Google Video

[mel]

Has anyone used, seen or even made content for Google Video? Seems like this is the latest in a long line of consumer services that Google is offering as a potential revenue stream. Already there are hundreds if not thousands of videos at the Google website, most short, and currently streaming for free.

I read that Google has the intention of using the streaming site to offer video downloads similar to that of Apple on their iTunes music service, for a fee of course. Most of the videos that I have seen so far are short independent films and stuff people recorded in front of their webcams (exemplified by the large number of Numa Numa dance videos) for distribution to the masses.

Question is how is this video service different from the video blogging and video podcasting that is available elsewhere?

There already is a lot of content that is Hawaii related, mostly tourist oriented, but still images and video of the islands. I've bookmarked a few of them.

To use Google Video, you need broadband and the flash plugin for your Firefox or Safari browser.

Anyone know how to capture and save flash video to your local hard drive?

[pzarquon]

Re: Google Video

I uploaded several videos to Google Video as a test of their service. I ended up not making them one of my "standard" archiving services, at least for now. The Flash-based player they used is not my favorite method of streaming video, and it also does weird things to "multi-track" video formats like QuickTime.

What makes it different? Well, it's Google. One would imagine they've got space and bandwidth to spare. And the system was built from the ground up to allow commerce -- selling access to video clips, and/or facilitating advertising.

There are lots of other video hosts, from the Internet Archive/Ourmedia project to Blip.tv. The file sizes you're dealing with are not insignificant, so at this point there's no telling which business model or setup will work best. When I upload video clips, I do so in several places, 'cause you never know when one provider's going to go belly up.

[Linkmeister]

Re: Google Video

When the evening news ran this story the other night, one of the things the reporter mentioned was that the consumer could get shows from CBS, similar to what Apple is doing with ABC ("Lost," "Desperate Housewives"). If you look at the "About Google Video" pages, you'll see quite a list of content providers, although CBS isn't among them (yet).

[alohabear]

Re: Google Video

Sounds cool. Have you tried Google Earth yet? It's pretty cool how you can see how your house looks from above.

[pzarquon]

Re: Google Video

Sounds cool. Have you tried Google Earth yet? It's pretty cool how you can see how your house looks from above.

A very cool tool and toy. We have a thread here. We could probably use a new thread on Google's most recent announcements at CES -- a lot of stuff there, too.

I decided to try and upload a few more videos to see if anything changed since I tested it last year. Availability still isn't instant, though, so I'm waiting for my submissions to be "verified." My specific problem was that it would strip out title cards (i.e. graphic insertions) and supplemental audio tracks (i.e. music backgrounds) on multi-track files -- so you hear only the natural audio and see stuff that was previously covered up.

It is impressive how quickly video content begins playing via the Flash interface, but there's definitely a trade-off in video quality/clarity, and there's no easy way to save a copy of something locally (probably a must given their "paid content" plan).

[mel]

Re: Google Video

I guess the thing I like about Google Video is the quick flash playback. Defintely one of the better uses of flash and it is not forced upon you like some websites force you to watch a flash intro. In this case you are choosing to watch a flash video.

I have to agree that the video clarity and quality ain't there. But hey, for free I ain't complaining. Some videos are of better quality than others, but that is okay. Many are fun little wastes of time and bandwidth to keep me entertained if I am bored.

I would expect that any paid for content be of a better quality. And I am still unsure whether or not paid content at Google will be Mac compatible. But then again I have not bought any online video from anywhere except the occasional DVD that I purchase from Amazon.com.