The other day a few friends and I stopped back
at the office after a long day of golf. By age, the foursome spanned
three unique musical eras. Pete the chef is a child of the '70's.
Business partner Andy and I are products of the '80's and our
fourth, young Derek the hotel manager had his halcyon days in the
'90's.
Finding music that suits all our tastes is a
challenge with one liking the guitar-god rock of Led Zeppelin, two
digging the melodic meanderings of the post-punk '80's and the other
intently listening to the contemporary sounds of today.
Though the several thousand MP3s from our collective systems have
been merged into one meta-MP3 music file providing what should be at
least a week of continuous, entertainment. The problem is, my main
computer appears to be dropping its drivers and those thousands of
MP3s are sounding sort of fuzzy.
After the short wave of annoyance passed, I decided to put my powers
of search to the test and venture forth to find and replace my
errant sound driver. It didn't take very long to decide that was a
bad idea disguised as a good one. Several
pints of loosening fluid consumed between the 10th and 19th greens
were still active. Ten minutes of extreme frustration surfing around
the site of the company that made my sound card led me to Google in
the vain hopes I could find another repository of arcane drivers.
"What's taking so long with the Led Zeppelin? I can make a slow-soup
faster than this," taunted Pete the chef. Pete pushes the envelope
when it comes to the never ending computer problems that tend to
plague my home-office.
Video On
Google Discovered
"Sufferin' succotash dude! Hold your horses or even better, go
slow-cook them. If it was that easy, I would just be able to type
"led zeppelin" into Google like this and... HOLY ****! Check this
out guys..."
Inadvertently I stumbled upon Google Video. Pete's Led Zeppelin (http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=led+zeppelin&hl=en)
craving was instantly assuaged by a live 1979 performance of "Rain
Song" and I was about to experience one of the most interesting
innovations seen online in months.
While the Zeppelin footage was old and grainy, the sound was master
quality. Next, we moved to the early '80's looking for anything by
The Clash (http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=the+clash&hl=en).
We were rewarded with a live concert version of the piece Rolling
Stone Magazine called the most
influential song of its decade, London Calling. Again, because the
recording is almost twenty-six years ago, the video quality is
rather low but the sound quality is excellent. Two successful
searches lead to us wanting more. Derek leaned over and asked if we
could find a piece by a friend of a friend in Toronto,
The first reference was the video on Google
called "When the Night Feels My Song", the band's recent hit,
followed by five other live performance videos.
75% of the screen is used to display the video content with the
remaining quarter on the right of the screen showing several options
for viewers and webmasters. As we watched the two live performances
and one video, we explored some of these options available with
video on Google.
At the top of the right side screen is a five-star ratings system
similar to the one used by Windows Media Player. Below the ranking
stars an Email this video button allows viewers to send the video
clip to friends. When the emailed clip arrives, a video box (present
in both Gmail and MS Outlook) is displayed. A click on the play
arrow opens a Google Video viewer playing the clip.
For some video clips, the "email this video" button has expanded
capabilities. Bloggers are invited to display the clip on their
blogs with links coming in multiple forms including, text links,
embedded video, and direct support for MySpace, Blogger, LiveJournal
and TypePad.
Below the Email/Blog/Post to MySpace button is a short description
of the performers along with links to other pages displaying similar
content. Directly below the description, five links appear showing a
playlist of similar videos, still images from the video being shown,
a list of videos posted by the user who posted the original, related
videos, and other users' comments. Below those options are links to
all similar videos in Google Video's database.
That's a lot of webmaster friendly features from video on google.
The ability to post embedded clips directly to a blog is likely one
that webmasters will begin using, much in the same way YouTube
videos are increasingly being shown on independent sites.
After listening to me rave about how ease of
access to video production and distribution is rapidly changing the
way I think about the Internet, my friends decided they would rather
listen to some more music. So far, Video on Google has not
disappointed us, going three for three. For the moment, Google Video
was batting an even 1.000. We decided to give it a bit of a
challenge and look for some obscure content. "The Message" by
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five
(http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=grandmaster+flash&hl=en).
Google had it. Four for four.
