Google to Buy YouTube?

aguy · Post by **aguy** » Fri Oct 06, 2006 3:01 pm

Just noticed this in the news:

"AP - Internet search leader Google Inc. is in talks to acquire the popular online video site YouTube Inc. for about $1.6 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday, citing a person familiar with the matter."
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&c ... le_youtube

Seems Google must be having trouble getting its own Google Video to compete with YouTube, and so is following the philosophy, "If you can't beat 'em, eat 'em!" This definitely can't be a good thing for YouTubers.

Flautapantera · Post by **Flautapantera** » Fri Oct 06, 2006 4:14 pm

Ruh-Roh...

mousegirl · Post by **mousegirl** » Fri Oct 06, 2006 6:57 pm

WHOAAA

ravensgrace · Post by **ravensgrace** » Fri Oct 06, 2006 7:52 pm

I stopped using Google a long time ago, even for searching, because they don't respect privacy. After reading about the AOL search snafu I'm glad I stopped using them. There are great alternatives, such as Search.com or Scroogle.org, and I won't hesitate to give up YouTube if they pull the same stunt there.

aguy · Post by **aguy** » Fri Oct 06, 2006 8:01 pm

ravensgrace wrote:There are great alternatives, such as Search.com or Scroogle.org, and I won't hesitate to give up YouTube if they pull the same stunt there.

Scroogle -- that's funny. Never heard of them.

Plus, Google seems increasingly money-driven. Google Video has a TV section, which has some free shows, but mostly paid episodes of past shows. Their search used to have the ability to search for free items. They have since removed that from the search. So now there's no way to easily find the free items.

Google used to be the underdog. Now they're the big dog that eats the underdog.

Icaterus · Post by **Icaterus** » Mon Oct 09, 2006 8:10 pm

It's been confirmed!!! Google's buying youtube "for $1.65 billion in a stock-for-stock transaction."
Here's the google press release.

This deal is interesting. I was of the opinion that youtube was inevitably going to fail. Either from spending more on bandwidth than they make, or by being killed from legal battles. But googles done amazing things with their other services before, so I hope they know what they're doing with youtube.