Following YouTube Buy, What's Next for Google?
By Erika Morphy
TechNewsWorld
11/14/06 3:56 PM PT
Now that the tech industry and Wall Street have had time to absorb Google's US$1.65 billion acquisition of online video sharing giant YouTube, the question on everyone's mind is: What's next? Prognosticating on Google's overall direction or specific strategy about a piece of technology has become the tech industry's favorite parlor game.

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Prevalent and Accessible
First, however, Google will have to digest its YouTube acquisition, one of its largest thus far. Bill Holsinger-Robinson, COO of Spout.com, an online community for film devotees, told TechNewsWorld the deal does make synergistic sense.
"YouTube serves up millions of online videos, [while] Google of course is expert in indexing," Holsinger-Robinson said. Consumers, he predicted, can expect to receive new video-related content and services as a result -- not just from whatever Google will generate from YouTube, but from other companies as well. "Video will be that much more prevalent and that much more accessible," he said.
Long-Term Plans
Indeed, that is the very point of the acquisition, Matt Booth, an analyst with the Kelsey Group, told
TechNewsWorld. "There is no doubt video is going to drive a ton of revenue on the Internet," he said.
Immediate and mid-term questions that advertisers, content providers and Web sites will have figure to include what kind of content will best deliver ROI to advertisers. Conversely, Booth said, the industry is going to have to find a way to vet content for advertisers.
Otherwise, "I can see an everyday consumer goods product finding itself positioned next to a video of questionable content," Booth noted.
Once such operational issues are settled, though, Google will be using its video arsenal to build out an
advertising platform that can extend across all mediums, from iTunes to broadcast television.
"The technology and processes to insert an ad in front of a video and track returns for advertisers is the
same, whether that video is on a computer screen or a TV," Booth explained. "Once Google has a platform developed, that is where it will be headed."