YouTube adds Google Moderator

Video giant looking to spark some more intelligent audience feedback for your videos

YouTube is looking to spark smarter conversations across its video-sharing site.  Today, the company announced it's integrated Google Moderator to enable real-time feedback from its audience.  

In a blog post, the company said, "Every day, hundreds of millions of videos spark dialogues on everything from the future of the African continent, to what should be done about the oil spill, to the best slam dunk of all time.  But until now, it’s been difficult to harness those free-flowing discussions."

What YouTube is referring to here are the comments placed below videos.  Unfortunately, as we all know those comments at times range from smart to rude, or even downright hilarious.  Some can be completely irrelevant.  

The moderator feature will attempt to fix the problem by letting page moderators set parameters for dialogue, including topic, type of submission and length of conversation.  Audience can vote up or down in real-time and then moderators can choose to respond to top-voted submissions, also with the option to remove inappropriate content.  Keep in mind, this platform works fully in realtime, giving it a more live and interactive feel.  

This isn't exactly a new feature on YouTube, as the site has integrated Google Moderator in past interviews with President Obama and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.  It's now just opening up this feature to all its users.  

The company said it's launched the feature with 12 users including the NYTimes, Stanford, and Howcast.  On the NYTimes YouTube page, the moderator has basically opened up the conversation by letting users "Ask The New York Times."  My favorite question written on there so far, "Any advice for a young writer like myself?"  That question has received the most thumbs up and NYTimes should answer it.