The perplexing Google Video just deepened its identity crisis. First devoted (inexplicably) to TV closed-captioned transcripts (no video included), Google Video is now attempting to redefine itself as as America's Best Home Videos. Google is soliciting uploads of homemade videos in any number, any length. Nobody knows what the ultimate purpose of this will be, but Google does reveal that contributors may assign a price to their "product," which strangers will presumably flock to pay for. this tactic makes Google Video seem desperate for content while refusing to simply search for it, as Yahoo! Video does so successfully. Google seems to be targeting a video version of Flickr … but with price tags? How about a video version of MP3.com … but with price tags? All I know for sure is that Google Video is farther up a creek than before. And when Google proves me wrong sometime in the future, I'll be the first to asdmit it. Meanwhile, Jacobian.org notes a disturbing portion of the uploader agreement:
If You have not designated a price for Your Authorized Content and We incur extraordinary costs and expenses in hosting, indexing and displaying Your Authorized Content, we may charge a fee in order to defray these costs.
It's unclear who would pay this fee—the uploader or the content viewers. Jacobian assumes the former, and it does sound that way: If your free video gets too much traffic, Google will charge you for the bandwidth. Yikes.
1. I tested this upload system out and found that my videos do not show up in my video status window. Anyone else have this problem? Just when I thought I was going to be able to test it out, I was shot down. Hopefully this is an error on my part.
Posted at 4:42AM on Dec 19th 2005 by Steve