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Google Readies Platform for Video Distribution
Eric writes "According to BetaNews, 'Google is preparing a video distribution platform that provides a complete ecosystem of services for content producers, publishers and end-users.' The first phase of its video upload program rolled out today, and 'content owners will be able to control distribution rights themselves, even setting a price for their video clips. Eventually, users will be able to search, preview, purchase and play videos directly from within Google.'"
A few questions:
1) Will TV networks sign on to this? Will we able to download last night's episode of 24 for a small fee? How much will they charge?
2) Why aren't these files DRM-less (see the article)? But Google is an innovator, and maybe they can come up with something fair (though fair and DRM seem to be mutually exclusive nowadays...).
Get with the program. You need to jazz up your submission a lot. Your's is much too calm.
If a product is not going to "Kill", "Murder" or "Burninate" the opposition, I'm not listening.
Athletic Scholarships to universities make as much sense as academic scholarships to sports teams.
It looks like Google may have a solution to the problem of indexing video media on the internet; host the content yourself and request the meta-data from the uploader themselves. Then you can easily index the meta-data to make it searchable. It sure beats trying to index any available content scattered across the web with no easy way to extract useful meta-data, but it certainly has the downside that you need to use Google to distribute your video. What if other search engines jump on the bandwagon; we'll have to search all of them to find the media we're looking for, because they won't share their indexes (Which are the valuable part, after all). It could get rather non-customer friendly if we're not careful.
please be sure you own the rights to the works you upload
I think that's going to be the biggest hurdle for this service to overcome. I think this would be a great service for smaller production teams or individuals looking to release their creations (although there are a number of services that already do this I believe). But to me, this new service will be largely deluged with people looking to trade bootleg videos, pr0n, etc, as again almost all the other similar services are.
pending our approval process
so, is it someones job to look through every video when it's uploaded? To catch any copyright infringement. Again, this seems like a real problem for this and any other similar service.
-Teiresias
I always love it when words like "Ecosystem" are used to describe business models. It gives me a chuckle, and I know not to waste my time reading the FA.
See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
I'm sure everyone on Slashdot has one by now, so use it to skip the sign up process.
Fan-fucking-tastic.
When are /. going to start distributing "-1 - Google Sycophantia" mod points?
I, for one, welcome our "we're not evil, but we are a publicly owned corporation, just like all the other fuckers; give it a few years before we turn into another bunch of wankers" overlords.
Invoicing, Time Tracking, Reporting
Ahh, Google, the emacs of Web services.
Although I love the idea, particularly the part about pay videos if you want, the manual verifying of video uploads by some Google lackey isn't seriously cumbersome. I submitted a video yesterday (late afternoon) and it's still not verified 12 hours later. Unless this drastically changes, I can't see this being used to quickly put up new content for your site or anything where time sensitive material is a factor.
The Google Uploader app (https://upload.video.google.com/Google%20Video%20 Uploader%20Installer.exe) is, of course, Windows only.
I wonder how long before someone makes a third party tool to do this on Linux/Mac?
I've been wishing that I could purchase TV programming by the show or channel instead of getting a large package of 50 channels when I don't watch 40 of them anyway. This has the potential to allow someone like me to purchase individual shows (channels in the future?) without any extra costs. But I don't know if that is the direction they want to take.
It's alarming how accurately the Google Grid seems to be forming.
This sounds great, but I wouldn't mind Google Image search results that didn't keep returning 404's.
In a recent recruitment video that featured on GoogleBlog the nice lady says Google is all about "ambitious ideas, fast responses, big acheivements" but it seems to me they want to pump out new services as testaments to what the Googlers are capable of and show off their cool attitude..without actually producing a well polished and maintained product.
Who hasn't noticed degradation of Google search results or lots and lots 404's on image search?
I just hope the grid doesn't crumble and burn.
If your video is too poular, they can charge you for the bandwidth it uses...i wonder if they would warn you first...
http://tech-hawg.blogspot.com
So what does this point to for Google? There might certainly be a market for Indie film distribution via Google. This would dramatically reduce distribution costs and open a whole new market for indie films.
