Where are all the licensing deals from content owners excited about hosting their content ? Is it just me, or have we seen more content owners ask to have their content removed than sign new licenses to have their content added ? Where are all the licensees ? I mean out of the 10s of millions of copyright owners world wide, you would think we would have heard about more than the licenses signed when Google bought Youtube, right ? Where are they ?
But thats not what is interesting about what has happened to Gootube since the acquisition.
Whats interesting is that Gootube has gone corporate. Its primary application is to host commercials. Commercials for TV shows. Commercials for Products. Commercials for cheesy websites. Gootube may host a bunch of user generated content, but thats not what people look at.
Take a look at Decembers Top Viewed English Videos.
Most Viewed (This Month)
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Go through the list. Only the StarWars PSA, the Christmas Tree Jump and PowerTool Racing are really user generated content. 3 out of 20.
From there you have a contrived 12 days of christmas that is one of thousands of promos for Youtube users themselves trying to build a following. Is this social networking at its best ?
From there we have commercials or promos for movies, tv shows, blenders, knives, music videos and for a phone company. Then we have the most popular of Youtube videos these days. The fake Porn thumbnail with headlines of: Britney, Paris, whoever, nude, in the shower, wherever, doing whatever. 5 of the top 20 are fake porn.
This is the future of TV and entertainment ?
Thats what Youtube has become. Fake Porn and Commercials. Sure there is still some fun stuff on there and being uploaded, but how long before fake porn just takes over ? It was 9 of the top 20 for the week as I write this.
Now some of you might assume that Youtube can just police the fake porn and take it down before it clutters Youtube into....oblivion. Well they can't. If they police videos they cant qualify for the safe harbor laws under the DMCA. (although some how real porn never manages to squeeze through, so we know they are looking at every video and shouldnt qualify anyway, but thats another discussion) and whatever content filtering they may be introducing is never going to catch mis sized dirty thumbnails at the front of fake porn.
So will all the creative people of the world want their User Generated Gems surrounded by fake porn and commercials ? Or maybe the bigger question is whether or not CBS and NBC and the other big media players will want their promos for their shows surrounded by fake porn or by Youtube Response videos which have to be the dumbest things I have ever seen. All that is missing from these response videos is a standardized preroll of "Im rubber and you're glue..."
Could it be that Gootube will fade ? The victim of fake shots up Britney's skirt and "My Response to..." videos ?
When will advertisers start wanting to know just how videos are viewed and by who ? Is a video viewed by the person who uploads it worth the same to advertisers as someone who came for the "entertainment" ? Is a video viewed by someone who "watches" 8000 videos a day really viewed or is that "view fraud". Exactly how many people go to Youtube only to watch videos as entertainment and is that number growing or declining and how will that number trend in the future ?
While Im up on my high horse, let me add some historical context. Social networks are not new. Go back 20 years to CompuServe and UseNet groups and then chat rooms. They all cycled through the same way. They were fun and exciting when you found people with like interests. People found the forum, group or room usually via referral. People involved learned, were educated, were entertained, whatever the forum offered. Then if the forum grew, as in any group, some participants became more popular than others, and others tried, but failed to become popular. Still, they tried to dominate conversations, and when they couldn't they tried different ways to game or sabotage the system. That pushed out the "purists" and original posters.
Then the spammers came. When the forum reaches the point where no one has a strong connection, the spammers and people trying to game the forum take over till the forum dies. Its what has become "The Ecology of Forums and Social Networks" . When a forum is open to everyone, eventually everyone shows up and the original attraction of the forum is lost. Someone has got to take responsibility for any open social network or the network will die.
Go to any forum that has survived a long time and you will find members or admins that police posts on there actively and ruthlessly. Myspace is a perfect example of a company that is figuring this out and trying hard to police what its participants do. Youtube, not so much...
1. How can Google police their Youtube videos? All videos have the 'Flag as Inappropriate' link, so it's up to the members and visitors to help. Of course, there's always going to be a debate on whether or not some of the blatant garbage can be taken down, since some argue it's "art" or they're using their free speech.
Posted at 11:34AM on Dec 27th 2006 by AJL