YouTube Real Time shows instant comment reactions

Launched yesterday, YouTube Real Time is a new site that lets you watch a YouTube video alongside a stream of its timestamped video comments. This means that right as big, LOL-worthy moments unfold before you, you can simultaneously see what people said about them.

As an example, let's take the classic viral video David After Dentist. Watch it on YouTube Real Time, and you'll see streams of comments trickle in at specific moments of hilarity. And when you hit 0:59, you'll see exactly how the masses felt about little David's Super Saiyan freak-out moment.

All of this is possible thanks to YouTube's APIs. You may not have noticed, but YouTube actually adds a hyperlink to any timestamped references in video comments, letting you instantly click directly to any moments mentioned. Developer Mark Lyons used this to his advantage in making YouTube Real Time.

While I did encounter a few glitches with the site (comments failed to load on a few occasions), I found YouTube Real Time to be an interesting new YouTube-watching experience, almost like watching a tweet stream during a televised event. If you care to see it for yourself, head over to ytrealtime.com and pick a favorite video.