Kate and Wills maximise engagement with Royal Wedding YouTube stream

Spiffing news for Web-savvy royalists -- the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton will be streamed live on YouTube.

The four-hour online coverage will chart Kate and Wills' historic journey to matrimonial bliss, from the ceremony at Westminster Abbey, the trip to Buckingham Palace (to meet the parents), and even the couple's post-wedding balcony appearance. Presumably after which the cameras are switched off and the newlyweds are granted a little privacy.

The feed kicks off at 10am on 29 April (only nine more sleeps -- squeeee!) and will be accessible via the Royal Family's YouTube channel, where you can also watch the Queen's Keyboard Cat reaction videos and Prince Philip unboxing a new laptop.

The feed itself will be taken from the BBC's coverage, but without the commentary. A liveblog commentary is planned however, which will include historical information, extra photographs and an integrated Twitter feed.

The Windsors are making a king-sized effort to get the Royal Wedding online. The official British Monarchy Facebook page has been redesigned to keep its fans up to date on the big day, with a 'Stories' tab that lets users post about how they're going about preparing for the wedding. We're going to string bunting inside the CNET UK Anderson shelter and have ourselves a picnic.

A Twitter feed from @ClarenceHouse will provide live updates as the ceremony progresses, and there's also an official Flickr site -- sadly not royalty-free.

This is shaping up to be the Royal Wedding 2.0. As egalitarian international types, we've mixed feelings about the whole affair, but it'll be interesting to see if the most old-fashioned institution of all is able to harness the ferocious power of the Internet on the day.

Below we've embedded a promotional video for the livestream. Be warned -- the music is catchy.