How many of you use YouTube?

[MrRiplEy[H]]

Some people think Google made a big blunder in paying 1.6bn dollars for YouTube as most of it's material is copyrighted and displayed illegally.

Before the purchase, YouTube had virtually no money to speak of so nobody bothered to sue. Now everyone seems to be after Google's assets.

I'm thinking Google is crazy to do the purchase, especially at that ridiculous price. In the end they may have to take half of the material down.

[JB88]

people buy out competition all of the time.

[cav58d]

Before google aquired youtube.com, google video was the only competition I was familiar with...

I think this is going to prove to be a bad deal for the fans of youtube in the end...Aside from removing half of the copyrighted content, i wouldnt be suprised if we start to see 30 second commercials before the movies...:-(

o well, atleast its not like that yet!  And I can attest that because I spent the past 3 hours on youtube!:aok

[Skuzzy]

More money than sense.  Google could have waited a couple more months and picked up Youtoob for a nickel.  They were bleeding money badly.  Now Google will be bleeding it for them, along with the 1.6B they paid.

To be sure, Google will clean out the copyrighted material (at least I hope they do).  It is in thier best interest to do so.  I have no sympathy for anyone whining about the removal of copyrighted works.

For the record, I never used Youtoob.

[Ripsnort]

I use it.  I host my sample still picture sports  DVD's that I sell.

[Rolex]

I would suspect some Google people, by coincidence... had a financial interest in it, or stood to gain from financial interest in a firm involved in the buyout. The left hand - with other stockholders' money financing over time - is paying the right hand up front.

[Trikky]

I must be stuck in the dark ages because I cant see how YouTube makes money. To me it just looks like one huge lawsuit waiting to happen while we all leech its bandwidth.

Cant even find a single advert to click.

[Waffle]

the only time I used you tube was when people posted links to videos there from this message board...

[Chairboy]

Google either has people who are much smarter than me who can see profit potential that I don't, or the purchase was very dumb _because_ it lacks the real profit potential.

Only time will tell, but I've got this in the 'Google Mis-steps' category right now.

[BlckMgk]

Well it might seem a big price to pay, but its a name thats familiar and generates lots of traffic.

Google's move might be more strategic than you guys are giving them credit for. Eliminate a major competition in the online video department, polish up the website then start generating money through advertising or monthly subscriptions.

[RightF00T]

There are talks of corporations buying segments on YouTube to air their crappy reality shows exclusively and having rights to post every music video ever made .  

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YouTube

[1K3]

Most people i know (including me) watch foreign shows like Top Gear (UK) Korean Dramas, and Anime ("Japanimation") on Gootube.  These are the stuff i've been watching (besides US censored off-air and basic cable TV programs) since Youtube's inception.  It would be a shame if Gootube takes down the stuff mentioned avove.  IMO Youtube's the best thing ever created after the internet and TV.

[Hawker25]

youtube is in spiral decline that will end up killing it off like so many other great things that start off with basically people all over the world controlling it to one corporate entity taking over and screwing it up trying to make money and avoid being sued. As far as the copyrighted material that all these companies are whining about and i believe is nothing more that wanting a finacial handout from google.  Nobody cared about these thing when there was no profit in attacking youtube.  I don't care if they have low quality reproductions of material because it is not close to hte same as watcing it from the orginal source.  If it In fact youtube has caused me to spend more money with these companies that are all pissed off than i normally would have because i have seen something that i want to have and watch in good quality so i have saddled up and gone to Walmart or Best Buy and bought the DVD. I am curiouse how many other people have done this very thing. Youtube was a great free advetising source for these businesses that reached millions of people and didn't cost them a dime.  In fact i plan on positng the promo videos for my new business on youtube inside the next month.  The only thing that i see good coming from this merger is that it will give some other upstart video hosting site a chance to become the next youtube.

[x0847Marine]

Props to the two dudes who sold it, they're living high on the hog.

[eskimo2]

Since the sale I’ve been intrigued as to what was so great about youtube.  After surfing around the site I decided to get an account (it’s free and only takes a couple minutes) and post a few videos just to see it work from the other point of view.  My videos have gotten a lot more views on youtube than they have on my site, but no hits I’m sure from anyone I know…  Two of my videos are very old footage converted to digital of me trashing some old cars in Alaska.  The third also is old and is of kayak surfing in Hawaii.  I added the Hawaii-5-O theme song to part of it, so it may get pulled eventually.

Overall I’m surprised as to how seldom people rate or comment on videos in general.  I rate most of the videos I’ve seen; it only takes 3 seconds.  I’ve commented on a good percentage as well.  To me that seems like that’s half the fun, but I’ve yet to get any dialog going with anyone about anything…

Feel free to view my videos on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=hallbuzzdotcom

Or on my site:

http://hallbuzz.com/movies/movies.htm