You Got YouTube In My Google Plus!

One of the earliest complaints I had with Google Plus early on in its still-infant life as a social network was a lack of YouTube integration out of the box. Since Google owns YouTube, and video is clearly such an important part of online content sharing, it just seemed like a glaring oversight that the two properties weren't more smoothly integrated. That all changes today as Google Plus adds YouTube integration.

Google Plus Adds YouTube Integration

Google has announced a new Google Plus YouTube slider to help users find, watch, and share YouTube videos more naturally in their Stream.

From the Google Blog:

Here's how it works:

• Mouse over the new YouTube icon at the top right of Google+
• It'll slide out and ask, "What would you like to play"?
• Enter whatever you're in the mood for (like a topic or a musical artist)

We'll start playing a list of related videos in a new pop-up window, and if you move the pop-up elsewhere, you can still navigate your playlist from the slider.

The Google Plus YouTube Slider is just below your name on the top right of your profile page. Here's a series of screenshots Google shared to show off how easy it is to find and watch a video right within Google Plus (click the image to expand it to full size):

You can also now easily share YouTube videos on your Google Plus Stream, with some handy search options for YouTube when you select the video icon in the share box.

Oh, and YouTube Playlists can now easily be shared as well. Here's a screenshot Google shared (again, click to enlarge):

This is a pretty big development for video creators and video marketers, and instantly makes Google Plus a more viable community for those individuals to join, use, and tap into for their video marketing purposes.