YouTube May Be Heading To Your Microwave

YouTube is expanding its horizons, including places you might watch it.

Back in 2005, YouTube revolutionized how we see videos on the internet. It was simple, it allowed viewers to upload videos to their own channel, and at the time, even the average user could get popular. Since then, video quality has been improved, YouTube channels have been given the gift of monetization if they could rack up enough views, and YouTube began changing the system around to cater to big business.

Now, YouTube is the TV you customize yourself, and most users watch its content on their smartphones and tablets, or in some cases, connect their laptop to their HDTV via HMDI cable and watch it in high-definition like a regular TV show.

With the interconnection now available via Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and other social media websites, it’s easier than ever to make a new video a phenomenon. Having more friends on any of them, or even getting referred by former Star Trek actor and internet superstar George Takei can lead to a video “going viral” overnight.

YouTube Director of Product Management Shiva Rajaraman says the company’s vision has it growing easier to find and watch a video, on every video-capable gadget you’ve got. And with technology advancing as it is, it may not be too long before you’re watching Wheezy Waiter on your microwave while you heat up a Hot Pocket, or some coffee.

YouTube’s hope is that when you arrive via Facebook or even a Google search, you’ll stick around and see some of their partner content, because YouTube partners always have ads at the beginning of their videos. Perhaps they might even start incorporating the technique used by Blip.tv, forwarding you to the next video automatically based on what you just watched, although some viewers find it intrusive for a video to get pushed on them just because they didn’t stop the one they were on before it ended.

What do you think about the future of YouTube?