Google buys YouTube
I’d be remiss if I didn’t blog on Google’s purchase of YouTube for more than $1 billion.
Google is ubiquitous in culture. The name has been verbed. No longer do you look for something on the Internet, you google it. Not so much YouTube.
But I do think it says yet more about the emergence of Web 2.0 on the scene. And it’s yet another tool for Google in its arsenal as it becomes the Web-based operating system. And, surprisingly enough, I don’t think that’s a bad thing.
The Google brand is hot. Their applications are clean, crisp, and functional, without all the “extras” in other services. Their policies and practices are socially responsible, progressive, and from what I hear, they’re a stellar company to work for. But now what happens?
The YouTube brand is growing, but as yet mostly unknown. The Google Video service continues Google’s straight forward, function-right approach to software development, while the YouTube service is… well… less than that.
No one can argue the massive strength this is for Web communication. Professionally, I use Google Video for various projects. (See the ELCA’s Google Video search result.) Personally, I use YouTube for quick-and-dirty embeds in MySpace and blog postings. While the assumption that broadcast television is on the path of the dodo is a bit errant, there is definitely a demand for personal broadcasting.
Occasionally, a corporation buyout comes along that I’m not 100 percent opposed to. At least for now, this appears to be one of them.
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Daniel Ross-Jones serves as Minister for Youth & Young Adults at First Congregational Church of Palo Alto, United Church of Christ. Living in the San Francisco Bay Area for a time still measured in months, he is frequently getting lost and discovering treasures of a landscape very different from his Upper Midwestern roots. Green Jello Hotdish is a blog exploring the intersections of his days. 
