Google Plus And Youtube Comments

Earlier this week, Google announced that they are finally implementing the changes to the Youtube comments that they started talking about in September. Officially, this revamp is meant to push "relevant" comments to the top. And the way they're doing it is to require you to be logged in with your Google+ account to comment on videos. There's probably also the expectation that having to associate your comment with a There's a predictable backlash happening of course, with people being annoyed at having to be logged into a Google+ account to comment, and others accusing Google of trying to drive more people to Google+. (Which is probably accurate as far as it goes.)

Threaded Replies & "Relevant" Comments

The new system will also allow threaded replies, (where you can reply to an individual comment instead of commenting on the main thread), and comments will be displayed according to their relevance, with comments by the creator, "popular personalities" and of course your Google+ circles, showing at the top. There will be the option to show comments sorted according to "recent" instead if you prefer though.

What Does It Mean

Well, not much really. Google will push a few more Google+ accounts, some people will stop commenting on Youtube, and that's probably the extent of it. Perhaps Google will leverage Youtube comments from your circles into results, perhaps not. It's scarcely a new idea, although limiting it to Google+ has probably increased the backlash. Plenty of sites and systems require you to be logged in, either with your Facebook account, a Google account, or some other platform. Nothing really to see here.