Members of the search engine giant’s social network can now share YouTube video using the group video chat Hangouts feature. This was announced by YouTube manager Brian Glick, in a note on Thursday.
To start a Google+ Hangout with a YouTube video, all you need to do is click on the ‘share’ button beneath any video and then click on ‘start a Google+ Hangout’ in the bottom right-hand corner. This is presuming that you have already logged on to Google+.
When the video is running users can talk to each other verbally which will mute the video for the duration the ‘Talk’ button is on. When perhaps YouTube streams videos of live games and then friends share it over the Google+ Hangouts, this feature can be a more exciting one.
A few weeks ago, Brandon Badge, YouTube Live Product manager talked about the upcoming ability to enable hangouts from YouTube with live streaming video and this seems to be the apparent first stage of that iniatiative.
With the better integration of Google+ hangouts with YouTube, Google is widening the reach of its social network in an attempt to compete with Facebook, which began offering its own video chat service via Skype, soon after Google+ made it appearance.
By adding the feature to the YouTube site itself, Google is widening the reach of Google+ in its bid to compete with Facebook, which began offering its own video chat service, powered by Skype, shortly after Google+ debuted.
Google’s new feature may end up posing steep competition to services like Chill and Rollin.fm which allow users to watch embedded videos in the background or are planning to introduce this feature. Though Google+, unlike those services does not offer the ability for users to customize their own pictures and viewing room.
Though some consider that the limited nature of Hangouts – only ten at a given time – adds a sense of intimacy that Twitter or Facebook feed lacks, others are of the view that the ten-person limit is a hindrance.
Since, its launch in late June, Google+ has garnered more than 25 million members and is on the way to being a competition to Facebook, the social media giant which has more than 750 million members worldwide. However, it is to be noted that Google+ was initially launched in the Beta stage and was a ‘invite only’ service.