Google takes over world.

[Dragon Star]

http://money.cnn.com/2006/10/09/technology/googleyoutube_deal/index.htm?cnn=yes

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Google, the Internet's leading search engine, announced Monday that it is buying popular online video site YouTube for $1.65 billion in stock.

YouTube, which was founded in February 2005, has quickly become the most well-known of several online video sites. More than 100 million videos, many of which are short videos created by the site's users, are downloaded a day on the site.

According to Internet research firm Hitwise, YouTube has about a 46 percent share of the online video market.

For Google (Charts), the purchase of YouTube gives the company the ability to tap into the potentially lucrative online video and social networking markets. Some analysts have criticized Google for relying too much on advertising tied to keyword searches.

The combination of Google and YouTube could further strengthen Google's dominance in online advertising, giving it an edge over rivals such as Yahoo! (Charts), Microsoft's (Charts) MSN and News Corp (Charts)., which owns the social networking site MySpace. Some analysts said Monday that Yahoo, Microsoft and News Corp. also had probably expressed interest in buying YouTube.

Bill Tancer, general manger of global research of Hitwise, said after the deal was announced that MySpace would now probably need to promote its own video service more aggressively on its site in order to compete with a combined Google-YouTube.

And Martin Pyykkonen, an analyst with Global Crown Capital, said that Google's purchase of YouTube could be viewed as a preemptive strike against Yahoo, which has been rumored to be in talks to purchase social networking site Facebook.

In a statement, Google said YouTube will operate as an independent unit of Google once the deal closes and will retain the YouTube brand name. The companies added that no YouTube workers will lose their jobs as a result of the acquisition and that Google will maintain its own online video business.

And here I thought an actual store chain would eventually take over wal*mart.

[pmcolt]

Well, of all the entities that could take over the world, Google is certainly not the worst. In fact, I'd rather live under the Google World Empire than the Walmart regime; at least I can find what I want when I go to Google.

In all serious, though, them acquiring YouTube doesn't really surprise me. I really expected them to take a look at Facebook, but Yahoo may have beaten them to it.

[umop ap!sdn]

Record this prediction: that monster Google is going to fuck up YouTube so that I can't watch the videos anymore, just like they fucked up their satellite photos.

I'm somewhat PO'ed about this one. :x

[Dragon Star]

Well, the thing is that YouTube had so much support already built in that they didn't need set up, which is great. But the problem for Google is this: they are going to get sued out the ass. Of course they can deal with this and will have better systems for managing copyright issues, but if one guy gets through court alive and with heavy pockets, Google will have problems.

[Lance]

How did they fuck up satellite photos?

[Мастер]

How did they fuck up satellite photos?

Well, for one, I haven't seen a satellite in any of them yet :P

[Dragon Star]

How did they fuck up satellite photos?

I would like to know this one as well.

[umop ap!sdn]

I want to post a screenshot, but can't seem to find where to get at the satellite photos. :?

[Lance]

Here's one:

[Мастер]

Location?

[Lance]

Near umop.

[Dragon Star]

Okaaay...so, where is the fuck up?

[Мастер]

Well, for one, I can't see umop in the picture. . .

[umop ap!sdn]

Still doesn't tell me the URL to go to to see if my computer will display it.

[Lance]

Well, for one, I can't see umop in the picture. . .

You have to look really close in that field on the left side:

[Lance]

Still doesn't tell me the URL to go to to see if my computer will display it.

Oh, try this.

[Dragon Star]

Oh, so Google Maps sucks because your computer won't display it? :?

[umop ap!sdn]

That picture is a JPEG artifact, planted there by a paid government shill!

Oh wait.

OK, I checked their list of supported browsers, and it says to try Firefox. It's working now, so I'll go ahead and eat my words. :) I will not install IE6 (tried more than once - it just won't install) nor Opera 8 (it's a piece of junk). :P

Well it certainly sucks if there's no way to view the site's content. :D

Thanks, Llance, for the link! They must have increased their resolution in my area; I can see which way the vehicle is facing that's parked outside the office where I work.

[Lonewulf]

Well it certainly sucks if there's no way to view the site's content. :D

But...

That's like me saying, "My commodore 64 can't handle the newest videogame! That game obviously sucks!"

Very few programs or websites can be made to be universally compatible. Out of curiosity, though, what browser were you using? Since it wasn't Firefox, I can only assume it's inferiority.

[Dragon Star]

Opera 7 I believe.

[Lance]

Since it wasn't Firefox, I can only assume it's inferiority.

Boy, you sure got that right. Wouldn't it be better if everyone just ran IE?

[umop ap!sdn]

Since it wasn't Firefox, I can only assume it's inferiority.

Fermez la bouche. :P

I was recently working on a web based project while leaving some boards up and the thunderstorm site because I would be checking them from time to time. I opened a new window, tiled them, then took all the tabs from the first window that had to do with the project and dragged them over to the other window. Nice and tidy.

Then I had to log in to something so I went over to the Hotlist, clicked on Notes, and put the login info in there so it would always be in easy access.

Every time I write a post in Opera, even if the server times out or gives me a flood control error (which is often on at least one board I frequent) I can still hit Back and my message is not lost.

Finally, when browsing new posts, I can middle-click the new post icons for the threads that interest me, and they open in a background tab leaving me free to continue browsing and plan my next set of middle clicks while the existing pages are loading.

Can Firefox do all those things? (I honestly don't know, as I've never gotten to use it as much as I have Opera.)

[pmcolt]

They must have increased their resolution in my area; I can see which way the vehicle is facing that's parked outside the office where I work.

Would you believe that the resolution drops out right next to the edge of my neighborhood? I can see the cars parked in the driveways of houses less than a minute up the road from me, but I can't even distinguish my house from any of my five neighbors.

[Lonewulf]

Since it wasn't Firefox, I can only assume it's inferiority.

Boy, you sure got that right. Wouldn't it be better if everyone just ran IE?

IE? FF all the way, man.

[Lance]

IE? FF all the way, man.

Yeah, I thought that way for a while but decided I was wrong. I had become a real coding purist at the same time, and finally realized how silly that was too.