Google owning YouTube is getting real old real fast

[dandymcgee]

Seriously what the hell. First they plastered the website with ads, and even started making them pop up in my face in the middle of the freakin video.

Then they started running their fine comb through every video on the site to remove every copyrighted song from every video. How is this any different from online radio stations which allow me to choose a song and play it whenever I want. If I really wanted free music I'd be far more likely to steal the audio from pandora than a youtube video.

Now they've went as far as making my youtube and google accounts a single entity. This annoys me because I use both YouTube and google's search engine many times a day. Now whenever I want to google something I have click sign out on my google account if I've recently logged in to YouTube (the last thing I want is someone having a list of all of the queries I've fed into google in the past week.. can you say, "highly personalized ads up the ass"?). And of course the next time I decide to comment on a video I have to log back into YouTube all over again.

Now I generally consider myself a big fan of Google, but lately I'm not too pleased with some of the things they're doing. It's like they're trying to compete with Microsoft or something, and we all know where that's gonna lead. They should just go back to being the best search engine there ever was and leave YouTube alone.

Anyone else notice significant differences in their YouTube experience since Google has taken over?

[Netwatcher]

Seriously what the hell. First they plastered the website with ads, and even started making them pop up in my face in the middle of the freakin video.

Then they started running their fine comb through every video on the site to remove every copyrighted song from every video. How is this any different from online radio stations which allow me to choose a song and play it whenever I want. If I really wanted free music I'd be far more likely to steal the audio from pandora than a youtube video.

Now they've went as far as making my youtube and google accounts a single entity. This annoys me because I use both YouTube and google's search engine many times a day. Now whenever I want to google something I have click sign out on my google account if I've recently logged in to YouTube (the last thing I want is someone having a list of all of the queries I've fed into google in the past week.. can you say, "highly personalized ads up the ass"?). And of course the next time I decide to comment on a video I have to log back into YouTube all over again.

Now I generally consider myself a big fan of Google, but lately I'm not too pleased with some of the things they're doing. It's like they're trying to compete with Microsoft or something, and we all know where that's gonna lead. They should just go back to being the best search engine there ever was and leave YouTube alone.

Anyone else notice significant differences in their YouTube experience single Google has taken over?

What about "Bing"?!
Microsoft's new search engine...
I mean, it's like a war out there!
Google Vs Microsoft Everybody!
Nobody wins and we (the users) lose.

[Falco Girgis]

I agree. I get tired of hearing the Google fanboys excuse all of Google's bullshit.

Google is driving Youtube down the drain. They haven't lost a single lawsuit with regards to copyright music in their videos. So what do they do? They don't stand up for the fair-use of media. Instead they side with the RIAA (who even the American judicial system has NOT sided with).

Google is not the "little underdog standing up for freedom of information" that they used to be. Anybody who has a problem with Microsoft these days should take a good, hard look at what Google is doing.

[programmerinprogress]

I have a bone to pick with YouTube, I'm sick and tired of this copyright music argument!

Now I know america gets the majority of their copyrighted music videos just fine (i'm talking about offical videos here, not even ripped music), but in the UK, YouTube fell out with the record companies, and now we get a bullshit notice saying we can't watch any videos due to copyright restrictions

It's the same shit I get on any other US-Based video site, it's annoying, and I believe that it encourages people to put up copyrighted music, to substitute the music that we can't access!

Was there any of this trouble when Google didn't own it, I don't think so...

It's unfair, and they need to sort it out.


EDIT: additional thought, they're operating like a national company on an international scale, that can only mean trouble, you would think Google would understand this being a global company

[gordon]

There's a solution to this, it's called don't use youtube. If you don't like it instead of whining use something else there are plenty of alternatives such as vimeo. Right now youtube have a strong position in the market vote with your browser and go somewhere else, by supporting a competitor the beauty of competition will improve both services.

[dandymcgee]

There's a solution to this, it's called don't use youtube. If you don't like it instead of whining use something else there are plenty of alternatives such as vimeo. Right now youtube have a strong position in the market vote with your browser and go somewhere else, by supporting a competitor the beauty of competition will improve both services.

And meanwhile I have to suffer because whatever alternative I choose is more than likely lacking a lot in comparison to YouTube (otherwise we'd all be hearing about, right?). When the competition begins the alternative will end up in the same position having to make the choice between copyright enforcement or endless court arguments.

Regardless, have you got any viable suggestions because I'm perfectly willing to make that sacrifice if there really is a Decent alternative?

Power to the Users!

