“Big Brother” has shown us that there’s a fine line between surveillance and entertainment, and Google‘s Nest unit is now ready to cross that line: Nest has teamed up with YouTube stars iJustine, Devin Graham aka “Devin Super Tramp” and Lewis Hilsenteger of Unbox Theapy fame to promote its new security camera product with YouTube live streams.
Hilsenteger is going to live stream a video feed from his production studio with the new camera, and Graham will give viewers a behind-the-scenes look at his shoots; iJustine, who is also known as Justine Ezarik, will use the camera for special event live streams. Out of the three, she is also the one with the most live experience: Ezarik launched her online career in 2007 with live streams on the pioneering real-time video site Justin.tv.
For Nest, the partnership seems at least initially to be about promotion. The Google subsidiary unveiled its Nest Cam, which is a successor to its Dropcam product, at a press event in San Francisco on Wednesday. The new camera streams video in 1080p to mobile devices, and optionally also stores recordings in the cloud.
Nest may expand the program to other YouTube creators over time, but a spokeswoman declined to say whether this feature is eventually going to be available to everyone. She said that the company may have more to share about its YouTube partnership in the coming months.
