New York — After the recent real-time modernization of many websites like Facebook and FriendFeed, it seems that YouTube has also got the penchant for the real-time bug too is now fiddling around with a similar notification feature imaginatively called “YouTube RealTime,” according to TechCrunch.
Today YouTube has released the beta version of YouTube RealTime, which comes in the form of a toolbar that resides in the lower right corner of the page on YouTube, according to YouTube product manager Ryan Junee.
From this toolbar, users will be able to see which YouTube friends are currently online (similar to Facebook) and what they are watching. A history of their recent activities on the site are also able to be viewed as well as real-time notifications when they perform activities like commenting, favoriting, and uploading.
In a posting on YouTube’s official blog, Junee described RealTime as “a novel way of discovering what your friends are doing on YouTube.”
Google plans to begin experimenting with the new feature that allows you and your friends share in the moment what you are doing with the site.
“This is building on the success of the YouTube friend activity feed, letting people see what their friends are watching, rating, commenting on, etc.,” Google said about the feature, which the company plans to start offering to invitees tonight.
However, YouTube’s embeddable player has been a boon to viral video, this feature could lead to a new era of engagement for the video portal. Instead of depending on direct interaction between users to spread viral video content, YouTube RealTime could transform common user activities into implicit endorsements. Ideally, this move would promote more exploration within the site, which would also amount to more ad revenue for both YouTube and its partners.
At this point, Junee said YouTube is only offering the feature to the first 100 volunteers who say “Yes! Sign me up” in the comments section of this post on the official YouTube Blog. Each of these 100 people will get an invite.
“Please keep in mind that you will need to have friends on YouTube for this to work — the more you have, the richer the experience, so be sure you accept friend invites and actively manage the list,” Junee wrote.
Meanwhile, YouTube also announced some changes to its homepage for signed out users today.
Furthermore, YouTube will continue to test the feature on a limited basis until its ready for a full launch.