YouTube is a destination for hosted video, but may soon become a social network.
According to a report from Venture Beat, YouTube is working on a project known internally as Backstage that lets users post text, video and polls to their personal channel page.
Those posts may also be made available via other services. If you posted a funny picture to YouTube, there may be an option to send it to Twitter, Facebook or other services, much like the Instagram previews and links you see on Twitter.
It’s an interesting move for YouTube if it pans out, and might see it leapfrog social services in many ways. As we enter an era of video-first sharing, YouTube has a natural lead on the competition.
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This could also encourage content creators to stay put. Facebook and others have been poaching YouTube stars, so Backstage may be a way to encourage them to stay home rather than venture away from YouTube.
If it works out, we’ll likely see Backstage this Fall for desktop and mobile.
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