Why Connecting your YouTube and Google Accounts Matters
Over the last several months many of you who created a YouTube account before May 2009 may have seen prompters asking you to upgrade to a Google account. We first announced this transition in a blog post last July. In the coming weeks, all YouTube accounts created before May 2009 will need to complete the process of linking to a Google account. A Google account is a single-sign in system for accessing all Google products and services. Any existing email address can be used to create a Google account.
You’re probably asking yourself ‘‘Why am I being required to connect my YouTube Account with a Google Account?” Well, let’s use an analogy. Imagine instead of that sleek new mobile phone you bought last year, you were instead carrying around one of those big brick phones from the 90’s. It might still make calls, but it would be slow and bulky and unable to do 90% of what current smart phones do. Your old YouTube account is a lot like that cell phone. It still works, but it’s not as fast, secure and efficient as the Google Account we’re asking you to link to.
While we understand that change isn’t always welcome, we’re confident that this transition will result in a better experience for you on YouTube. Not only does connecting your YouTube account to a Google Account improve your account security, it will also give you better video recommendations and quick access to the very latest updates and features which our engineers are releasing on the site every week.
After linking to a Google Account, your YouTube username will stay the same. However, when you link to a Google Account, your old YouTube password won’t work anymore. After linking, you’ll instead need to use your Google Account password when you sign into YouTube.
If you’re having any issues, we’ve created a series of articles that you can reference for help. By clicking on the links below, you can learn how to easily solve some common issues that may arise in the linking process:
Michael Ortali, YouTube Web Developer, recently watched “Macarena - Los del Rio”
You’re probably asking yourself ‘‘Why am I being required to connect my YouTube Account with a Google Account?” Well, let’s use an analogy. Imagine instead of that sleek new mobile phone you bought last year, you were instead carrying around one of those big brick phones from the 90’s. It might still make calls, but it would be slow and bulky and unable to do 90% of what current smart phones do. Your old YouTube account is a lot like that cell phone. It still works, but it’s not as fast, secure and efficient as the Google Account we’re asking you to link to.
While we understand that change isn’t always welcome, we’re confident that this transition will result in a better experience for you on YouTube. Not only does connecting your YouTube account to a Google Account improve your account security, it will also give you better video recommendations and quick access to the very latest updates and features which our engineers are releasing on the site every week.
After linking to a Google Account, your YouTube username will stay the same. However, when you link to a Google Account, your old YouTube password won’t work anymore. After linking, you’ll instead need to use your Google Account password when you sign into YouTube.
If you’re having any issues, we’ve created a series of articles that you can reference for help. By clicking on the links below, you can learn how to easily solve some common issues that may arise in the linking process:
- I Can't Sign Into YouTube After Linking to a Google Account
- I Don't Know Which Google Account I'm Linked To
- I Linked to the Wrong Google Account
- I Can't Remember My Password
Michael Ortali, YouTube Web Developer, recently watched “Macarena - Los del Rio”
Posts
3 comments:
Being forced to link my accounts has made my YouTube experience (and overall Google) about five times worse.
I have three accounts, which each needed to be linked to a different account. So I had to create two new Google accounts just to accommodate this.
Now, I'm always signed out of YouTube because I signed in or out of my account elsewhere on a Google site, so I'm constantly having to sign back in whereas before, I was always signed in.
When I try to sign in, it does it to the wrong account because it's signed in elsewhere, so I have to sign out and in again.
And because I keep signing into YouTube with different accounts, Google keeps signing me out, so I have to sign in again everytime I want to see my mail.
I'm only sticking around on YouTube because there's no other alternative. Google Search and Gmail however... Don't expect me to stick around much longer.
I have really enjoyed your site. Keep up the good work
Linking the accounts allows Google to collect even more information from you. Most of us may not have to worry about the big brother implications personally, but the value of this information in predicting trends in human behaviour is immense, and has staggering potential to be abused in marketing, politics and so forth. The "don't be evil" credo is soooo last decade, it seems.
Post a Comment