Google announced a new Webmaster Tools feature that lets you add users who can act on behalf of your site in other Google products. These users will be referred to as “associates”.
This seems to be another step towards Google’s unification of its various products, which has largely been helped by its recently consolidated privacy policy, and has been fueled by the integration of Google+ as the “social spine” of Google’s offerings.
Google is starting the offering off with YouTube support (specifically, members of YouTube’s partner program), but says other Google product integrations will be on the way.
“Many organizations have multiple presences on the web,” says Google software engineer Konstantin Roslyakov. “For example, Webmaster Tools lives at www.google.com/webmasters, but it also has a Twitter account and a YouTube channel. It’s important that visitors to these other properties have confidence that they are actually associated with the Webmaster Tools site. However to date it has been challenging for webmasters to manage which users can take actions on behalf of their site in different services.”
“Unlike site owners and users, associates can’t view site data or take any site actions in Webmaster Tools, but they are authorized to perform specific tasks in other products,” says Roslyakov.
For now, YouTube partner program members can link their YouTube channels to their site. More information on the set-up process here.
What products do you want to see Google add next?