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Google Readies Platform for Video Distribution

Posted by Zonk on from the i'm-waiting-for-the-google-pet-store dept.

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.'"

19 of 228 comments (clear)

  1. Hmmm... by elid · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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...).

  2. Come on submitter... by gowen · · Score: 5, Funny

    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.
  3. Will it work? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.

    1. Re:Will it work? by bitingduck · · Score: 4, Interesting

      But if all the meta-data is self reported, you run a huge risk of people spamming you with things that they report as britney videos but are really sales pitches for viagra or something.

  4. Copyright by teiresias · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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
    1. Re:Copyright by garcia · · Score: 5, Interesting

      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.

      Well of course porn will be a part of it as that industry is typically the first to adopt new technology as part of their operations. Of course people will absue the system as you said but hopefully some industries will embrace it as well which could lift the validity of it.

      This could be a very good thing but I really have to say that if people do cloud the waters with copyrighted material the networks, RIAA, MPAA, etc, will do everything in their power to discredit it and bring it down.

      This is a gutsy move by Google.

  5. You can sign in using your Gmail account by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    I'm sure everyone on Slashdot has one by now, so use it to skip the sign up process.

  6. WTF by cca93014 · · Score: 5, Funny
    Google now have an ecosystem.

    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

  7. The Google Universe by mwood · · Score: 5, Funny

    Ahh, Google, the emacs of Web services.

  8. Verified uploads... by AIX-Hood · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

  9. Google Uploader by boredMDer · · Score: 4, Informative

    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?

  10. Too many products and betas? by baadger · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.

    1. Re:Too many products and betas? by Momoru · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Agreed, they are all over the place...trying to do everything. I still don't think their search is as good as it could be (See Clusty for a useful new type of search). They seem to be more like a bunch of intellectual kids who won the lottery and want to spend all their time coming up with neat ideas instead of actually worrying about giving returns to the shareholders who bankrolled them. I'm sure that's what alot of you all like about them so much, but if it fails it will ruin future companies that want to be ran like this.

  11. read the TOS agreement by tech-hawger · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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
  12. From TFFAQ by GillBates0 · · Score: 5, Informative

    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
  13. Dark Fiber by KrackHouse · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This might explain their recent fiber-optic buying spree.

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  14. Re:hmm by jarich · · Score: 4, Informative
    is google answering a question nobody asked?

    ???

    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
  15. TOS by BenBenBen · · Score: 4, Informative
    'content owners will be able to control distribution rights themselves, even setting a price for their video clips.'

    From the TOS:
    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
    --
    The Slashdot Paradox: "100% Overrated"
  16. Invisible Movies by Doc+Ruby · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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?

    --

    --
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