YouTube testing real-time online video recommendations

YouTube will begin integrating social media aspects into its online video offering via a toolbar it's calling "YouTube RealTime." The feature will allow users to see what their friends are currently viewing online in an attempt to leverage the recommendations of users' social networks to drive more traffic and viewer engagement.

As questions about YouTube's financial viability persist, moves into social media, experimentation around ad formats, and additional premium content deals could help to define the site's eventual revenue model. Recent analysis has shown that YouTube can't continue to tolerate the status quo, with hosting and transport costs for the site's enormous traffic load proportedly are not even close to being offset by advertising revenue.

If YouTube can popularize this feature, it might gain very valuable insight into user viewing patterns and additional ways to optimize the site for higher CPMs. Or, YouTube RealTime could turn out to be another way for YouTube to balloon traffic, with no corresponding growth in revenue. 

For more:
- see the TechCrunch post about the service here 

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