YouTube Tightens Links with Facebook

By Geoff Duncan December 21, 2009

youtube-big — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Video sharing site YouTube is expanding its integration with social networking services. The latest set of enhancement applies to Facebook users: now, when Facebook users’ friends embed a YouTube video on Facebook, that video will doggedly pursue you and appear on your own YouTube home page. YouTube says they’re testing the feature out right now, and one key is that users will have to stay connected to Facebook for the capability to work correctly. But that’s not a problem for many users who would never consider disconnecting from Facebook.

YouTube sees bringing videos users’ Facebook friends have embedded as a way to make YouTube home pages more relevant to their users. The YouTube home pages are intended to be a “zeitgeist” of what’s important to a user on YouTube at any moment: some of the videos features there are selected based on channels and viewing history, but YouTube feels that highlighting videos embedded by Facebook friends helps users be more social and connected to their friends.

Users will also be able to search for their friends using the home pages’ friend-finding module. Users can also disable YouTube sharing if they don’t want their YouTube actions syndicated out to their Facebook accounts.

According to YouTube, over 46 years of YouTube video are viewed by Facebook users every day.

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