Google is the Search King. Don't you think they'll be able to create an automated system for straining out bad submissions (porn or copyright violations)? I mean, even if the the title or description of a video submission itself aren't incriminating enough, the probably have plenty of other methods for getting context about a video. The probability that a violating video already exists on the net is large, so they could make a system to identify a video by general characteristics (obviously a digest-hash would not be appropriate across formats, but I'm sure there are other ways of doing it).
https://upload.video.google.com/video_faq.html
# Can I charge for playback of my video?
Yes. Or you can allow users to play your video for free. This is totally up to you and your video distribution goals. As the content owner, you decide whether you'd like to give away your video for free or charge a price that you set for it. If you do charge a price, Google will take a small revenue share to cover some of our costs.
# How is my content protected?
Google takes the security of your content very seriously. We've put a number of measures in place to prevent copying or sharing of your content. For more information on our copyright policies and procedures, please read the Copyright section of this FAQ.
An Indian-American Hindu committed to non-violent thought/speech/action alarmed by the global explosion of radical Islam
This might explain their recent fiber-optic buying spree.
What if Digg added local news and a Slashdot inspired comment karma system? ---
http://houndwire.com
???
Have you looked at the BitTorrents or P2P networks lately?
The question is being asked millions of times a day. No one's had a good answer yet, but the question is being asked.
Agile Artisans
They're breaking into the biggest industry on the net. Porn. First images now video...
However, Comcast, or whoever you get your cable from gets the pricethey get for a channel by guaranteeing a certain number of subscribers. If you could pick each channel individually, they couldn't make that guarantee as large of number, and economies of scale would break down. It's possible that subscribing to the 10 channels you do watch would cost more than subscribing to a 50 channel package with 40 you don't.
Free MacMini
From the TOS:
The Slashdot Paradox: "100% Overrated"
I have to say it sounds like an extremely interesting twist on the distribution of video content. For me to be able to upload content and distribute it for free is quite amazing. This means they will not only be gaining access to the subscribers or paying customers but also the families etc who are going to use it to share their videos. It benefits everyone. Google gets more impressions to sell advertising on and content producers get an easy and efficient market place/distribution system. Add the advanced searching that is sure to follow and this will be an extremely powerful resource. Of course when they start to put in some pre-roll or instream advertising for the unpaid content their revenues and profit margins will be even higher than they are now.
Go Google Go!
How does Google know it's "video"? Can't I just pipe my own CDs into the audio tracks of a blank MPG2/4 file? Then I can listen to my own music anywhere, over those famously fat Google pipes. This is fair use of content that I legitimately own, even according to the entertainment industry before the Supreme Court. By extension, can't I rename any file "..mp4", and use Google to distribute it? They're not going to watch all these movies, are they?
--
make install -not war
Be careful with the TOS, though. Most of the stuff is the standard Draconian crap (i.e., "we can do whatever we want with your stuff"), but most notable is this bit: "If You have not designated a price for Your Authorized Content and We incur extraordinary costs and expenses in hosting, indexing and displaying Your Authorized Content, we may charge a fee in order to defray these costs." So if you release a popular free video, Google may charge you for the bandwidth? I'll stick with Ourmedia for the free media distribution, thanks.
3. Use of Content. By accepting this Agreement and uploading Your Authorized Content to Google, you are directing and authorizing Google to, and granting Google a royalty-free, perpetual, non-exclusive right and license to, host, cache, route, transmit, store, copy, distribute, perform, display, reformat, excerpt, analyze, and create algorithms based on the Authorized Content in order to (i) host the Authorized Content on Google's servers, (ii) index the Authorized Content; and (iii) display the Authorized Content, in whole or in part in the territory(ies) designated in the Uploading Instructions, in connection with Google products and services now existing or hereafter developed, including without limitation in products developed for syndication. This license gives Google the right to copy, excerpt, distribute and display Your Authorized Content via both streaming and progressive downloading technologies, and to display limited excerpts of Your Authorized Content for no fee to the end user. Google reserves the right to display advertisements in connection with any display of Your Authorized Content. Notwithstanding the foregoing, Google is not required to host, index, or display any Authorized Content uploaded, and may remove or refuse to host, index or display any Authorized Content. Google is not responsible for any loss, theft or damage of any kind to the Authorized Content. Sounds a bit evil to me...
"What types of videos are you accepting?
