Valleywag

Posts Tagged “

Google, YouTube

”
Terms of Disservice

The 5 most laughable terms of service on the Net

Nobody reads terms of service agreements, those legal documents new users have to click a box to say they've read. And the truth is, they hardly matter to anybody but the cyber-rights-now crowd who get worked up by articles on Boing Boing, and the paranoid lawyers at large Web companies who want to avoid money-fishing lawsuits. But sometimes they go far beyond protecting corporate interests into la-la land. Did you know that when you download Google's new Chrome browser, you agree that any "content" you "submit, post or display" using the service — whether you own its copyright or not — gives Google a "perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute" it? Google's ambitions for Chrome are even larger than we thought; by the letter of this license, Google will own all information that flows through its browser. But Chrome's terms of service are just the latest in a long line of ludicrous legalese. More »

Feature

11:20 AM on Wed Sep 3 2008
By Nicholas Carlson
34,472 views, 27 comments

Latest by Nicholas Carlson: @Barce: Great idea! Email me with an obvious clauses that should be on the list? more »

online advertising

YouTube tries getting huge

Google plans to turn over about of third of YouTube's homepage to advertisers willing to pay $200,000 per day, reports Silicon Alley Insider. The ad will be the height of a standard YouTube video but will stretch across the width of the screen. For a standard-sized YouTube video ad on the homepage, Google charges advertisers $175,000 per day and requires that they spend a daily $50,000 on advertising elsewhere on the site. Earlier this summer, Time Warner's online property AOL tried to fix underperforming ad revenues with a similar tactic, offering advertisers what AOL called the biggest banner in the business. MySpace charges $1 million for similar homepage takeovers. The only hitch: These tactics can leave interactive agencies on Madison Avenue unwilling to spend their client's money. More »

8:00 AM on Tue Sep 2 2008
By Nicholas Carlson
517 views, 1 comment

Latest by michaellamb: do they not realize that most users spend about .0001 second on the home page - or exactly as long more »

online video

YouTube makes subtitles easy

YouTube now supports closed caption text files that can be displayed inside video clips. The tech spec is here. Of course, the Googletards behind YouTube tout the feature's value for science, such as this English assist for a heavily Dutch-inflected talk by physics hero Walter Llewin. (Sorry, but the captions don't work on embedded clips yet. To activate subtitles, play the video on YouTube and click the button in the lower right corner of the screen.) I give it a week at max until video remixers are using captions Joe Isuzu-style.

12:20 PM on Thu Aug 28 2008
By Paul Boutin
604 views, 5 comments

Latest by Rick: everybody knows dem mit physics lectures by sight! more »

great moments in pr

At DNC, Google beckons bloggers with happy endings

Have you heard about Google's "Big Tent," the $100 luxury newsroom Google has set up for bloggers at the Democratic National Convention? If not, here's another story on the Internet where reporters go, Oh man, Google is totes on the pulse, giving all the intrepid young blogger kids at the Democratic National Convention this week a safe place to get massaged for free by ladies and plug in their 'iPones" — read the label — while they change the world together! More »

2:00 PM on Tue Aug 26 2008
By Melissa Gira Grant
1,017 views, 8 comments

Latest by r0y: glad to see my stock dollars going to waste. wonder if they'll treat the RNC nearly as well. more »

confirmed

Ben Ling boomerangs from Facebook to Google

Where's Ben Ling headed next? We hear he might be headed back to Google — not a startup. Ling, a talented product manager, is closely watched as a talent barometer. His defection from Google to Facebook last year kicked off a series of trend stories about people leaving Google. Less than a year on the job, he's leaving Facebook, which has kicked off another series of trend stories about people leaving Facebook. Ling was recently spotted having lunch in Mountain View. You know what this means: A series of trend stories about ex-Googlers returning to the Googleplex. Update: Kara Swisher confirms Ling is returning to Google, tasked with figuring out how to make money off YouTube.

