YouTube Expands Live Streaming, Adds Custom Thumbnails & Merchandise Links For All

Google has announced a range of updates for their YouTube service that will allow more video producers and publishers the ability to live stream. So long as your channel has 100 subscribers then you will be able to live stream from your Google account, most likely to compete with other streaming services such as Twitch TV. It’s not clear yet if YouTube will one day allow all users to stream live regardless of their subscriber level.

Not only that but Google is now allowing all users the ability to use custom thumbnails on their videos, a big improvement from the old system where you had to shoot your video with the thumbnail in mind, now you can just pick one, upload it and all is good.

Finally there will be a new features to use annotations to link to external online stores, allowing a new way for users to monetize their shows and the ability program related videos to link content together better.

This is great news for YouTube users and it effectively makes all verified users a YouTube partner, bringing you more ways to deliver content and monetize your material.

Thank you TechCrunch for providing us with this information.