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A look ahead at Google Video and YouTube

Announcement
January 25, 2007

In November, Google officially closed its acquisition of YouTube, and since then we’ve received a number of questions about what will happen next. The summary is that Google Video and YouTube will continue to play to their respective strengths. But here’s a bit more detail:

Google’s strength – and its history – is grounded in search and in innovating technologies to make more information more available and accessible. YouTube, meanwhile, excels at being a leading content destination with a dynamic community of users who create, watch and share videos worldwide.

Google search results already include links to content that’s hosted on YouTube. Starting today, YouTube video results will appear in the Google Video search index: when users click on YouTube thumbnails, they will be taken to YouTube.com to experience the videos. Over time, Google Video will become even more comprehensive as it evolves into a service where users can search for the world’s online video content, irrespective of where it may be hosted.

This is part of Google’s overall goal to give users the highest quality search results possible. For example, some users who do a Google search for Martin Luther King, Jr. may want to find websites about him. Others may want to see images of him. And others may want to watch video footage…

YouTube, as we’ve stated previously, will remain an independent subsidiary of Google, and will continue to operate separately. Google will support YouTube by providing access to search and monetization platforms and, when/where YouTube launches internationally, to international resources. YouTube co-founders Chad Hurley and Steve Chen and the rest of the YouTube team will continue to innovate exciting new ways for people to "broadcast themselves."

Ultimately, we envision most user-generated and premium video content being hosted on YouTube so that it can further enhance the YouTube experience. We also envision YouTube benefiting from future Google Video innovations – especially those involving video search, monetization and distribution.

Earlier this week, we announced one example of innovation in monetization and distribution with a new AdSense video test. We will be working with a wide set of content providers, grouping together high quality video content from providers with high quality ads and offering them as playlists which publishers can select from and display on their AdSense sites. (For more about that test, click adsense.blogspot.com).

Today represents just the first step in our plan to bring users worldwide a comprehensive video search and content platform. We’ll provide ongoing updates as they unfold.

For Google inquiries, please contact:

Gabriel Stricker
Tel: +1.650.253.0139
gstricker@google.com

For YouTube inquiries, please contact:
press@youtube.com
Tel: +1.310.496.4441

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