As its name suggests, YouTube Live provides live-streaming events rather than the recorded videos found on the regular YouTube site.

"With over 2 billion views a day, it's easy to think about YouTube as a place to watch videos recorded in the past. But you've told us you want more--and that includes events taking place right now," Google managers Joshua Siegel and Christopher Hamilton wrote in a Friday post on .

The new live-streaming service includes , a home page where you'll find events streaming at this very moment, as well as information on events slated for today, tomorrow, and the next seven days. When you subscribe to one or more YouTube Live partners, you'll be notified of upcoming live streams on your YouTube homepage.

YouTube has streamed a variety of live events in the past, including and . But the new live channel is a more concerted effort to establish YouTube as a broadcast-style destination for real-time entertainment.

Initially, the live-streaming beta program will only allow select YouTube partners "with accounts in good standing" to stream live content on the site.