Google missing the “video” opportunity: * Poor initial design:
Google launched its Google Video service in January 2005. It designed its website with features where users can search videos. Google wanted to ease the viewing of television programs by helping users search TV shows and discovering where and when to watch matching television programs. Google lets users find the videos in the search history and bookmark it, but it's more difficult to do it. This design did not go well with users. Compared to YouTube, YouTube had a more simple design where searching of videos was easy. * Lacking openness:
It did not show the number of views, links to a video, so users could have a better perspective about a video instead Google showed the number of views only to the uploaders. To upload UGC users had to first submit their videos to desktop client which had to be downloaded and installed first. * Unsatisfactory Service:
Google video service was unsatisfactory compared to other UGC video sites. It did not show the actual video instead it showed the list of related video and news related to the searched video and still images of original video. Google Video has disappointed twice it was first a TV shows search but without videos and then a site that required a software to play videos (a version of VideoLAN). Google offered new flash technology which was faster for uploading videos but it was slow. * Copyright Issues:
Google is more inclined to remove copyrighted content and to sell premium videos. Whereas YouTube has a lot of free music videos and TV shows without having the legal right, so it attracts more people. This gives an advantage to YouTube and other competitive websites. * It came with a cost:
Google video offered premium content and payment had to be made through Google checkout. Whereas, YouTube users could upload, view and share video clips free of charge.
Google’s/YouTube’s