YouTube fights against trolls and weaves Google+ into your web identity

You can find some controversial stuff on YouTube, from the saucy trailer to Lars Von Trier's erotic (sex) movie Nymphomaniac to Miley Cyrus twerking her way to infamy at the MTV Music Awards. But to find really awful content, all you have to do is take a look at the comments section of YouTube videos, which sometimes reads like a more idiotic and Wild West version of the Daily Mail comments section.

That may well change, with the news that Google is rolling out a new commenting system powered by Google+. It means that like you see when reading the reviews on Amazon, comments will be ranked depending on a number of factors. With YouTube this could include whether you're the creator of the video, a popular personality on YouTube, and interestingly for Google's social strategy – if they are your friend on Google+.

What it means for Google+

It's rare that people actively Google+. It was released and promoted as a social network, but the vast majority of people don’t use it in the way they might use Facebook and Twitter. If logged in, it can feel like a barren desert or ghost town.

But a lot of you will probably be on Google+. This is because a lot, if not all of you, will be using a Google tool of some sort such as Gmail or Google Apps. If you have a Google+ account and are logged in, this already actively influences what search results and advertisements you're seeing.

Google already requires you to create a Google+ account to use crucial YouTube features, and will drive even more people to use the network with the comments integration. Google+ is steadily being interweaved into everything you might be doing with search and video on the web,

This won't be taken kindly – some YouTube users will be pretty angry about Google having such a hold of their information. But it does mean that Google+ matters more than it ever has, and something you’ll find hard to avoid being part of, if only passively.