That's where our luck and Google's reach seemed to end. Trying to
keep young Derek happy, we then searched for the intro theme from
the Sopranos "Woke Up This Morning", by A3. No such luck. Google
video was able to find plenty of parody versions but the original
three-minute song and accompanying video of Tony Soprano's daily
commute along the E. Jersey shore was moodily absent.
While we were unable to directly experience Big
Country's synthesized bagpipes, an American cover band, Wil Wilson
offered two scratchy minutes of their version of that hook-laden
melody played with a real bagpiper.
We conducted a number of other searches for bands ranging from
the popular
Recalling the Family Guy episode, Andy sat at
one of the laptops and started a Google Video search for the clip
featuring Stewie's tribute to Shatner. Andy was unable to find it on
Google video but a quick search of the main search engine
on Google.com served up a successful link in the first three organic
results directing us to GorillaMask.net (http://gorillamask.net/rm.shtml).
Finding the Family Guy tribute prompted us to revisit some of our
less successful video searches on Google.com. In many cases, videos
and songs unavailable at Google Video have been posted to YouTube
though many of the song clips are overlaid with animations created
by independent users.
Posting Video
On Google Is Not Difficult
It is relatively easy to post videos to both Google Video and
YouTube though an account is required on both servers. With Google
Video, submitting a clip is as simple as filling out a short,
five-field form, agreeing to the terms and conditions,
and hitting the upload video button. YouTube is a bit more
complicated, asking submitters to help classify the video before it
is uploaded.
In both cases, the content creator retains rights to the clips they
submit however by agreeing to the terms and conditions set by
Google, content creators are, in effect, "... directing and
authorizing Google to, and granting Google a royalty-free,
non-exclusive right and license to, host, cache, route, transmit,
store, copy, modify, distribute, perform, display, reformat,
excerpt, facilitate the sale or rental of copies of, analyze, and
create algorithms based on the Authorized Content
in order to (i) host the Authorized Content on Google's servers,
(ii) index the Authorized Content; (iii) display, perform and
distribute the Authorized Content, in whole or in part, in the
territory(ies) designated in the Metadata Form, in connection with
Google products and services now existing or hereafter
developed, including without limitation for syndication on third
party sites; and in connection with each of the uses, if any, of the
Authorized Content authorized in the video information page (the
"Video Information Page") which will be made available to You no
sooner than at the time Google enables any of the features
designated on the Video Information Page. This license gives Google
the right to display Your Authorized Content via streaming and/or
downloading technologies, and to display limited excerpts of Your
Authorized Content for no fee to the end user. Google may in its
sole discretion display a link or links to the website You designate
(subject to Google's approval) in the Metadata Form in connection
with any display of Your Authorized Content, and to display links to
third party
commercial retailer web sites where purchases of the Authorized
Content may be available, to the extent such third party commercial
retailer web site serves as a distributor of the Authorized
Content."
The agreement appears weighted in favor of the content creator.
While Google can mess with it and use the content as real estate for
advertising delivery, the creator safely holds ownership and future
commercial rights. Aside from offering potential buyers free
material, content creators appear to have few worries about
losing control of their creations.
The availability and accessibility of video on Google and YouTube is
already expanding options for webmasters, advertisers and content
creators, much as MySpace offered young bands a global exposure
platform. With the easy ability to store media files on Google or
YouTube servers and embed those files in blogs, websites and MySpace
profiles, Internet users can expect a greater visual experience as
webmasters discover and make use of tools that literally could alter
the way we all view the Internet.
------------------------------------------------------------------------- Search marketing expert Jim Hedger is
one of the most prolific
writers in the search sector with articles appearing in numerous
search related websites and newsletters, including SiteProNews,
Search Engine Journal, ISEDB.com, and Search Engine Guide.
He is currently Senior Editor for the Jayde Online news sources
SEO-News (http://www.seo-news.com)
and SiteProNews
(http://www.sitepronews.com).
You can also find additional tips
and news on webmaster and SEO topics by Jim at the SiteProNews
blog (http://blog.sitepronews.com/).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Marc Liron -
Bio
Microsoft Digital Media MVP
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