New on YouTube: private videos

YouTube has supposedly come with a new feature over the weekend: users can now post videos to YouTube that will not appear in the lists. User can still link to their uploaded videos though and send the link to as many people as they link: the video is online as usual in the YouTube-network.

Such a service offers many advantages. Users can now also upload videos that won’t appear in the list, but remain private, and decide with whom they want to share the material with. This can be useful for many purposes, from home movies and family events to corporate videos only meant for employees and more.

However, there are also potential dangers to this new feature. Where infringing videos could previously be found by the owners, reported to YouTube and then removed, many of these videos will now no longer be traceable. Also, users outside the intended target of a video can’t warn YouTube anymore about possible objectionable content of videos, for instance racist content or things that are otherwise "not okay".

18 May 2010