It looks like Conan O’Brien’s imaginary YouTwitFace site is coming one step closer to reality. Last night, YouTube announced that it’s introducing a new “You may know these people” feature, which of course sounds quite similar to Facebook’s “People you may know” offering.
As stated on the YouTube Blog, the “You may know these people” box will appear on the homepage when you’re logged in. It then “shows you the YouTube channels of people who might be your acquaintances, and lets you easily connect and subscribe to them.”
Next, the post explained, “How will we make the suggestions? If you’ve logged in to YouTube and sent a video to a friend’s email address, or if you have your YouTube account linked to a Gmail account, we will use this information to help identify your friends who already have YouTube channels.”
This feature may make people a lot more fond of YouTube; trading music videos and comedy clips with pals promises to be fun. But if, on the other hand, you’d rather not have all of your Gmail contacts (think coworkers, family members) know that you gawk at bikini-clad amateur guitarists, it’s also possible to opt out. Just sign into YouTube, head to the “Privacy” section under “My Account,” and uncheck the “Let others find my channel on YouTube if they have my email address” box.
The “You may know these people” feature is supposed to launch “over the next few weeks,” so you should have a bit of time to decide which approach to adopt.
