YouTube Gets a New Home

Sorry for missing the Sunday night post guys, but it would've been a horrible call for me to get even less sleep in favor of a post. The real big news came today though: Google bought YouTube for $1.65 billion! That's right, just add 7 zeros to the end of that number there and it should make up for much more than the money they've pumped into YouTube (I believe it was venture capitalist cash). Was this a smart move? I think so, and there are several reasons that you can cite. For one thing, Google is clearly interested in trying to sell videos, and we know this because of Google Video, but it's not nearly as viral as YouTube. Sure, people use it, but how many times does a Google Video video get linked/e-mailed/blogged compared with a YouTube video? YouTube just has the UI that Google needs, and so all they have to do is harness this to make money. I'm sure they have some video AdWords service in mind, but I just wonder if it's that simple because YouTube clearly stated that they didn't want ads to be an actual part of its content. Maybe they had a change of heart? Another big thing here is the fact that Google eats up data like no other, and I'm sure that they're hankering for what they could gain with full access to YouTube video stats and ratings and such. Plus, they've now screwed their rivals over. How can Yahoo or Microsoft develop a formidable video service now (Launch is only music videos, that doesn't count)? It's such a neat move because now we can watch and wait what happens to YouTube now that it's going to be a full-fledged service rather than just some Web 2.0 service that has gained a lot of steam.

The problem here is that now Google has yet another product for you to keep a track of, but Sergey Brin and Eric Schmidt have decided to focus its engineers away from new products and rather to try and integrate its current services better as well as to just add functionality to them. This is a great move on their part, and I hope will mark a turning point for the company that I've written off on occasion as being too unfocused. At least their book searching is starting to go well. Let's move on to some Apple stuff. So you may start seeing some new ads from them soon that are actually pretty good, but what's a little more provocative is the idea that the iPod may never die! It's crazy to imagine a world without the iPod because of how big it's gotten and the lock that FairPlay puts on all iTunes users, but Apple could definitely fumble if they make the iPod too complicated or they become too restrictive with it or a competitor just plain outsmarts them, which is becoming less and less likely. Or maybe people will rebel because their iPods aren't really random in shuffle mode? Actually, they are actually random, it's just a mathematical oddity that certain artists may be favored for you. I enjoyed that Guardian discussion of it, though I spent way too much time reading it. If you're worried that using the computer is making you fat, then you'll like the idea of the Geek-a-Cycle. I think it's pretty neat, actually, but how would you type and stuff when your hands get all sweaty? Lastly, if you're tired of spam at your personal e-mail address, you'll love dodgeit.

Finally, we have a sensible box office this weekend: Scorcese's critically acclaimed The Departed raked in over $26 million to take the top spot, which smoked Texas Chainsaw Massacre's $19.2 million premiere and Employee of the Month's $11.8 million. Still, both of those movies made back at least their production costs, so I guess everyone wins. Pan's Labyrinth is one of those movies everyone's talking about, and IGN snagged an English trailer for it, and it's quite good. I'm assuming it's a teaser, but I think it fails at attracting the interest of people who don't already know about it because it's not as scary as some people may think from watching that. I haven't heard of Blood Diamond, but apparently it has Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Connelly, and we have a poster for it today. Apparently, it takes place in the early 90s in Sierra Leone and centers around two men seeking a very valuable diamond. I can't help but wonder if Kanye West inspired this movie, but I'm sure his hit single was just convenient. I found the poster for Deja Vu more interesting, nonetheless:



And now, for some Monday Madnesss:

1. From amaranth:
Name three people you would pick (and why) if you could choose who to be stranded on a deserted island with.
That's very hard. I'm going to go with my brother, his fiance, and a friend of mine from high school. The last pick is because he'd definitely keep our spirits up, the first two are because I'd miss them too much.

2. From julie:
What is your favorite genre of film and what is your favorite movie from that genre?
Drama: Kill Bill. Ok, so maybe it's more action, but I don't consider it an action flick.

3. From tiffany:
Which country would you like to visit and why?
The UK, because I've heard London is cool.

4. From wil:
What are you driving these days? What's it's (their) good and bad points? Would you buy another one, and why or why not?
A Hyundai XG300. It's nice and luxorious for the price, but the body is a little cheaper than I'd prefer. I wouldn't buy another one simply because I'm paranoid about accidents because of my last one and would want another Volvo, but I still love the XG. It's so roomy and smooth.

5. From cindy swanson:
"Lost," "24," or both?
BOTH! I love 24 better, but both shows are so good in their own ways.

6. From lady starlight:
You've been very good this year. What should Santa bring you for Christmas? (the sky is the limit)
A Core 2 Duo MacBook Pro, of course!