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YOUTUBE ALLOWS DIRECT KICKSTARTER, INDIEGOGO LINKING

Big news for crowdfunders — Google announced today that YouTube videos can now be directly linked to projects on Kickstarter and Indiegogo. (Actually, in Google speak, that’s “Using annotations to help fund your creative projects.”) Given the expansive reach of the user-generated video giant, this means that many more eyeballs will land on projects seeking coin on these platforms.

From Google’s announcement:

Over the past year, crowdsourced fundraising has exploded as great way to raise money for creative projects. We’ve seen lots of you using platforms like Kickstarter and Indiegogo to fund projects, and we want to make it easier for even more of you to use these tools. We’ve teamed up with these platforms so you can now link directly to project pages on Kickstarter or Indiegogo through annotations.

We’ve been inspired by creators who have funded projects through these platforms, like Freddie Wong’s Video Game High School and James Rolfe’s Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie, and we hope this helps many more of you launch the projects you’ve been dreaming about.

Today’s development is an actual collaboration between Google and the two crowdfunding sites. The Annotations tab in YouTube’s Video Manager offers a checkbox allowing users to add a URL from either site. What’s more, YouTube even has a curated Kickstarter page.

As an example of what a Kickstarter annotation looks like, check out the trailer for the documentary Please Subscribe and watch for the Kickstarter link to appear in the lower right of the video.

And while you’re at it, check out Filmmaker’s curated Kickstarter page, full of excellent projects for your funding pleasure.

(Hat tip: Sarah Perez at TechCrunch.)

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