Click-to-buy links for songs, games added to YouTube
A link to Amazon.com's MP3 store appears for the song used as the soundtrack for the latest "Where the hell is Matt?" video. Click image for a larger version.
(Credit: YouTube; Jennifer Guevin/CNET News)Love that song in the latest "Where the hell is Matt?" video but have no idea what the hell it is? Wonder no more. Now YouTube will make it easier to identify songs and buy them instantly.
Google, which owns the video-sharing site, is adding "click to buy" links to thousands of video pages of YouTube partners, the company announced on its corporate blog Tuesday afternoon.
The idea is to make it easy for people to buy an MP3 or video game with the click of a mouse. The links appear just below the toolbox underneath a video, and link directly to the Amazon MP3 page or iTunes Store where people can buy the song. For video game trailers, YouTube will add links to buy the game from Amazon.
For those not interested in buying, the links will at least allow people to find out the name of an artist and title of a song playing as the soundtrack of a video they're watching.
For now, the service is only available to people in the U.S. And the only music company specifically mentioned in the announcement was EMI. But Google said this is just the beginning of a much larger project that will likely expand to include many more content partners and serve an international audience.
Jennifer Guevin is assistant managing editor of CNET News. She focuses on science and green tech. But she also makes the occasional contribution to CNET's kitchen gadgets blog or writes about the latest Web distraction. Once a week, she takes the mic as host of CNET's Daily News Podcast. E-mail Jennifer.
Amazon of course ! http://www.amazon.com/MP3-Music-Download/b?ie=UTF8&node=163856011