10:00 AM on Thu Aug 14 2008
By Owen Thomas
2,826 views, 8 comments

Latest by Shadowlayer: "Ling is returning to Google, tasked with figuring out how to make money off YouTube." Well since we're going for the more »

clips

Schmidt: YouTube might just be a loss-leader

Loudmouth Mark Cuban mockingly characterizes Google — which still can't figure out how to make money off YouTube — as the vendor who brags: "we are losing money on every sale, but we will make it up in volume."But Google CEO Eric Schmidt doesn't deny the charge. On Jim Cramer's Mad Money yesterday, Schmidt said "Eventually, we'd like to make some money of out [YouTube], but even if we don't, even if ultimately its a loss leader, the fact that so many people come to YouTube means they ultimately come to Google and click on ads." The numbers back up Schmidt's claims. According to ComScore, in June 2008 YouTube pointed 2.4 million search queries through Google search — just a couple hundred thousand fewer than Yahoo search.

7:20 AM on Thu Aug 14 2008
By Nicholas Carlson
595 views, 10 comments

Latest by N/A: if you search for shakira, you should see an add for the closets handgun retailer. so you shoot yourself and more »

bad ideas

Google nixes Steve Chen's YouTube live video plan

In a moment of what now seems like irrational exuberance, YouTube cofounder Steve Chen declared that the popular online video site would add live video streaming this year. Not so fast, says Google. YouTube is already struggling with the concept of profitability, and according to an anonymous source cited by Silicon Alley Insider's Michael Learmonth, Chen's idea is a financial black hole: More »

2:20 PM on Wed Aug 13 2008
By Jackson West
1,442 views, 7 comments

Latest by N/A: @WagCurious: I can make a few guesses: 1. YouTube videos are delivered off a standard CDN. We've mastered this technology. more »

copyfight

YouTube pulls video of protest at request of IOC

The International Olympic Committee has issued a takedown notice to YouTube over a video that features protestors projecting free Tibet propaganda on the walls of the Chinese consulate in New York City. It's a clear abuse of copyright law. According to the takedown notice from YouTube, the IOC found the video through the "Claim Your Content" system that makes it easy to issue infringement claims. More »

1:20 PM on Wed Aug 13 2008
By Jackson West
1,301 views, 7 comments

Latest by N/A: What do you expect from the IOC. With the good ship Oly helmed by such previous skippers as Avery Brundage? What more »

copyfight

How to crack YouTube's Olympics channel

Commenter Stephen Sclafani figured out that replacing one cookie which YouTube's servers stuff into your browser will get you through to the site's U.S.-blocked beijing2008 channel. I'm watching Argentina vs. Cote D'Ivoire right now. Here are Stephen's instructions, slightly edited (I used to write documentation): More »

12:20 PM on Fri Aug 8 2008
By Paul Boutin
15,526 views, 23 comments

Latest by N/A: It seems youtube has figured out how to prevent this hack from working. It was working for me earlier this more »

online video

AdSense video unit, presumed extinct, discovered in the wild

YouTube has an embeddable player with features that might feel familiar to publishers who've used Blip.tv's show player — it's not meant for casual embeds, and isn't accessible from the standard embed code found on most video pages. It's meant for static placement on Web sites for featuring multiple videos from a single partner, and can carry both the standard in-video overlay ads as well as a text ad block from Google. It was released last October for AdSense customers, but isn't in particularly wide use. Why mention it now? More »

7:00 AM on Thu Aug 7 2008
By Jackson West
308 views, Comment

copyfight

MediaSet sues YouTube for $780 million

Some observers said that when Google bought YouTube, it was buying a lawsuit. The total damages claimed in various copyright infringement cases against YouTube are now more than Google paid for the company back in 2006. On top of Viacom's $1 billion suit still pending in New York, Mediaset — the Italian media empire of irascible tycoon Silvio Berlusconi — wants €500 million ($777 million) for "immediate damages," and may ask for much more based on lost advertising opportunities. More »

1:00 PM on Wed Jul 30 2008
By Jackson West
586 views, 3 comments

Latest by ScalaWag: Sharks are smelling blood in the water. Who is next to strike? more »

Chad and Steve

What Viacom really wants to know about YouTube videos

What is Viacom really after in its $1 billion lawsuit against Google over YouTube? Despite a lengthy invite list, Viacom PR was only to drum up "a small press gathering" to listen to CEO Philippe Dauman at a screening for Tropic Thunder last night, according to Greg Sandoval's report on News.com. Dauman called YouTube a "rogue company" — and expressed disappointment that Google did nothing to rein it in. Viacom's now being painted as a rogue itself, seeking to violate YouTube users' privacy in requesting viewing logs from the site. More »

