YouTube™ for Dummies®

Chapter 2. Registration, Please: Creating a YouTube Account

In This Chapter

• Joining YouTube

• Verifying your e-mail address

• Logging in to YouTube

• Changing your e-mail address, password, or username

• Creating multiple accounts

• Closing your YouTube account

When you're registering a new account, YouTube doesn't demand excessive amounts of personal information from you. YouTube doesn't ask for your home address or your telephone number — and it does not ask for your credit card number. Compared to most other major sites, the YouTube registration requirements are appealingly non-intrusive.

But let's not kid ourselves: We all know that in this brave, new world of the Web, complete anonymity is a thing of the past. Whenever you register an account with any Web site, you're sharing your personal information. But you can feel safe with YouTube: Their terms-of-service disclosure assures you that they won't share your personal information with other Web sites or corporations.

Nevertheless, when you sign up with YouTube or any other Web site, you're "putting yourself out there" as they say; and with a Web site like YouTube, where you can share personal videos with a mass audience, it's worth taking a moment to think about the face that you want to present to the world.

Signing Up with YouTube

YouTube has an open-door policy: Anyone who visits the site can search the site and watch videos. You aren't required to register, to supply information about yourself, or to create a username and a password. That's ...