Users can now link YouTube channels with Google+ pages

An official post on the YouTube Partners and Creators blog has announced that users will soon have the option to link their YouTube channel with their Google+ page. It will now be possible for the user to set his or her channel name (never mind the spaces) as his Google identity. The post also shares that the advanced Google+ page management features that allow up to 50 people to manage a single Google+ page, or one person to manage up to 50 Google+ pages, will work for channels that have been linked with Google+ pages. Folks at Google have been trying this option with Google Analytics, YouTube Creators, etc., and are planning to make this feature available to all creators in the weeks to come.  

Users to be able to link YouTube channels with Google+ pages

Explaining the reason for creators to use a Google identity, the post shares that if a user brings together his YouTube identity with Google+, connecting with him on YouTube, Google, and across the web will become simpler for the user's audience. What this will also do is help a user build his or her own brand across all of Google’s products. Google shares that it is also constantly developing new engagement features such as Hangouts on Air, and features that take advantage of the best that both YouTube and Google+ have to offer.

The upcoming features build upon Google's attempts to enable YouTube users to change the way they appear on the platform, by using their Google+ profile on their YouTube channel. Users may have spotted prompts inviting them to use their Google identity on YouTube.

YouTube is now rewarding more engaging videos with higher rankings. The videos that users spend more time watching will appear higher than others in search results on YouTube. YouTube, in an official blog post reveals that the newest change is a result of its attempts at pegging instances of video discovery to the amount of time spent in watching them. The move comes after YouTube made changes to Suggested Videos in March, and recent improvements to YouTube Analytics.

YouTube shares that the results far have been positive so far, whereby it has registered more users watching than clicking. With this, YouTube shares that it expects users to spend more time watching videos from search and across the site. Importantly, video channels should benefit from this if their videos get more watching minutes, quite like what other optimisation did to its discovery features.

In September, Google released a new version of the YouTube app for iOS devices. The new YouTube app for the iPhone features thousands of additional videos, as well as improved features for finding videos and sharing videos on social networks. Unlike the previous version of the YouTube iPhone app, the new version features online advertising, according to a Google spokesman.