Something just occured to me. Google are well known for introducing something and blitzing the competition. gMail beat all the other webmail services, I use Google Maps loads and Google Local, Blogger is one of the most popular blogging tools on the net, I use Froogle loads, I have Google Desktop on my laptop, the list goes on.
But when it comes to Google Video, Google is getting beaten. Quite badly beaten actually. YouTube is kicking ass. Speed is the main reason. If I want to get a video on Google Video I have to open my uploader application, upload the video, go to the site, log into my account and fill out all the details. I then need to wait for validation before it goes live.
YouTube, I just open the site, click the upload tag, fill out a few forms and then select the file for uploading and give it 15 minutes or so and it will be processed and live on the site.
You could argue that they are serving different audiences and that Google Video is more interested in selling videos and such but I disagree. If I was to guess at what YouTube’s eventual business model would be I would have thought that would be a good way for go to them.
YouTube have also managed to do what Google do best – embrace the first stages of Web 2.0. YouTube is packed with AJAX, there is loads of it! Deleting comments happens via AJAX, ratings uses AJAX, many other features to do, saving videos as playlists happens live in the flash windows. The site has tags which did a lot of the popularity of Flickr too.
I think this is one of those rare occasions when Google didn’t get it quite right. YouTube on the otherhand have come in as the fresh blood, Google has become the corporate giant interested in profit – Google sell all the premium videos, YouTube don’t really have a business model at the moment. It’s a weird reveral. Usually it’s Google coming in as the renigade offering a great service such as gMail vs. Hotmail, now the tables have turned. That’s the way the crazy tech market works I guess.
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This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 11th, 2006 at 1:58 pm and is filed under Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.