Google+ Adds Video Status Updates

Google+ is adding yet another new feature, there seems to be a new one every day or so. Users can now record videos of themselves straight from Google+ and then post them for their friends to see.

All they need is a webcam, the 'add video' menu in the Google+ share box now has a new option, "Record Video," along with the existing ones, "Upload video," "YouTube" and "From your phone."

"Google+ has long been the place to share and interact with video -- Whether it's using Hangouts with your friends or watching YouTube videos. Today we’re making video a bit more fun by letting you record and share videos of yourself using your webcam," Google's Shana Gitnick, who works on the Google+ Photos team, wrote.

"To get started, click the video icon in the share box and choose Record Video. Once you've authorized Flash to access your camera, you can start recording. And once you're done, the video appears as an attachment to your post -- ready to share with your circles," she explained.

The feature is very simple to use. But some may wonder why Google would need this feature, after all, it already owns YouTube, the largest video site in the world. Indeed, there are plenty of people that regularly post webcam-recorded updates on YouTube.

But that's a different social graph and a different environment. What's more, the videos recorded via Google+ don't even end up on YouTube. Instead, they're stored in your photo albums, along with the photos and videos you may have already uploaded.

Underneath, it's all stored on Picasa. The photo host service added support for video quite a while back. While it seemed that the feature was competing with YouTube, the two services are different, YouTube is about sharing, Picasa is about storing, primarily. Now, the same technology is used to store your Google+ videos.