Google Video Adds User Tags and Comments, One Click MySpace Upload, New TOS
Because of my cinematic contributions to Google Video I received an update this morning with news that Google's moving in a decidedly YouTubian/social direction with updates such as (from the email):

- Instant gratification: A web-based video uploader (http://video.google.com/videouploadform) for immediate upload and playback
(I found their desktop video uploader odd considering YouTube's web-based upload... but I seem to remember a web-based uploader that just didn't work well or something when I was uploading an xmas of angelic proportions.)

- Share your video with the world, or maybe just your friends: Single-click video posting to popular blog services, including MySpace and Blogger
(YouTube has this too.)

- Get involved!: Now add ratings, tags, and comments for all videos
(YouTube has this - it's an interesting step for Google towards social content and rankings. Google's early experience with meta tag spam left them highly distrustful of what people say about themselves ;)

- Zeit-what? Now you can see a "Top 100" list (http://video.google.com/videoranking), updated daily, that shows what people are watching
(This is similar to the front page of YouTube, which shows the day's featured video and enables you to see most viewed, most commented and most favorited videos. My spidey senses tell me that's not new though...).

I find it likely that Google Video and MySpace video will lock horns a bit because of Google's probable technical video search superiority and MySpace video's popularity superiority. If Google makes a YouTube move towards more social interactions and/or personal profiles they'll be scuffing MySpace's shoes.

In addition, there's been some expansion into foreign markets:

- It's "Football", not "Soccer": Google Video now exists in the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Canada, Poland, and the Netherlands

Further, Google Video offers a peek at the future of monetizing video:

...you may have noticed that we're also been experimenting with making "for sale" content free by sponsoring videos with ads. By doing this we've been able to expose a lot of great video to our users, like content from Charlie Rose (http://video.google.com/freetoday.html).

Because this test has been successful, we're continuing to experiment with using ads to extend content distribution. To do this, we've made some minor modifications to our Terms of Service (TOS) so you can participate in ad programs we may roll out in the future. Please take a moment to review the changes by logging into your account at https://upload.video.google.com and accepting the new terms and conditions. If you don't agree to the new TOS, we will assume you acknowledge and accept these changes, and will include your content in Google Video, as it is today.

Interesting stuff that emphasizes the increasingly complicated future of Google's co-opetitive landscape. I'll be peeking at the new TOS for indications of where they're going with this business and update accordingly.

Update: I'm finding it difficult, lacking a previous TOS, to determine what's new. Still digging though.

Update 2: Loren Baker discusses that Google Adds Video to Related Links, which is probably in part why Google Video updated their TOS. If videos are going to start showing up on contextually-related sites then search marketers need to seriously investigate video as a form of content for search optimization.

Update 3: Check out Google Video TOS Update: a Reading, Some Video Marketing Predictions
Garrett French - MarketSmart Interactive | permalink | +marktd |