On January 26th, the fact that Google Video was going to start including YouTube results made a few blogs and news stories.
However that may not be the whole story. In fact, YouTube results have started showing up in all Google results. At first, I thought this was limited to entertainment. A search for recent Academy Award nominee Jennifer Hudson yields this result. A search for the more generic term porcelain yields this result.
In fact, and I'm sure much to the chagrin of DaimlerChrsyler and Smart car, YouTube results are showing up in Google for generic terms like car crash.
Copyright issues aside, (I'm not a lawyer. I don't even play one on television. But I'm pretty sure we haven't heard the last from them.) I have to wonder what the ramifications for this are. There's been talk of a three second pre-roll added to YouTube videos so inclusion in generic Google results would help monetize that. But does DaimlerChrysler or Smart really want their logo inserted into a search result for car crash?
Obviously those advertising agencies that haven't already will rush to ensure everything ever produced is online as well they should be given the production costs.
And then there's the spam. And there will be spam and dreck as everyone and their dog attempts at whatever cost to have their videos come up not only in YouTube/Google Video results but in generic Google results as well.
To be sure, Google is a publicly traded company and their foremost concern and goal is revenue. YouTube results may help sell more Justin Timberlake product. It may even help sell more non-related entertainment product like cars or flat panel televisions.
Go to Google, perform the search, watch the YouTube video, and make the purchase with Google Checkout. If it's paid search Google gets money. If it's a three second pre-roll, Google gets money. If it's Google checkout, Google gets money.
Could that be part of the reason that paid search results for searches including online advertising, online marketing and even affiliate marketing suddenly bring Google proprietary ads shilling Google products up in the first positions?
Search me.
~ The (SEP) Guy