Google Video

I just finished watching the video of that floating dog that Aravosis linked to from Google Video. The video was cute. I was more impressed by what I saw after I clicked the main page link in the top left-hand corner.

Fee-based video hosting just went the way of the buggy whip industry.

In the late nineties, a few companies went into business helping local TV stations get their newscontent on the web. After a burst of enthusiasm for real time streaming newscasts, most stations settled on making selected stories available via a third-party host. Companies like World Now offered a proprietary application for viewing which made the process relatively easy for stations and their audiences. See an example here.

Google Video changes all that. No producer of video content has to pay a third party to host its content anymore. And, if you were considering purchasing your own video server, why bother?

First blogging, now video hosting. What online business model will Google invalidate next?