The real-time web is all the rage, with FriendFeed widely deploying live feeds earlier this month and Facebook working hard on bringing real-time streams to its homepage. Now YouTube is looking to get in on the action, and is currently testing a new feature dubbed ‘YouTube RealTime’, which allow users to see which of their friends are currently online, the videos they’re watching, and comments they’ve left. Updates will be shown in a persistent toolbar, which means that users will be able to see them no matter where they are on the site. The new feature is currently being tested on a limited basis, but we’ve gotten our hands on 25 invites, which we’ll give to the first 25 users to leave a comment below.
This is going to be big. While real time feeds are bound to increase engagement on most sites, I think they’ll work especially well on YouTube. Many people go to YouTube without any particular video in mind – they simply go to watch something. Now as they browse through the site looking for the latest videos to go viral, they’ll also get constant status updates as their friends stumble across cool videos too. It’s tough to ignore a popup notification that your friend just watched a video called “Cat rides skateboard” – you’re going to want to see for yourself, and then your friends will see an update alerting them about the video, creating an endless loop.
I didn’t think it was possible, but YouTube is about to become even more viral.
Update: YouTube isn’t keeping this as small as I initially thought – each person to get an invite will get 25 invites of their own.
OOOO I’d love an invite!
Sounds like an exciting new feature from youtube.
this is going to be big and more viral!
count me in
hey, i would love to get a look at that.
yay more great web 2.0 news. http://iamned.com/blog/ This is why Google is #1 because they keep innovating.
Um…what’s with the random, unrelated link in between there? Kinda gives a spambotty vibe to your comment.
Sounds interesting, would like to give it a try.
count me in! this could be big news
someone need to tell techcrunch to change the background back plz!!!!!!
Another interesting company in this real-time space is http://www.boilingpage.com that shows the hottest pages on the web based on how popular they are in Twitter. I see some really interesting results when I search in this real-time search engine.
do you work for them or know them personally?
No, I don’t work for them. I met the founder in a conference in Menlo Park and I kinda liked his approach in solving the real-time search problem.
sounds interesting. Let’s see how it develops. I’d like and invite. Thanks techcrunch.
Very interesting. Please invite me!
this is really promising. I wanna try it!
Looks like the entire web is moving to real time updates…when will the news agencies start to deploy this technology on their sites?
ain’t gonna matter if YouTube doesn’t do something about the quality of their video and the efficiency of their CDN. YT performance has been dismal for many months now.
This sounds like I just have to try it! I think live broadcast will be very interesting for the industry, however most live videos can be pretty dull if they are not well planned, I watched the videos of Justin. tv (remember him) and it was just too boring. What we could hope coming is live drama, live talkshows or just live journeys from mobile phones…
It isn’t live broadcast, sorry if the reference to feeds implied that (I think the post made it clear that this was about status feeds). I’ve updated the title to be more clear.
cool sounds like stalking to the next level
Wow, sounds cool. I’d like an invite?
makes sense, would like to check it out
I’d like to take a look at that, very interesting.
I’d like an invite as well. Looks interesting.
I would love to give it a try
Would love an invite
Please do…! I love youtube but they are loose in the battle vs hollywood
Sounds interesting. I’d love a crack at the Beta test
cool
Count me in!!!!
Gimme invite.
hopefully top 25
Oh what the heck. I’d try it out.
Hoping I made it in! Invite please?
Would love an invite holdenpage@gmail.com
Thank you
I WOULD LIKE AN INVIT- oh darn…
A new site is coming with real-Live Video feed as well but for selling your product, i think its called DealitLive.com, i saw an intro for it on YouTube, if you search DealitLive.com. from what i understand it lets you create your own Shopping Channel via Live Video feed and your viewers can interact with you live as you sell the product and see the product Live. Seems like everyone is going for Live Video which i think is coooollll.
If you get more invites, send one my way!
I want one! PLEASE!!
If you get any more invites, I’d love one as well…
any invites left? I want one!!
I know YouTube have a surprise in their pocket
Somehow I miss this post by 16 minutes and there are already more than 25 comments… le sigh.
Would love an invite.
Alternate! Sub! Bench warmer! Put me in coach!
Can someone send one to schlichtm@gmail.com
Much appreciated!
the dealitlive.com thing sounds cool, do you have any other information?
can someone PLEASE send an invite?
alexiskefalas@gmail.com
thanx
Man these commentaries are viral. Hey how about those extra invites?
The only thing I know is that they are launching on May 6th. no other news, but check them out on Youtube, just search for DealitLive.com. The Youtube project sounds cool. SEND AN INVITE
Id love an invite to try this!
After reading the news of Punk’d trying to go live with Ustream it makes me think that the next shift of the internet is live. The internet is becoming too social for me though.
i would love an invite, thanks
Sounds like youtube is gonna suck me in for even longer now…
Please send invite. segaholic2@gmail.com
Can I have an invite? Please email me at jesi(dot)nieves(at)gmail(dot)com
gee, give you email away needlessly to those who can’t do anything for you…
THIS ISN’T YOU TUBE (OR GMAIL) YA DWEEBS!
Would love an invite – thanks!