I've been an avid user of Youtube, but recently I seemed to be logged in somehow whenever I watched any videos on the site. I then noticed I was logged in via my Gmail account, and Google having recently bought aforementioned video provider, I figured "Aha, they've linked the two!". And, veritably, yes! But why, I ask? I never had a Youtube account, never wanted it and never want it. All the pish-posh (but quite important) privacy argumentation aside, how does one go about staying logged in to Gmail, but not logged in to Youtube? A quick search provides many answers, but none of them the right one: * "How do I unlink Youtube from my Gmail account":http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/youtube/thread?tid=07ca4b7fb0a89d1a&hl=en * "unlink youtube from google account":http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Web%20Search/thread?tid=40d7aac9e43c603e&hl=en * "The search":https://www.google.com/search?gcx=c&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=unlink+google+account+from+youtube In short, you can't! The phrasing of some of the answers seems to be: this is fundamental "functionality" of the Google account and therefore you cannot disable this. Especially the best rated answer "here":http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/youtube/thread?tid=07ca4b7fb0a89d1a&hl=en seems to support this view: bq.. It is what you get when you go to YouTube WHILE logged into your Google account [...] Because it isn't "linked" to YouTube but is merely enabled to USE YouTube [...] you have, by using it at YouTube, given your Google account YouTube functionality. You cannot "remove" its ability to use YouTube anymore than you can stop your GMail email address from functioning as a means to receiving mail. If you don't want it to be functional on YouTube then don't use YouTube while logged into it. p. What a load of h*gw*sh. Google account with Youtube functionality? I don't mind, I just don't want to use it either --- as much as I don't want to use other services, I would like the option of _not_ being automatically logged in to Youtube _in any way_ just because my email account is open. I have read that it's possible to have a Google account without Gmail. If Gmail ranks on the same level of service as Youtube, and both can be accessed through a Google account, how can it be that Youtube cannot be disabled, but Gmail can? It doesn't make much sense. But in conclusion, to watch videos anonymously, log out!