Google doesn't get social -- that's the message we always hear. But my goodness, it's trying.
Take, for example, the hugely popular but taking-forever-to-monetize YouTube. It has long had a social element, with users able to exchange messages, comment on videos, share them, and "Like" them through a Facebook account. However, I think it's safe to say the social element on YouTube is not much fun. Unmoderated chains of comments are packed with snark and flaming, and the site generally makes sociopaths feel comfortable and welcome.
We go there not for the company, but for "auto-tuning" the news, violent babies, and Justin Bieber videos. Right? Google clearly thinks YouTube has so much more to offer. You can kind of see why. Current statistics show 3 billion videos viewed on YouTube every day. That's over a trillion (US) views per year.
Last year, Google expected YouTube to show a profit for the first time. That looks like a business model that could use a little tweaking.
Meanwhile, Google+ got off to such a bully start this summer, allegedly startling Facebook into removing its friend exporter software, as people vied for the limited number of invitations to the new social paradise. The exodus of Facebook users has yet to take place, of course, and no matter how clean and swanky Google+'s interface, there never seems to be anything happening there. As Maria Korolov explained recently, it's not yet clear that anything about Google+ is so unique as to make it essential.
Nothing to lose, perhaps, from smashing its two somewhat social services together and hoping to see some sparks. That task has fallen into the lap of Ron Gorodetzky, an early Digg staff member who went on to cofound the social video startup Fflick, since sold to YouTube, which has done nothing with it yet.
Hosting original content was not Fflick's raison d'etre -- it was primarily an aggregator site for social discussion of movies, especially Tweets. How does that make Gorodetzky a match for the job? Reading between the lines of the very limited information he divulged in an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Gorodetzky seems to see sharing as the basis for a more sociable experience on YouTube.
For anyone who is not a regular user, it's worth noting that YouTube is home to hordes of anonymous users, apparently all very angry. Having handles -- i.e., anonymity -- is the norm both for those who upload videos and those who make grouchy and often profane comments on them. It celebrates the worst characteristics of an anonymous, unmoderated chat forum.
I guess Gorodetzky hopes to put a stop to that, and though he has his work cut out, it's easy to see how integrating Google+ features can help. It will make it much easier to share your own video content, or content you enjoyed, with circles of friends or acquaintances. It can only improve the civility of the discourse, and though Google+'s puritanical approach to personal identity is ultimately unworkable, discouraging anonymity might reduce the incidence of "video rage."
I don't see how this helps YouTube's bottom line. After all, this isn't going to make any of us more likely to watch the ads. But at least it might restore a detectable heartbeat to Google+.
we can critisize and youtube, but untill we have a free access we don't really realize how great these tools are. and how often we use them in everyday life. I have moved to China recently, and while you guys, are critisizing Youtube, I really want to have just an access:)
some of them are really beyond the pale, making sexist and offensive comments about videos posted by and of children, that kind of thing. I know some people who actually have felt threatened -- whether that's rational or not -- by some of the stuff posted on their kids' videos.
In general, the Internet needs to figure out how it wants to deal with the whole commenting thing. People who can be anonymous are going to be assholes. That's just all there is to it. At the same time, it's important to a free society that people have the ability to be anonymous. So I'm not sure how to handle it. Best guess I can come up with is some sort of "known alias," where we may not know who BuckyBoy is but he always posts as BuckyBoy and we know what we can expect from him.
“It’s supereasy. It’s like learning to use toothpaste, at Google and all these places, we make technology as brain-dead easy to use as possible." Alan Eagle - Executive Communications Google.
Partially explains the new "toothpaste" look Googles shooting for.
There's a high standard here, and YouTube really is at the other end of the spectrum. There are grossly offensive threads attached to quite innocent, mainstream videos.
Incidentally, the YouTube interface on Google+ seems to work pretty well; I am still putting off adopting the new Gmail interface, but I don't suppose it will remain optional much longer.
Not to toot our own horn (well, fine, toot toot), but that's what I think makes IE so special. Our conversations are always high-level, always respectful and civil, always engaging... We're fortunate to have a community like this one.
I hope this works better with Google+ than it does with Gmail. Most of the time when people email me videos, a great little video window appears in the email itself, but then when I try to watch it an error message pops up saying I have to go watch it on YouTube. We shall see.
Speaking of Gmail (not that this is on topic) the new interface is terrible.
The Internet has ignored lack of civility in on line discourse for a long time now. Comments (visitors) have been a major driving force in the growth of the Internet and people like to frequent websites where they can say anything they want and get away with it. Shooting the sh*t is still one of humanities favorite pastimes.
