Maybe I am becoming a real blogger because the minute I read about Google's $1.65 billion purchase of YouTube, the first thing I wanted to do was write about it on my blog (meaning I would have to make two posts this week). Maybe it's because we spend so much time in class talking about Google - we read an entire book on it - and YouTube - which comes up in conversation every week - but mostly because I feel like this is something that was predicted in class. Someone was going to buy YouTube and help solve it's problems, and I'm not surprised it's Google - they are, after all, taking over the world like that video we watched in class suggested.
It's interesting to see what different media have to say about Google's purchasing YouTube because I haven't made up my mind of what I think about this yet. CNNMoney says that this acquisition may mean big things for the media world and that other search companies that lag behind Google are going to have to make changes to keep up (perhaps Yahoo! will buy Facebook like the rumors say). Meanwhile, The Washington Post's technology section calls Google's purchase "a gamble" and points out how at this point YouTube is unprofitable and it's ludicrous how much money Google spent on this deal, especially because of all of the copyright infringement issues and the fickleness of users (the article points to MySpace.com shifting from teenagers to people in their thirties after Facebook got hot). USA Today's story talks about Web 2.0 and how Google buying YouTube illustrates a trend in modern media - it's becoming less out of reach and more personalized. And the New York Times' take was skeptical as well, saying this looks like the dot-com bubble of the 90s, but will it work, or crash like a lot of dot-com businesses did then.
While I'm no expert I can only see good things for Google and YouTube's partnership - Google will be able to enhance its services to include one of the most popular video databases and YouTube can get a hand with it's copyright issues because Google already has deals with most of the music industries and other entertainment groups, and has the clout to work things out with them. This buyout also gives YouTube legitimacy, in my eyes. "If Google's getting involved, this must be one hell of a site," is what came to my mind after the news broke today. Also, I can expect YouTube to be a part of online journalism much like Google is a part of journalism research. I'm not sure how everyone else feels - the media is certainly skeptical - but I see this as a good thing. What do you think?
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Well it's only been a couple weeks, and YouTube's already getting flak from copyright holders (especially Comedy Central). I still aggree with you that it's a good thing, though. YouTube really has potential to be a good source of information in the future for journalists and everybody else.
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