Google Video

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Google Video is a free Google service that allows anyone to upload video clips to Google's web servers as well as make their own media available free of charge or commercially through the Google Video Store. Users can search and play videos directly from Google Video, as well as download video files and remotely embed them on their webpages.

Competing services include YouTube, iFilm, MetaCafe, IFC Medialab, and iTunes Video Store.

Contents

1 Video content
2 Video distribution methods

2.1 GVI format and conversion
2.2 AVI and MP4
2.3 Third-party extensions

3 External embedding of Google Video files
4 Uploading videos
5 Availability of service
6 Criticisms

6.1 Menus & Annotations

7 Notes
8 See also
9 External links

Video content

Google Video, while officially still in beta, is targeted towards offering a large archive of freely searchable videos. Besides amateur media, internet videos, viral ads, and movie trailers, the service also aims to distribute commercial professional media, such as televised content and movies.

Various media companies offer content on Google Video for purchase, including CBS programs, NBA games, music videos, and independent film. Initially, the content of a number of broadcasting companies (such as ABC, NBC, CNN) was available as free streaming content or stills with closed captioning. In addition, the U.S. National Archive uses Google Video to make [historic films] available online.[National Archives and Google Launch Pilot Project (...)] (NARA press release, published on 2006-02-24)

Video distribution methods

Google Video offers free services and commercial videos, the latter protected with digital rights management. A Macromedia Flash viewer plays videos in Flash Video (.flv) format inside the web browser. Alternatively Google Video Player is available for download, a VLC media player-based application which runs on Microsoft Windows or Mac OS X. The open-source Google Video Player renders files in Google's own Google Video File (.gvi) media format and supports playlists in Google Video Pointer (.gvp) format.

GVI format and conversion

Google Video Files (.gvi) are Audio Video Interleave (.avi) files with an extra list with the FourCC "goog" immediately following the header. The video is encoded in DivX4 alongside an MP3 audio stream. DivX video players and various portable video players such as the Archos AV500 can render Google Video Files without format conversion after changing the extension from .gvi to .avi. Among other software VirtualDub is able to read .gvi files and allows to convert them into different formats of choice.

AVI and MP4

Besides Flash Video and GVI, Google provides its content through Audio Video Interleave (.avi) and MPEG4 (.mp4) files. Not all formats are available through the website's interface, however, depending on the user's operating system.

Third-party extensions

Third party browser extensionsGreasemonkey (an extension for the Firefox browser), corresponding scripts[zeekat.nl], [userscripts.org] (Greasemonkey script for Google Video), bookmarklets[Google Video Download Bookmarklets] (download Google Video files in FLV, AVI and MP4 format) and websites[keepvid.com], [javimoya.com] (download helper websites) facilitate direct and straightforward access to all available formats as well as offering access to users of operating systems not officially supported by Google Video.

External embedding of Google Video files

Google Video allows select videos to be remotely embedded on other websites and provides the necessary HTML code alongside the media, similar to YouTube. This allows for websites to host large amounts of video remotely on Google Video without running into bandwidth or storage capacity issues.

Uploading videos

Users may choose to upload videos either through the Google Video website [link] (limited to 100MB) or alternatively through the Google Video Uploader, available for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. Major producers with a thousand or more hours of video can apply for Google's [Premium Program].

While the application is available as three separate downloads, the Linux version is written in Java, a cross-platform programming language, and will therefore also work on other operating systems, including Microsoft Windows, without modifications, providing that the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) is installed. Also worthy of note is the fact that this Java executable (.jar) file is a standalone application that does not require installation. Consequently, it can be run from removable media such as USB flash drives, CD-ROMs, or network storage. This allows the user to upload video even if the computer terminal on which he or she is working will not allow him or her to install programs, such as a public library computer.

Availability of service

While initially only available in the United States, over time Google Video has become available to users in more countries and can now be accessed from many other countries, including France and Germany.

Regardless of general availability, content providers are given the opportunity to limit access to video files to only users from certain countries of residence. However, methods of circumventing geographical filtering[Watch Google Videos in any country] (bypass Google Video's geographical filtering) exist.

Criticisms

Google Video is sometimes criticized for its poor video quality, although this criticism is not unique to Google. The video quality may depend on a variety of factors, including the quality of the original media, conversion into video formats used by Google Video, and reduction of resolution to fit the website.

Another popular criticism is that Google Video has little organization of content and no noticeable pricing scheme[Google Video: Trash Mixed With Treasure] (a New York Times editorial, by David Pogue, published on 2006-01-19)[C|net Editor's Review For Google Video (Beta)] (edited by James Kim, reviewed by Troy Dreier on 2006-02-07). However, pay content is arranged in a few categories. A video ranking in the form of a [Top 100] has been introduced and the official [Google Video Blog] features "Google Picks" (videos considered noteworthy by Google) on a regular basis. "Google Picks" are currently also available via the Google Video homepage.

While the lack of a fixed pricing scheme may be perceived as confusing by a number of users, it does offer content providers a wider scope in terms of individual pricing. Whether this pricing concept will be accepted and retained beyond beta remains to be seen.

There has also been criticism regarding varying standards used by Google on evaluating the content of each video for suitability. For example, Google might accept a video featuring graphic violence and profanity, but reject a milder one, with no apparent means of objective analysis.

The video uploading tool also receives various complaints, due to its "Uploading failed" error message which seems to appear in random cases without any explanation why the upload wasn't successful. Google hasn't addressed this issue yet. [link]

Menus & Annotations

Additional criticism of Google Video has been on a lack of end user tools to add tables of content and chapters to the videos. Tools that make the videos easier to annotate, view, navigate and understand. This is very true for longer format videos, those more than a few minutes in length. This will limit the growth and acceptance of the service for longer format videos like lectures, sporting events and distance education.

Notes

External links

[Google Video] (Official Homepage)
[Google Video Top100] (Official Ranking of most popular videos)
[Official Google Video Blog]
[Source code for Google's changes to VLC Viewer.]

Google Inc.

Services and tools

Annual Revenue: $7.14 billion USD (2006) | Employees: 6,800 (2006) | Stock Symbol: NASDAQ [GOOG] | Website: [www.google.com]

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