[Kcirtap1990]

Honestly, despite the inconvenience I have very little problem with this. We all fell in love with Google for it's great search engine and then its innovative web-based software. Even today, Google is doing incredibly cool things. But the fact is, they are not a small little company anymore. Google is a very big company; their revenue last year was $21 billion, that's huge. They now operate like a huge company, it is just business.

additional thought, they're operating like a national company on an international scale, that can only mean trouble, you would think Google would understand this being a global company

This isn't really correct. Google is a company in the United States. It operates on a global scale but its headquarters, and the laws it has to abide by, is in the United States.

[gordon]

And meanwhile I have to suffer because whatever alternative I choose is more than likely lacking a lot in comparison to YouTube (otherwise we'd all be hearing about, right?). When the competition begins the alternative will end up in the same position having to make the choice between copyright enforcement or endless court arguments.

Regardless, have you got any viable suggestions because I'm perfectly willing to make that sacrifice if there really is a Decent alternative?

Power to the Users!

There are plenty of alternatives vimeo, dailymotion to name a few. Even if they lack something you like in youtube by visiting them your giving them revenue (through advertising funnily enough) that can be then used to improve their service. Or if you don't like the ads on youtube rip the .flv and watch it locally.

[programmerinprogress]

This isn't really correct. Google is a company in the United States. It operates on a global scale but its headquarters, and the laws it has to abide by, is in the United States.

You're absolutely right, but you would think that a company which operates globablly would have the interests of it's entire market as priority, even if that is a rather big ask these days...

As for 'Leaving' YouTube, while that would be an option, perhaps it would be more beneficial to 'spread' your content across a few video sharing sites, in the end you can make an informed choice of which one you like the best, and if you become disatisfied, then you can vote with your feet and use your alternative service.

In the end, YouTube was a loss-maker, so advertising had to come along, which, by the way, I'm absolutely fine with that (I do rather dislike those massive adverts they sometimes put on the top of the homepage though), but when the service provided does not meet your needs or standards, then you have a choice, try and inform the company of how they might better themselves, or simply stop making content, both of these choices can be pretty counter-productive if done incorrectly, but at least if you let someone know your opinion, they may just listen, then again, they might not.

Like I said before, keep your options open, spread your content (I can talk, I'm not signed up to anywhere else )

[JaxDragon]

If the large adverts bother you, and you use firefox, get an addon called flashblock. Then you have to click the little play button to even show it. The play button is maybe 50x50. But it will do that for all flash videos. Not that irritating compared to blocking random flash stuff, not just on youtube.

[Falco Girgis]

I just thought that you should all know that I am in the process of reuploading the entire AiGD series to Vimeo. The devteam and I have discussed it, and we will be double dipping.

1) I'm getting sick of Youtube's bullshit, and I would definitely like to give somebody else my business.
2) If nothing else, it's a wider audience.

Look forward to Youtube+Vimeo launches for forthcoming ESRev/AiGD episodes.

[eatcomics]

They update constantly (and during that process the videos load slow as hell), I'm sick of watching vids without music... The fucking ads piss me off, and now youtube is just too damn mainstream!!!!!!!!

[programmerinprogress]

I just thought that you should all know that I am in the process of reuploading the entire AiGD series to Vimeo. The devteam and I have discussed it, and we will be double dipping.

1) I'm getting sick of Youtube's bullshit, and I would definitely like to give somebody else my business.
2) If nothing else, it's a wider audience.

Look forward to Youtube+Vimeo launches for forthcoming ESRev/AiGD episodes.

I'll b e checking that out, and I need to check out vimeo too, I hear it's owned by the same people who own CollegeHumor

EDIT: if vimeo's video system is as good as CollegeHumor's then I would be very impressed.

[dandymcgee]

I just thought that you should all know that I am in the process of reuploading the entire AiGD series to Vimeo. The devteam and I have discussed it, and we will be double dipping.

1) I'm getting sick of Youtube's bullshit, and I would definitely like to give somebody else my business.
2) If nothing else, it's a wider audience.

Look forward to Youtube+Vimeo launches for forthcoming ESRev/AiGD episodes.

I glanced at it right quick yesterday and didn't really like it, but now that I'm actually looking around I think vimeo is a viable alternative.

I looked up a list of YouTube alternatives yesterday and it seems as if 80% of them were decent sites but were just LOADED with porn. The only thing that tells me is that the admins couldn't care less about content and user experience... not a site I want to try to use for viewing more appropriate things (like dev vids).

I'm pretty sure if you announce that you're going to start dual uploading, we could get a pretty good following of YouTube users to check out vimeo, and hey they might even end up liking it and referring other people there as well.

EDIT: http://vimeo.com/groups/gamedevelopers
Falco, taking leadership of this group is your first step towards world domination.

[Falco Girgis]

Yes. I will be announcing our launch on Vimeo after I have reuploaded them all (Chapter 7 Part 2 is loading now). Until then, it's kind of on the down-low.

Personally, I believe in digital freedom. Porn on Youtube would be awesome by me.