In 2006, Larry Page announced the start of a new service provided by Google at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, assuring the high-quality and value behind video downloads. From that moment the "paid for" service model seemed to be the way ahead...

Then out of the blue Google shuts it down on the 15th August 2007!

Whats All The Fuss?

The recent announcement that Google Video is no longer going to be making its catalogue of paid for downloads available has surprised the entire Internet community and disappointed a lot of dedicated users. Consumers worldwide not only cannot download high quality videos of their favourite shows etc... but they don’t even have access anymore to the videos they have already purchased!

As soon as news of this broke the Internet community spoke with one voice of how it disapproves of Google’s decision to stop this service and it seems that this may have a negative effect on the popularity of other Google-related services.

So Why Did Google Pull The Plug?

The decision to stop this service might also have something do to with Google’s purchase of the famous video site, YouTube.com Also, one Google spokesperson has stated that their main intention is to concentrate on developing better and improved advertising formats for the online video market. In a desperate attempt to patch things up, they offered to provide refunds in the form of credits, usable for the online payment service, Google Checkout.

That's right, no cash refunds here folks...

BUT not every Google customer has Checkout Account! So I guess those that don't are really going to feel annoyed and let down...

Google Paid For Downloads

Fig 1.1 - The Service No Longer Available At Google Video

Jupiter analyst David Card has analyzed long and hard Google’s decision to end the video service and his conclusion is not at all in Google’s favour. His honest opinion is that this step will cost Google a whole lot more, especially in terms of popularity and that by taking such a decision Google has set a precedent.

After such an announcement, from a large company like Google, it is doubtful that many Internet users will still maintain the same level of confidence in digital content availability...

Other experts such as Michael Arrington and Ars Technica highlight that consumers should have every right to disregard all similar services in the future and consider digital content to have no reliability at all.

Important Update:

As of the 20th August and due to all the negative feedback they have received, Google have reversed their decision on refunds! Here is what they state on their company blog:

"We're giving a full refund -- as a credit card refund -- to everyone who ever bought a video. We'll need you to make sure we have your most recent credit card information, but once we know where to send the money, you'll get it.

You can still keep the Google Checkout credit that you've received already. Think of it as an additional 'we're sorry we goofed' credit.

We're going to continue to support playing your videos for another six months. We won't be offering the ability to buy additional videos, but what you've already downloaded will remain playable on your computer."

....nice to see the power of the Internet can make companies rethink their mistakes, especially when they are so public.

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Marc Liron - Bio
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A page about Google scraping its paid for download service