YouTube has done pretty well standing on its own two feet lately, but recent changes on the video-sharing site indicate that the company may be looking to do even more with its content. An updated feature enables YouTube content to be shared in reverse, if you will, giving users a glimpse of the related activity taking place around videos across the social web.
For now, YouTube users will be able to see videos that their friends have shared on Facebook as they surf YouTube’s website. It’s an indirect recommendation system that pulls certain amounts of Facebook data into your YouTube account. On many levels, it exemplifies the simplicity of platforms such as Facebook Connect, merging the two social networks for a more unified front towards encouraging additional site activity and levels of engagement.
The sad thing about this feature roll out is that it’s kind of late in the game, and is a feature that several other web publishers have been offering for quite some time. In addition to the metrics being made available for direct information regarding a user’s clip shared across the social web, stats that combine the relevance of both forms of metrics is something that a company like YouTube could benefit from.
And that goes for YouTube’s parent company, Google. As Google has not been able to access the same amount of data on Facebook than investor Microsoft, Google would be smart to turn to other forms of platform integration to increase the type and amount of information its overlapping users can provide.
Having a remote way to utilize one’s Facebook network in order to enhance the experience on YouTube is a symbiotic relationship that many publishers can’t resist. Retaking some of that data that YouTube gives up in the form of metrics on link and viewing behavior is just one way in which YouTube can continue to improve its own platform.
While this is a seemingly small step towards what YouTube is capable of, YouTube’s ongoing willingness to improve the recommendations around its available content means that personalization of its service is still an important mission. One way in which to expedite this process is to look to other major social media hubs for additional recommendations and patterned behavior. Instead of relying on an introspective approach to recommending content to users (which would require users to connect directly with each other on YouTube), users can turn to the site where they’ve already established relationships for the purpose of recommendations.
Hopefully this will render good results for YouTube, as continued modification to its interface and search could make it more convenient to use in the future. Several socially-integrated services are moving closer to this type of convenience for its consumers’ sakes, marking a new era of possible personalization options for users.