This is a big deal, not because it is yet another example of Twitter's increasing influence (PCWorld, PCMag, Techcrunch), though it is notable that the move was made in response to requests by Google employees. What I think people are missing is that this isn't (only) about making it easier to share YouTube links on Twitter. It's already pretty easy just cut and paste the URL into your twitter client most of which have the added benefit of shortening the URL. Ultimately, I don't think Google sees a competitive threat from other video websites just because they already allow sharing to Twitter.

To understand is really going on you just need to remember that Google didn't purchase Youtube to get into the video hosting/streaming business (I mean who wants to be in that business long term anyway), they purchased it as a stronghold in the video information business: what do people watch, what do they bookmark, and now, what do they tweet.

It's not that Google couldn't previously collect info on what videos were being Tweeted but it was limited to when it happens to crawl the exploding number of Twitter pages when a YouTube URL happens to be among the recent tweets (very hard to keep up), or when a link is clicked on in a tweet which often goes through intermediaries like TinyURL and masks the original tweeter. Google has now determined that this information is now important enough that they want to collect it at the moment it was created and cutting third parties out of the info entirely. In sum, Google now recognizes Twitter as a repository of real-time information and at least with regard to video, wants to take some of that mojo back.

Now, I may be biased because we at ffwd saw this opportunity nearly a month ago and launched Twitmatic, the real-time video stream of Twitter community. If you too recognize the value that Google is going after, you don't need to wait for Google to figure it out. If you want to see all the videos being tweeted from YouTube (or one of 250 other video sites) you can do that immediately at http://www.twitmatic.com. Since then we've added support for filtering the stream on Twitter Trends, and now that we've been given proper access to the API (thanks Twitter!) we can start implementing the more advanced features users want:

• watch only the videos posted by your followers or people who follow you
• discover new people to follow based on the videos they tweet
• a twitter based comment/reply stream for videos
• track videos that correspond to your areas of interest

And please join the Twitmatic community @Twitmatic on Twitter to direct our efforts so in essence, Twitmatic will be your personalizable real-time video community and startpage.

For the past month or so, we've been working on Facebook Connect integration with our site, and now it's finally available for you to try out. It's a great way for users to be able to mix the powerful web channel surfing experience on ffwd with the unique social context that Facebook provides.

This first release includes the following features:

- Sign up or log in to your account on ffwd using your Facebook account.

- Import your favorite shows and interests from Facebook directly into your ffwd channel.

- View or search for your Facebook friends on ffwd using their Facebook identities.

- Post videos directly to your Facebook profile page when sharing or saving a video on ffwd.

We'll continue to work on improving the Facebook user experience on our site in the coming months, so please let us know what else you'd like to see!

A new television experience by and for the Twitter community

San Francisco, CA – March 11, 2009 – At InteractiveTV Today’s TV of Tomorrow Show, ffwd (pronounced “fast forward”) today launched Twitmatic, a destination powered by ffwd.com that lets users watch a real-time stream of videos being shared on Twitter. Now, the company that introduced hundreds of thousands of consumers to the idea of a personal remote control for web video is bringing its channel concept to millions of Twitterers – go to www.twitmatic.com and check it out.

“Twitter, as the dedicated real-time communications platform, is the best place and audience to demonstrate how ffwd enables an instantaneous community-driven television channel,” said Patrick Koppula, CEO of ffwd. “Plus, it’s just so much fun to watch the visual stream of collective consciousness take shape!”

ffwd has already received an incredible amount of user feedback on its Twitmatic release and looks forward to making further enhancements including:
•    support for Twitter trending terms;
•    support for filtering by usernames/people you follow;
•    support for filtering by ffwd channels;
•    search by keyword;
•    a comments stream; and
•    permalinks

Twitmatic is built on ffwd’s MyTV infrastructure, a beta platform to increase the stickiness of your blog, website or social profile by creating a channel based on it. In just a few minutes, the MyTV Widget lets you now build an embeddable "TV station" that plays an engaging sequence of hundreds of videos based on your site topics (or any topics you choose for that matter). To get started making one specific to your own community, visit the MyTV creation tool at http://www.ffwd.com/widget/create. The ability to integrate the player with your look and feel is coming soon.

Bonus:  For those who are unable to make it to SxSW, don’t just read what’s going on, watch it in real-time starting Friday, March 13th at http://www.twitmatic.com/sxsw. To know when the stream has started, follow @twitmatic on Twitter or subscribe to blog.ffwd.com. If you are posting video from SxSW to Twitter, be sure to include SxSW in the tweet so this channel can pick it up.