uTube.com Business Stalled by YouTube Purchase Hype

prostoalex writes "Google's acquisition of online video sharing site YouTube.com resulted in massive traffic headed to uTube.com, "the number one supplier of used Tube & Pipe equipment in the world!", according to the site. CNN Money reports: "The company, which sells used machinery for making tubes to clients worldwide, has seen its site utube.com knocked off line by millions of online searchers looking for video site. "It's killing us," said Ralph Girkins, president and owner of the 22-year-old business. "All my worldwide reps use our Web site. Customers all over the world use it to bring up photos of the machinery, descriptions and specifications there."""

Comments

Insult to injury

[cbcanb]

On top of that, now Slashdot links to it...

Re:Insult to injury

[ztransform]

If all slashdot readers can AVOID the temptation to visit the utube site I'm sure the company would much appreciate it!

Re:Insult to injury

[Ghost Hedgehog]

I think the company will be quite happy when all the readers at least buy something

Re:Insult to injury

[MMC Monster]

Umm... As a /. user, what exactly am I supposed to buy from utube.com? Extra pipes to get more internet?

Re:Insult to injury

[Jimmy King]

You'll need one hell of a truck to ship those tubes.

Re:Insult to injury

[AlexDV]

Ahem, I think you mean tubes. And, yes, given that the Internet is a series of tubes, it stands to reason that buying more tubes would allow you to get your Internets faster. After all, it's not just a truck that you can dump stuff on. Good grief, everyone knows that, you loser.

Re:Insult to injury

[TubeSteak]

As a /. user, what exactly am I supposed to buy from utube.com?

2.5 inch PVC happens to be very close to the size of a tennis ball.

Not that anyone would ever special order 2.5" PVC for use in a pneumatic air cannon.

and now we /. them

[notanatheist]

Good job y'all. They're already complaining about traffic and you link to their site?!

Re:and now we /. them

[tttonyyy]

Worth noting that the professionally edited article at CNN links to everyone concerned except utube.com. At least they engage their brains before publishing stories.

Re:and now we /. them

[Farmer Tim]

...professionally edited article at CNN...[snip]...At least they engage their brains

Two firsts in the one day!

(Someone had to say it. But I agree they made the correct decision)

And as if that wasn't enough..

[arun_s]

they're now at /.
Poor guys.

Tubes

[Grr]

Well luckily he has enough tubes for all those internets!

Oh, come off it.

[Kris_J]

Take the link out of the story, seriously.

Next aquisition

[kjart]

Obviously, utube.com will be Google's next aquisition - just look at how much traffic they get!

Re:Next aquisition

[aussie_a]

They don't, I checked. Several times.

Put up some advertising/adsense banners

[future assassin]

While you can. Might as well score some cash from the traffic.

Oh, boo hoo

[catbutt]

If they can't figure out a way to profit from this, too freakin bad for them.

Deja Vu

[tttonyyy]

And how kind of the slashdot editors to link to utube directly, just to rub the slashdot salt into the wounds.

(I can hear their servers weeping in the corner right now).

Solution

[Arwing]

You know, MLB.com had this problem a few years ago when it was owned by some law firm. Their solution is simple, have a really simple front page saying "If you are looking for the video site YOUtube, click on the link,
if you are looking for used hardware, click on Utube
It will save them some trouble in the short run, but my question is shouldn't this be happening all along since youtube is popular BEFORE google decided to buy it out?

Nothing to see here, it's up

[Animats]

Their site is fine now. Their equipment, though...

They're a surplus machinery dealer, and much of their equipment has seen hard use followed by neglect. The neglect is worse than the hard use. This lathe is a good example. That's a good Monarch precision lathe, but the picture, taken in 2000, shows considerable rust. Most of their gear is like that; it looks like it came out of an abandoned factory. It's repairable; you can send the lathe back to Monarch for an overhaul. But it's not good for much in its current condition. If there's any rust in the bearings, the precision is lost.

For comparison, see this Monarch Lathe on eBay. Made in 1950, and still in good shape. Those things will last a century if cared for.

If you have machinery like that around that's not in use, you have to oil it, then wrap it in plastic with some dessicant inside.

there's a reason I don't give slashdot my money!

[Xtifr]

Well, actually several, but mostly it boils down to the utter lack of editorial standards. Bad grammar, bad spelling, slashvertisements, links to semi-literate amateur blogs for stories carried by decent, high-quality sites, and ... sheer idiocy like this. I enjoy slashdot. It's an interesting diversion. And I've been around for a long time, and I still haven't given up on it. But the complete and utter lack of editorial common sense or professionalism is simpy infuriating at times! I would miss slashdot if it disappeared, but there's no way I'm willing to pay for something this poorly produced. And that's the bottom line.

However, at least this time I can be proud to announce that I did not RTFA! :)

That's not nice!

[Bob Gelumph]

How could all those internet users knock the main company offline who was responsible for construction of the Internet?

Re:Spelling is HARD

[hyfe]

Can you tell the difference between uTube and YouTube when pronounced? No?

Probably just a misguided marketing ploy anyway

[tttonyyy]

Utube marketing guy: WTF? Our server is down!
Utube hosting provider: (putting down fire extinguisher) We want more money, you're burning bandwidth like the U.S. burns fossil fuels!
Utube marketing guy: Wait - I've just hear that Google bought YouTube and people are interested. Hey! This is an amazing marketing opportunity, I wonder how we can make use of it? (Pays hosting provider big wodge of cash)

(...ten minutes of googling later)

Utube marketing guy: My highly expensive and accurate research shows that tubes are incredibly important to our new potential customer base at slashdot.org, they talk about them a lot.
Utube CEO: OK, so how do we get their attention?
Utube marketing guy: Simple, we whine to CNN about how our business is going down the toilet thanks to google, then submit a story to slashdot - they love that stuff!

(...)

Slashdot editor: Hmm, I've been rejecting a lot of stories like this recently, and this one appears to be suitably poorly put together - perfect!
Slashdot editor: (skipping "Dupe Check"/"Spel Check"/"Grahma Check" buttons) *PUBLISH*
Slashdot readers: Oooh, how cruel to link to that site! (Follows link to see if servers really are down or not).
Server room: (indifferent rattle of hard disks)
Utube hosting provider: (puffing on expensive cigar) Suckers! Time to order my new Humvee.

Now the name makes sense

[slashdotmsiriv]

Now i know why they named their site YouTube instead of uTube. The second would be more appropriate given the audience, but was already taken.