Compete? Good luck:
US Internet giant Google is preparing a major overhaul of video sharing website YouTube by creating "channels" to compete with broadcast and cable TV, The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.Under a plan costing as much as $100 million, the YouTube homepage will highlight different channels focused on topics like arts and sports, the Journal said, citing people familiar with the matter.
How can this cost $100 million? Tag everything that isn’t tagged, rewrite the source code for the front page, and voila. Unless the $100 mil is going to pay people to watch everything on YouTube so they can tag it. Why are they doing this?
Executives of the site told the Journal they want people to "watch YouTube" the same way they "watch TV."
I'd like that too. See, when I watch TV, and the commercial isn’t interesting or I’ve seen it before or I have a basic understanding of what Geico does and do not need additional explanation from an animated lizard, I hit FF. On YouTube you have to click to get rid of the ad right away. This is like getting up from your sofa, walking over to the TV, and tapping the screen.
On the other hand, broadcast and cable can’t compare with YouTube’s carefully targeted ads. The other day while watching a documentary about an asteroid hitting the earth, there was a pop-up ad for tires. Just what I was thinking about! I bought 16.
Update: upon actually researching the matter, it appears that YouTube will be paying for new programming, instead of relying solely on fail compilations, calibrated attempts at “viral” marketing, and unnerving rants from guys who are convinced Glenn Beck is a robot sent back in time by the Rothschild banking consortium, there we’ll have . . . all of the above, but with better production values.
