Google is marrying ecommerce with entertainment by making it easy to buy items on its YouTube video site. To start, Google is embedding iTunes and Amazon.com links on videos from companies such as EMI Music, and providing Amazon.com product links to the newly-released video game Spore on videos from Electronic Arts.
According to its advertising page, YouTube has 71 million unique users each month and has the 6th largest audience on the Internet.
The "click-to-buy" links will appear on the watch pages of thousands of YouTube partner videos and are being gradually added to YouTube's library of music videos. Currently they are only available to users in the United States, but YouTube said its goal is to expand the program to additional content and product partners, as well as to its international users.
"We're just getting started, so stay tuned for other innovative new features and product options soon."