The main problem still with all this new "freedom" is the Internet (Web 2.0) has become a massive, incoherent conversation. And the other problem is players like Google and Facebook have the power and economic clout to dominate the publicity landscape and the ability to keep convincing vulnerable people life isn't worth living unless your engaged in some kind of social this or that every second of your life, and keeping everyone updated as to your whereabouts, what you had for lunch, what kind of beer your drinking, or hairspray your using, is the ultimate in self realization and achievement.
Unless one knows how to find stuff other people don't know exists, Social Media is the only option I guess.
Yes, it's really a comment about the "commoditization" of static video entertainment.
Think of the number of hours spent in gaming and social media environments.
Contrast that with the number of hours spent viewing static videos: Netflix, YouTube and so on.
People in the 21st century see gaming and social media as really valuable "entertainments" whereas there is such a surplus of movies, tv shows (the Long Tail) that it's hard to charge a price without being undercut by Free as Chris Anderson describes in his 2009 book:
Well, that was quick. Just yesterday, a YouTube player showed up on your Google+ page. Top right. It's actually a pretty neat interface, with a search machine sliding out when you point at the button, and your selection appearing in a pop up window. From there, of course, you can hit "watch on YouTube" if you prefer.
What I can't yet see are built-in ways to comment, share or recommend from Google+. Maybe still to come.
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We never thought we'd write about carrier pigeons. Or the Pillsbury Dough Boy. Or corned beef hash. But these are some of the many ingredients you'll find in this week's mashup of top technology -- yes, really -- stories from around the world. Grab a fork and dig in.
Anyone still convinced that Amazon is essentially an online bookstore should at long last revise their opinions. Amazon may be gearing up to bring its full range of products and services right to your front door.
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IBM is advancing both its Mobile First and open-source strategies through a partnership with 10Gen, the company behind open-source NoSQL database MongoDB. Under the agreement, unveiled last week, both companies will work together on a new standard for mobile enterprise applications.
Facebook's Graph Search may face some profound challenges and risks, first, because Facebook users haven't been thinking of their posts as product reviews; and second, because Facebook will now have to contend with the social-network equivalent of SEO "gaming" of results.
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The new UltraViolet online DRM model has people upset, but the question we should ask ourselves is whether we want a flexible model to harmonize content owner and content consumer rights, or a one-takes-all model that probably results in less online content.
A recent release of the popular TweetDeck app for Twitter power-users gives new life to software that had previously taken a wrong turn. Here's a quick walk-through of the new TweetDeck, to show you why it should be at the top of your Twitter toolkit.
Some say that exposure to violence in gaming, online video, etc., is creating a violent culture. Tom says it's not that straightforward. Rather than regulate violence, we should understand it better.
Based on reactions in Nicole's Newsfeed, everyone hates this version of Facebook. This should matter to Facebook now that there's a real competitor on the scene named Google+.
Microsoft's buy of Skype could revitalize Phone 7, give Microsoft a social, gaming, and collaborative strategy, and spell the end for old-fashioned telco voice. It will also certainly give Google a headache in its Voice, Chat, and even Android strategy!
Facebook is going to stream video, but what makes video optimally "sociable"? I think it's the metadata, and if we get it right then even movies and TV shows could "go viral" and online video might be revolutionized.
A decade after the dotcom boom, the Internet continues to dramatically change the way that business gets done and individuals communicate. More than a trillion email messages traveled over the Net last year, and dramatic changes loom on the horizon.
Big-data and analytics tools enable marketers to understand customers as individuals, identifying unmet needs and addressing each customer as a "segment of one," says John Kennedy, VP corporate marketing, IBM.
New York's Metropolitan Transit Authority is conducting a pilot test of digital kiosks to guide subway users to where they want to go more efficiently and at lower cost.
The whole Amazon.reader debate is a double-stupid. It's stupid to think that there's any e-book buyer who doesn't know Amazon's URL, and it was stupider to let ICANN launch the whole free-form TLD initiative to start with.
While NFC's original goal was to enhance mobile commerce applications, it is finding its way into a number of other uses, which is creating both opportunity as well as challenges for IT departments.
Enterprises would like to move to cloud computing but are hesitant because they are concerned about providers’ ability to secure company data. Here are some tips that help to ensure that if breaches occur, the business is not left holding the bag.
Edmunds separates customers into segments based on the info it collects on its site and from partners, and uses that to push out custom content, said Brian Baron, director of business analytics for Edmunds.com, at Predictive Analytics Innovation Summit.
The IBM Smarter Commerce Global Summit in Monaco kicked into high gear today, and we've already begun to see news emerging from that lovely city-state by the sea.
Expert Integrated Systems: Changing the Experience & Economics of IT In this e-book, we take an in-depth look at these expert integrated systems -- what they are, how they work, and how they have the potential to help CIOs achieve dramatic savings while restoring IT's role as business innovator. READ THIS eBOOK
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