Tech Mentat

On October 9th the US witnessed shock and awe for the second time in recent years when Google.com decided to purchase YouTube.com for $1.65 Billion. I first read the news on NyTimes and was subsequently sucked up by news sources and search marketing blogs alike; a nice round-up can be found on Search Marketing Gurus.

Since the penning of the deal it seems like Google (and the deal) has been frought with legal issues. There has been good & healthy debate around Google’s motives on the purchase and whether or not the legal implications were known (or thought of) by Google. Personally, I think Jeremy Zawodny has it right when he says that it’s all about eye-balls.

While I think there is a lot to talk about concerning this deal and the potential long term web marketing impact as well as how the purchase may (or may not impact) traditional media (and their funding media giants), I do want to touch quickly on something that seems to have been overlooked.

The lesson is that NBC, ABC, FOX & all other broadcasting companies are media whores. I say that kindly as they have given me some of the best laughs/cries/years of my life… but really, let’s call it what it is. And all whores know how to do when they get mad or feel threatened is to knife the person who they think is cutting in on their territory (or have their pimp [lawyers] do it for them). In this case the broadcasting companies feel threatened so as soon as Google makes waves by purchasing YouTube.com, so they sent the dogs out to burn the witch.

But what if they didn’t burn the witch? What if they didn’t start suing? What if they embraced the web communities that are supposedly stealing their content? What if instead of being closed minded they saw new ways to make money where old push marketing/advertising failed? I mean, shit, the only reason I know about Lazy Sunday is because of that web community… it had nothing to do with tired comedy of Saturday Night Live (which stopped being funny about the same time Phil Hartman was murdered).

I ask: What if all these broadcasting giants used the ‘views’ information on YouTube.com to give them live feedback on which shows (new and old) people really like?
All I know is when I do a search on YouTube for ‘Small Wonder‘ I can get back a full episode but when I do a search on Amazon for the ‘Small Wonder DVD‘ - I am told the studio doesn’t even make the box set. Learn from your market behavior dudes!

I kid - but my questions (and points) still stand. Enjoy the Small Wonder…