11:40 AM on Tue Jul 22 2008
By Owen Thomas
506 views, 4 comments

Latest by N/A: That might have true to that, since that's the only thing holding YouTube to their millions. According to this analysis of more »

copyfight

Mahalo Daily suspended from YouTube

is no longer available on YouTube. Not just a few clips have been taken down, but the whole account has been suspended. Why? A series of DMCA takedown notices from Google nemesis Viacom, naturally. I spoke to Mahalo Daily producer Tyler Crowley, who explained that he received a number of violation notices in quick succession, triggering YouTube's "three strikes, you're out" account suspension policy — even though Mahalo Daily is part of the YouTube partner program. What crime against intellectual property did Mahalo Daily commit? More »

12:40 PM on Wed Jul 16 2008
By Jackson West
2,800 views, 9 comments

The Googling

The best Google ad ever

Google has always been weak at marketing, hobbled by a cultishly engineering-centric culture that believes products should promote themselves. It worked for search, but little else. The official list of Google-branded Web services is dizzying in its me-too obscurity. Chipper house-ad videos posted on YouTube have done nothing to change this. Perhaps Google should hire The Vacationeers, makers of "The Googling"? More »

2:40 PM on Tue Jul 15 2008
By Owen Thomas
2,538 views, 6 comments

Latest by sample032: As long as Google does a better job than Facebook's ad targeting. It thinks I'm a Jewish bisexual with more »

great moments in pr

5 questions Viacom doesn't want Valleywag to ask Philippe Dauman

Touchy Viacom flack Jeremy Zweig called Valleywag up to let us know personally that we'd been disinvited from next week's press-only screening of Tropic Thunder. Such a pity! Because we had a list of questions we were going to ask Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman: More »

2:20 PM on Tue Jul 15 2008
By Owen Thomas
1,400 views, 6 comments

Latest by Shadowlayer: @raincoaster: you're asking me? I thought they made crappy teen shows... more »

double standards

How Google could humiliate Viacom in YouTube lawsuit

Worried that your obsessive kitten-video viewing records on YouTube would be exposed in Viacom's copyright lawsuit against YouTube? You can relax. Google and Viacom lawyers have reached an agreement to anonymize records of usernames and IP addresses in YouTube's video-viewing logs, which Viacom wants to examine to show patterns of willful copyright infringement on the site. The accounts of employees of both companies, however, aren't included in the deal. And that suggests a negotiating tactic for Google. More »

12:40 PM on Tue Jul 15 2008
By Owen Thomas
3,225 views, 3 comments

Latest by internetlawattorney: I am still amazed that the judge approved the original order requiring the personally identifiable information of google's users. Viacom more »

great moments in pr

Viacom unleashes PR thunder on San Francisco's press corps

Viacom's legal spat with Google has the media conglomerate cast in copyright-hating, freedom-to-upload-videos-loving Silicon Valley as a mustachio-twirling villain, out to expose YouTube viewers' usernames and IP addresses. Bwahahaha! Benighted flack Jeremy Zweig has been reduced to leaving comments on blogs in response. At last, he's getting some corporate firepower: Zweig and Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman Sr. are inviting a bunch of tech journalists a screening next Monday of Tropic Thunder, the Ben Stiller action-movie parody coming to theaters next month, and YouTube probably sooner than that. We've seen the invite list, and it left us scratching our heads. More »

11:20 AM on Mon Jul 14 2008
By Owen Thomas
756 views, 2 comments

Latest by smashface: @Paul Boutin: Ding! It is Owen's response to TC's Foo Camp review. more »

copyfight

Viacom wants to know viewing habits of YouTube employees

As a part of its copyright-infringement lawsuit against Google and YouTube, Viacom lawyers have asked for data that will detail which videos YouTube employees have watched and uploaded. Google has so far refused to provide the information, delaying an already agreed-upon transfer of some 12 terabytes of data detailing what types of videos are most often viewed on the site. Here's why Viacom wants the employee information: More »

9:40 AM on Mon Jul 14 2008
By Nicholas Carlson
1,176 views, 1 comment

Latest by ROIpositive: Nicely played. more »

next »