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Ever since Google+ launched June 28, users of the social network’s Hangouts group Web chat feature have been able to watch YouTube videos together.
Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) Hangouts is available to Google+ users who have installed the Google Talk voice and video chat plug-in used for conducting video chats and making calls from Gmail.
For Google+, Hangouts allows users to build a virtual living room, letting up to 10 users watch funny YouTube clips, music videos or even movies and discuss them in real-time.
Now that action cuts both ways, as YouTube users with Google+ accounts can start Hangouts right from YouTube by clicking a button.
YouTube Product Manager Brian Glick noted on Google+ Aug. 18:
“We’ve heard that you love watching and sharing YouTube videos in your Google+ Hangouts. Now, you can start a Google+ Hangout on YouTube. To do so, just click on the ‘Share’ button below the video and then click ‘Start a Google+ Hangout’. We’ll keep you posted on additional Google+ integrations that roll out on YouTube over time.”
Starting a Hangout links users to their Google+ accounts, where they may select from their Circles whom they’d like to share YouTube content with. Users are free to comment on content, both by chatting and within the text context of Google+.
Google expects to integrate Hangouts into several other products, but YouTube is as good a place as any to start and the video-sharing Website may help Google+ gain more traction. YouTube is seeing 48 hours of video uploaded every minute and 3 billion daily views.
More broadly, weaving Google+ throughout the entire fabric of Google Web services is that master plan. The company already added Google+ posts to its search results, enabled Google Books sharing on + and is working on stitching + into Gmail.