Let's say you have a girlfriend. And let's say that girlfriend is in a faraway land, and the only thing keeping you connected is that tangle of wires we fondly call "the Internet." Or maybe you've got a bunch of nerdy friends, each ensconced in his own basement, or perhaps in distant parts of the country.
These are just two situations where something like YouTube Social could come in very handy. It's a neat service for watching videos together with friends, synced in real-time, with chat thrown in for good measure.
What I like most about it is how easy it is to start with: you take the URL of a YouTube video (say, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6G5JaicYuVU), and just stick the word "social" after "youtube." So you get http://www.youtubesocial.com/watch?v=6G5JaicYuVU.
You then get a rich (almost cluttered) interface with your video taking center stage, and a TinyURL link that you can send to your friends. They just need to click the link to join you. Now, whenever you play the video, pause it, or even scrub to a different position, their videos follow suit. There's a chat pane where you can all talk about what you're watching, too. You can also give the "remote" to someone else so that they get to control the video.
The only downside is that the service is heavily Facebook-driven. I mean, the only way to get a proper nick ("username") in the chat is to be logged onto Facebook. That's pretty annoying; other than that, it's definitely a handy service!
YouTube Social lets you watch videos with friends online originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 18 Nov 2010 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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