subject: YouTube seek to dominate the world of television with new Leanback service [print this page] YouTube seek to dominate the world of television with new Leanback service
YouTube's vision is the availability of video content wherever you are, and on any device with a screen. They are aware of the growing demand for more readily available content, without the need to log on to a computer and scour the YouTube site for clips every few minutes.
The Leanback service aims to address these desires. It allows users to watch an automated stream of videos personalised to their tastes. The series of videos are selected using search generated data aggregated by YouTube from users' viewing history, and as such are deemed to be of interest to the individual user.
In addition to the information gathered from the viewing patterns of users, data may also be collected from a user's Facebook account; this relies on the connection of the Facebook account to a user's YouTube ID. If this is the case, the Leanback service will have the capacity to incorporate videos which have been shared by users' friends on the social media site, as well as content derived from those user's Facebook subscriptions.
This is an accomplished utilisation of search engine optimisation techniques. By linking the Facebook and YouTube Leanback sites together, viewers are encouraged to share content and information across the sites, thus driving traffic and enhancing the performance of both sites.
The incorporation of Facebook content also adds another dimension of accuracy and relevancy to the feed of videos offered up to individuals. Whilst the use of someone's viewing history on YouTube as a means of determining their general video preferences gives rise to some discrepancies (ie not all videos watched by an individual were enjoyed by that individual), The use of Facebook subscriptions and shared video content provides a more reliable source of material which is actively "liked" by the user.
It is believed that this product will play a major role in Google TV due to be launched later this year. Google TV aims to merge the internet and television domains, and will provide unlimited internet access via your TV set. The service will be built into set top boxes and internet connected television sets.
