YouTube brings Leanback forward

Google introduced a new option on YouTube that’s kind of a mashup of YouTube, Facebook, and Pandora. It’s called Leanback and it provides a full screen ongoing series of videos. One ends, the other begins. The preferences are based on what your Google profile says about you, what your Facebook friends are linking to and Liking (if you let it connect to Facebook, or what you search on).

I must admit it’s kind of cool. I typed in Tom Waits and got a whole bunch of videos and concert clips that I can just leave running while I work. I’m sure there’s a business/strategy to this story, something about getting you to linger so you can watch more ads, but mostly I just think it’s neat.