YouTube announced yesterday that you will now be able to communally watch videos while hanging out on Google+. Read that sentence again and think about how much sense it would have made five years ago. The folks at YouTube are touting this feature as a way to create remote video parties. From the YouTube blog:

Ever been to a party where you start showing friends your favorite YouTube videos? Compete for the screen to see who knows the latest and greatest hit? Now you can get the same experience even if you’re a world away, with the new YouTube app in Google+ Hangouts.

Create, control, save and even share playlists of videos with your friends—all inside a Hangout. Just start a Hangout, have everyone load the YouTube app at the top of the screen, and start adding videos. It’s like your own VIP table at the world’s coolest YouTube party.

Great, so now when my relatives, who are spread out all over the country, want to gather and share vacation videos, we can do it. There’s still the problem of trying to stay awake during Mother’s 28 minute trip to the grocery store. She thought she was taking a picture of a canteloupe for her produce blog, but she took a video instead. Mostly it’s a black screen, because she put her phone back in her purse. What’s really got us scratching our heads is why she uploaded it to YouTube.