14 DAY TRIAL // YouTube is urging its veteran users, who may still be using regular YouTube accounts created on the site, to link them to their Google Accounts. While YouTube isn't explicitly saying what happens if you don't, you can assume they'll simply stop working.
Or, most likely, users will be forced to link the accounts before doing anything else. In any case, it's probably better to do it now.
Though it maintains quite a unique identity, YouTube is very much part of Google. In the years after it acquired the company, the site became more and more like other Google sites. This may not always be the best idea, but when it comes to the technical aspects, it was clearly the right choice.
This is also true for accounts. Switching to Google's infrastructure has plenty of advantages and most people already have a Google account anyway. If privacy is your concern, you can simply create a dummy Google account and link to that.
"Over the last several months many of you who created a YouTube account before May 2009 may have seen prompters asking you to upgrade to a Google account," Michael Ortali, YouTube Web Developer, wrote.
"We first announced this transition in a blog post last July. In the coming weeks, all YouTube accounts created before May 2009 will need to complete the process of linking to a Google account," he added.
If you already have a Google account, the switch should be pain free. Otherwise, you're going to have to create one, which only takes a few minutes. As Google notes, you can use any existing email to set up a new account, you don't have to create a Gmail profile as well.
Be warned that after you link the accounts, your YouTube one will stop working. YouTube also listed several places to get more info on the switch and where to find help in its blog post.