We accept any type of video content, with these restrictions:
* You must own all necessary rights to the content, including copyrights toboth the video and the audio.
* You must be able to upload the video to us electronically.
* The video must not contain pornographic or obscene material.
The content may be reviewed prior to being made available online. If we cannot use it, we'll let you know."
There's this neat little flash animation called EPIC, about the future of Google. It's been around for a little while now and is eerily accurate. You can find it here: http://www.robinsloan.com/epic/
MacroHard - Boning you in a big way! (TM)
Google provides an application (the Google Video Uploader) to upload video content to their servers. As expected, the program is Windows only. So, I guess Google wants your video, as long as you're not a Mac or Linux user. ;-)
Interestingly, all of Google's desktop applications are all Windows only. Given their hiring blitz and their well-advertised work incentives, Google could easily find Mac and Linux programmers, so the lack of support for other platforms must be intended. Other companies can make the argument that the cost is too great, but Google can clearly afford it. So, what exactly is the strategy here?
i.e. One or more folks are in charge of Kids' birthday videos, one or more in charge of original animation, and 10,313 are in charge of the various porn categories.
They are "trained," "paid" based on performance, and are moderated (e.g. if copyrighted works slip through on their watch, they are somehow penalized).
The verification bottleneck opens up significantly without Google's staff of Full Time Employees expanding exponentially.
The Google Network ...
Anyone remembers the days when Google said how they want to focus on search and search only?
They are certainly not focusing on it so much any more, and are adapting to the market forces. Nice and agile.
Simpy
Markets these days (read post dot-com) are very conservative. The main issue with video distribution is noone is A) sure it will work, and B) there are business models out there *based* on the fact that you can't get the content any where else. (Think Supper Bowl commercial time slots) So you've got the one side that doesn't what to invest in something that has no (we'll say commercialy) proven market and the other end that just has no intrest.
Enter Google
Google starts playing with searching video. Fine. Issue is that all video on TV is copyrighted and 'Fair Use' is not what it used to be. Fine. So someone says, "Hey, lets get people to upload they're own video and we can test with that." Great. The blogger group shifts from photo blogs to video blogs. Google has content. User satisfied the strange need to document the life and times of their gerbil. Everyone is happy. You have eyes. It's a small stretch once you have content to play with management. (And management in a manor that you control, not some big company demands) It's brilliant! They are going to end up with a content base (Dude, now my rock band can distribute mp3's and our killer concert footage) and audience. It's built, the market's there. All the big companies have to do is sign up.
Google is getting big, and I would argue that they are starting to approch the SpiderMan-great-power-great-responsibility dilemma (some may argue we're past that) Our last remaining hope is that the key mentality in leadership that is leading to Google's success is linked the good side of the force. i.e. if evil forces take over the innovation dies. (Still, anyone want to bet on if Google-AOL-TimeWarner exists a few years from now.)
Yes, except that I imagine /. nerds make up a large portion of people watching aforementioned unpopular channels.
English is easier said than done.
You're so funny.
You see, Larry Page and Sergey Brin have billions...why? Because they had these philosophies that they supposedly adhered to. So I may not have given them $'s directly, but I've given them 2 things far more valuable...my trust, and my time. And from those, they got their $billions.
"It's best to do one thing really, really well. Google does search. Google does not do horoscopes, financial advice or chat."
No comment on the fact that they couldn't keep themselves from doing everything but the three things they list?
This is screwy. I can send video by Google mail
without anything more than a web browser. Why would
I need anything more for this new service?
It looks like indexing will initially be manual, but it'll be interesting to see what sorts of content-based searching and indexing methods Google will end up implementing. For those unfamiliar with it, content-based methods allow for information extraction based on the actual video data, rather than manually-added metadata. Searching google scholar and google web for "content-based video" methods comes up with some interesting results. The current state-of-the-art can do some impressive things, but there's clearly still lots of room for improvement.
Now that I think about it, having uploaders manually index the videos the submit is a fantastic way for Google to bootstrap an automated video indexing system.
One neat project is Sivic & Zisserman's Video Google (no relation to the Google company, I think). They have a demo available where you can search for automatically-extracted objects in a movie. They also show the results of doing things like detecting Bill Murray's tie throughout the movie Groundhog Day.