YouTube responds to comments furore with new moderation page

Stung by criticism of its integration of Google+ into its commenting system, YouTube has responded with a new page -- youtube.com/comments -- for video creators to help them better deal with their comments.

"Many of you have told us that you use your YouTube Inbox to manage comments," writes YouTube engineer Patrick Doyle in a blog post. "With the new commenting system moving comment notices to alerts, removing this feature was, well, a bummer."

No kidding. Many YouTube users took exception to being forced to have a Google+ identity, and changing the way the comments section works with filters, but for people who make popular videos, the situation was more complex. The new system should unpick that a little.

"From this central page you can easily remove comments, flag comments for spam or abuse, give a thumbs up, or click over to the video watch page and reply," Doyle explains. "Quickly toggle between comments that are published on the channel, comments that are pending channel manager approval, or comments that have been marked as spam."

The page isn't quite finished -- the rather useful ability to reply inline is yet to be added, as is expanding all replies.

Google is quickly plugging its social network into every aspect of its business. Last week saw the controversial decision to let Google+ users message Gmail accounts. Messages are filtered into Gmail's recently added 'Social' folder, and can be turned off altogether, but the default option is to let any Google+ user message you.

What do you make of the new comments page? What features should YouTube add, or bring back? Let me know in the anonymous comments section, or over on our competing Facebook page.