• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, May 12, 2010

YouTube took another step toward protecting consumer privacy Wednesday by allowing people to upload and share videos with a select group of people. Using the feature Unlisted, only people who have the link to a video can watch it.

Think private photo album. But rather than still photos, this feature provides support for videos. The video will not appear in any of YouTube's public pages, in search results, on your personal channel or on the browse page. The private video does require those watching it to have an account. There is no limit to the number of people who can view it.

People who upload videos and make them Unlisted get a link they can send to those with whom they wish to share. The Unlisted feature provides a perfect option for companies that don't have a server to upload video ideas, or a class project, video from last summer's family reunion or your secret Broadway audition tape. Other than Unlisted, YouTube has a private sharing option with a 25-person cap that's limited to other YouTube users.

This walled-garden approach should alleviate the MySpace problem that YouTube has developed. Not allowing people to control the content creates chaos and could get messy, according to Neil Robertson, Trada chief executive officer.

Robertson has begun to run campaigns in YouTube for Trada. He says advertisers can pick either videos or categories where ads appear. "Will advertising pierce the veil of those private areas that require you to have a link to view the videos?" he asks, mentioning that other networks allow that to happen. In these other networks, "people are firewalled out, but not ads," he says. Perhaps the next feature should become a "Groups of Friends" list.

In other YouTube news, on Saturday, May 15, ZYNC from American Express presents an evening with The Nationalbenefiting Red Hot. This VEVO event will stream live on YouTube from the Brooklyn Academy of Music at 8PM EST. D.A. Pennebaker (director of "Don't Look Back," "Monterey Pop," and "The War Room," among other films; and Chris Hegedus will direct the show's Webcast.

The National isn't the first concert or live event streamed on YouTube. Google's video site has hosted live streams from U.S. President Barack Obama, IPL Cricket, and U2.