to build out its social graph. That said, YouTube could make the process a little less difficult – in the current system, you have to first invite someone to become your YouTube friend before you can invite them to the Beta (you should be able to send a single link that accomplishes both).
Wow. That looks really great. Me and a friend of mine share Youtube videos all day. Can’t wait to try it out
Exactly!!! I have already tweeted all my friends on this. Waiting to use RealTime. Being a diehard YouTube user, things can’t get better than making friends and sharing videos within the same community.
you’re right, now YouTube will get more social activities.
is something like Social Video Network.
They need to create a gmail lab feature to choose to activate what im watching and such appears in your chat status with a link.
I’m wondering why everyone is moving to the “real-time web” and who really started it. FriendFeed seems to be doing really well with real-time.
al gore
RealTime looks cool. But as you say, would be better if the beta version is bettered with notifications and other things.
By the way, why do you think is Google still going back to the Gmail invite-only marketing strategy? Will it work in today’s times? Will not users get irritated if you have to be “invited” to use an application on YouTube?
It works well to build buzz, provided a product is buzz-worthy (if nobody cares, the system fizzles out).
But people care for YouTube and hence the interest/anticipation to use RealTime would increase! Of course, we tend to think anything we get only through “invitation” remarkable.
But don’t you think YouTube should have done this long back?
But still I’m annoyed at the thought of having to be invited to use something which is as common as things available on other sites.
Yes, please invite me to YouTube RealTime. Sharing is caring. TIA. My YouTube id: sarnstrand. http://www.yout...user/sarnstrand
Have an invite left?
Some nice features but I wonder in my lifetime will google ever create a good looking app. *sigh* all engineering and no design.
Wow! thats really a cool feature adapted.
Hmmm, sound interesting, I’ll spread this information to all my buddy asap. RealTime watching, that’s cool.
Wow that is really good feature .Being a die hard You Tube user, things can’t get better than making friends and sharing videos within the same community.
Black techcrunch header??? is it for real???…nice, it looks…
cheers,
marvin
http://yousuggest.us
i can see black Techcrunch header too… it looks ugly to me.
Who ever at YouTube is responsible for their marketing is a genius. I’ve gotten so many inquiries about this feature from everyone I know. Creating a ton of buzz. I can’t wait to try it out!
Anyone got an invite? If no one gets this feature by default, who will invite people in the first place?
who the f’ have time to watch shows together. that’s gay
yo mama
If you got an invite, friend me as “knyshov” on Youtube
Thanks
Please Please, drop me an invite. I really appreciate it ‘yourfingerinknessset’ Thank you in advance
sorry wrong user name
yourfingerinknesset
sounds like a great idea. it’s another example of twitter taking every popular site on the net and flipping it.
very nice feature, important to have the option to turn it off, though.
next step is to have it on my TV as well!
donlowad video from youtube is very dificalt
i want to donlowad video from youtube but i can’t
by
The real-time web is the new web 2.0 and bloggers and journalists looking for the next buzz term have found it!
Fantastic….because:
YouTube is now more than just a video site to watch the Star Wars Kid, it’s a true social network!
I’m noticing far more interaction in the comments section of my own channel.
Why is that important? Real time comments/sharing allows Directors like me the ability to cultivate and grow a larger base of happy subscribers.
Speaking of which:
Subscribe Please – http://www.yout...TubeWatercooler
If someone needs this as a feature for their site; think content sharing (videos, pictures, articles) head to http://www.mangospring.com.
We could provide it using our Social bar (real time updates and chat based).
invite me please
my username tem19
thank you!
Seems like a good step for youtube in trying to keep up with the likes of facebook and twitter. Whats next, an iphone app?!
I think it will significantly reduce the comments under the videos, but I also think there is an element of interaction that will be great. It would be nice to speak in real-time to so many talented video makers.
It looks very much like AOL’s new Socialthing for Websites (http://socialth...om/forwebsites/) which was just released. Theboot.com has this same type of bar.
http://www.theboot.com/
Interesting
I’m wondering why everyone is moving the “real-time web” because I never see video in youtube and share video in it. I am absolutely a beginner in internet.
Just got an invite from Youtube. Looks interesting. Have to test it more, but I am sure this will go over well with a lot of people.
Yeah, the bar is cool and all, but I can’t figure out a a way to make it go away. If only there was a button in the lower left to collapse the bar and expand it as desired.
And here it is, in greasemonkey:
http://www.iizu...ealtime.user.js
I have invites to try it out. Add me as a friend and message me:
http://www.yout...be.com/xfu510nx
When I searched for real time youtube it was with the expectation that youtube must have gotten the ability to stream live videos on the site, kind of like ustream or justin.tv. That would work great with a service like twitter. With people having vid cams in the fone this would be a nice complementary service to twitter and give a nice opening for google to buy out twitter and integrate it with utube.
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