Search giant Google, playing the odd role of challenger when it comes to Internet searches for video, updated its video upload service this week, promising users the ability to easily post, e-mail and embed video on Web sites and blogs.
Google dominates the advertising-lucrative Internet search business, but it is playing catch up in video to YouTube.com, a site that features the most popular video clips available on the Web.
“YouTube has seen incredible growth,” Basex CEO and chief analyst Jonathan Spira told TechNewsWorld. “There’s no question YouTube is the go-to site if you’re looking for video now, which would be regrettable to Google.”
Quicker Access
Google aimed to make its free, beta Google Video program for uploading video easier to use, with quicker access for friends and family to view the video users upload.
Some observers praised Google for a streamlined video uploading service, now possible through a Web site without additional software, and the search company’s trademark simplicity, as well as greater capacity.
However, there were also complaints the new Web-based uploader from Google was missing some of the functionality, such as favorite videos, offered from YouTube.
YouTube may in fact already be emerging as “the next Google” in the area of video online, according to Spira.
Increased video offerings and bandwidth coupled with cheaper storage costs are fueling more video online overall, and the moving pictures offer something new as well, Spira said.
“Video is fun. Video is different,” he said. “It’s going to be fierce competition over this.”
Adding Search
Spira praised the “nice, clear concept” of sites such as YouTube.com, indicating the grouping of similar video clips and organization by poster or subject appeal to users.
However, he added, “What’s missing is you can’t search what’s being said.”
Indeed, searchable video is something that different groups have worked on since the 1990s, typically using speech transferred to text as the basis, IDC analyst Sue Feldman told TechNewsWorld.
“There’s a wealth of information available [in video],” she said, referring to newscasts and other previously-aired video. “To be able to search that would be marvelous.”
Feldman said the challenge becomes the interaction between users and the video.
Sharing Your Breakups
Google, which provided a special site for video producers with many titles to upload, will promote its new video service through a program that coincides with “National Break-Up Day,” June 2, and the release of the film “The Break Up,” starring Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn.
To hook in to the social networking aspects of the video uploads, Google is asking users to share their own splitsville stories on video using the new upload service.
“Check the site daily for new videos that might make your own look tame,” Google says on its site.
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