YouTube / Google video fate announced

[Lazybones]

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070125-8699.html

YouTube will remain the content provider, Google video will become just another search component.

This seems like a VERY smart move to me.

[Shayne]

Except for the Google video player being better.

[Lazybones]

Except for the Google video player being better.

One would assume that they would share and improve the YouTube system as well.

[Shayne]

We can only hope, they are sure taking their time doing so.

[Darren Dirt]

I like YouTube and GoogleVid for different reasons.

YouTube has a MUCH bigger selection, has an excellent playlist/quicklist and "related videos" and "other videos by this user" and comment system and favorites/subscriptions. Google Vid totally kicks its ass when it comes to jumping to any part of the video without buffering required, it has better full screen viewing, and the Video Player allows me to keep a local copy of a vid if it disappears after a while.

They're both great for different reasons, and I shudder to think how badly some Suits might mess it up if they try to "merge" the two. Unless they keep GV's better buffering and fullscreen and local downloading, and YT's QuickList, relatedvideos algorithm and commenting system and... everything else.

[Lazybones]

New YouTube Features released
http://www.youtube.com/blog?entry=9_wU0qhEPR8

No player upgrade mentioned, but video.google.com now returns hits from YouTube when you do a search.

The YouTube team was up until the wee hours last night rolling out some key changes and enhancements to the site. Read on for more details (video summaries coming soon to this blog and the YouTube Channel).

MESSAGING IS BACK IN BUSINESS: Messaging should really truly be fixed now, including messages that contain e-mail addresses and URLs. Thanks for your patience as we worked out kinks related to an over-enthusiastic spam filter.

GOOGLE SEARCH!: Thanks to, ahem, a certain parent company, our search is now vastly improved so it should be even easier to find your favorite sleeping kitty video exactly when you want to show it to grandma. Moreover, YouTube videos are now indexed on Google Video Search, which means more potential viewers for your videos!

B-B-B-LOCK THA HATERS: Stopping the haters in their tracks is now easier than ever. Not only is there the ?Block User? feature on each person?s Channel page, but now you can instantly zap anyone you like by using the new "Block User" feature next to each comment on your video.

CHANNELS ARE EVEN MORE CUSTOMIZABLE: Don?t want to show folks who your subscribers are? Would rather not have Favorites display on you page so your own videos can get all the glory? Now you can turn modules on or off by going into the ?Channel Design? area under ?My Account? and choosing to show or hide various boxes. You can also select one video to display at the top of your page (go into ?Channel Info? to do this).

VIEW VIDEOS THAT HAVE THE MOST RESPONSES: Under the Video browse tab, there?s a new page showing videos that have the most responses. Go to the Most Responded >> All Time to see a great set of videos that have inspired other users to post their own clips.

NEW AND IMPROVED HELP CENTER: The contents of the Help Center have tripled and it?s hopefully easier to read and navigate. Plus now you can search within the Help Center, see the Top 5 questions most asked by users, and let us know whether the information was helpful or not.

MORE ROOM FOR YOUR FEATURED VIDEOS: The categories page got a facelift and now shows two featured videos for each topic. But then, when you click through, brace yourself: we?ve got room for ? count ?em ? 20 featured videos within each section. More space for your incredible work! Sadia, whom you'll meet soon, is the editor in charge of this area, so write to her with feature requests.

MEET THE GURUS: There?s a new type of Channel for people who create ?how to? videos for fitness, cooking, video production, guitar playing and more. So if you?ve got a special skill, sign up for your Guru account now!

POST TO DIGG, DELICIOUS, FURL AND MORE: If you click on "Post Video" under a video, you will see a row of icons that lets you quickly post the video to these neat-o bookmarking services.

Now you see why our engineers are still sleeping?!

Enjoy,
Mia
The YouTube Team

[Darren Dirt]

Hey folks, check out a recent Mr. Schmitt announcement:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YouTube#.27Claim_Your_Content.27_Filtering_System

'Claim Your Content' Filtering System
On April 16, 2007, Google's CEO Eric Schmitt presented a keynote speech at the NAB Convention in Las Vegas. During the Q&A, Schmidt announced that YouTube was close to enacting a content filtering system to remove infringing content from the service. The new system, called "Claim Your Content," will automatically identify copyrighted material so that it can be removed.
( http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-nab-googletube-close-to-its-claim-your-content-filtering-system/ )

[Mr. Analog]

For those of you sick of stumbling through Wikipedia the actual articles can be found here and here.

The keynote mentions that they are "close" to turning the feature on, to me it sounds like a meta-moderation system like deviantArt or Slashdot. Without actually seeing it in action or knowing anything about it other than "it's being tested" I remain firm in my belief that Google is just making a bigger sign for their already obvious position on illegally uploaded content (you find it, you report it).

As long as I can still get episodes of The Woodsmen on GooTube I don't care either way haha

[Darren Dirt]

methinks the Big Difference will be that it is more "automagical" in how it determines the status of content. Perhaps similar to how some of the audio scanners look for "signatures" of popular tunes (even in lower quality rips). But perhaps then all one would then need to do is move the image down by 3 pixels?