I admit it, I'm addicted to youtube. At first I thought the site might be some way for people like myself to find long lost umbilical cords (sorry early morning cheap humor).
Then I visited the site. It has gotten ridiculously better in the past 6 or 8 months. It also is light years ahead of Google Video in terms of choice, but not in terms of functionality for a dad like me to upload videos I've done about Zoe.
Here's a few of my absolute favorite things about youtube:
- HUGE old school library of interview videos: Did you never see David Letterman interview Madonna (when she dropped all the f-bombs) or Crispin Glover when he was on acid? It's there. A great selection of Johnny Carson interviews as well.
Johnny or Dave interviewing people like John Candy, Bill Murray, Siskel & Ebert (trust me those were great interviews) and even more recent like Dave interviewing John Stewart. I endeavor to live in the present but boy the past is an awful lot of fun now and again. - Great music videos; Tell me when to go by E40, Once in a Lifetime by the Talking Heads, Love Generation by Bob Sinclair, they're all there. Now, I must admit, Google Video had The Manamana song by the Muppets and I couldn't find it on youtube, hey nobody's perfect.
- Sports clips: An enormous selection of all types of sports. Youtube's boxing (legal) selection is outstanding. Gatti vs. Ward? Lewis vs. Tyson? They got it.
I used youtube as my official world cup information source because someone uploaded every goal. I'll admit that I have even watched the disturbing and raw street fights a few times but haven't in a while. But if that's your cup of tea, they got it.
They have a lot of old college football clips of Notre Dame. And, if you want to spin your head a few times, search for a guy named Ted Ginn (or Teddy Ginn) and watch his highlights. In particular one user took his highlights and inserted a song called Black Betty it's awesome. - The unusual: I learned about parkour on youtube. I heard the aol cancellation call and saw the subsequent interview. It's literally a virtual rabbit hole and I am Alice.
- Comedians: Eddie Izzard? Ricky Gervais? Jerry Seinfeld? Steve Martin? Youtube's got em. Picard dancing and singing to "A your adorable"? Youtube's got it. The SNL Star Trek skit with Belushi, Chase and Akroyd? Youtube's got it.
I totally dig laughing and youtube helps me find something to laugh at.
What I would change about youtube:
- The search is still clunky. If I search for Johnny Carson, I may end up with 30% of the results being some hack trying to imitate him. I wish it were adaptive to my likes. In fact it would be great if as new content that fit my profile came on line it would alert me or at least catalog it for me.
- This one youtube can't do much about but I wish the entertainment companies would understand and really leverage this community's power. Instead they are spending tons of time ensuring that copyrighted material is taken down. (Of course it's always the recent stuff because I can watch old stuff all I want.)
If these visionaries would take off their martini glasses they could see that youtube's behavioral patterns are great predictors for what they can pull from their library and re-show (like espn classic for talk shows....). It also should give them an awful good signal on what people like and don't like. Alas, they are focused on the myopic short term nickel instead of the medium term dollar. - There isn't enough division between content that I'm not going to understand because I don't speak the language and stuff that I will. It's again frustrating going page after page flying right past all the content that has letters and words I just don't recognize.
This being said, youtube straight up rocks. For me, they are the craigslist of sharing video content. The best stuff goes there. If I were a betting person, I would lay money down that Google buys them within 6 months.
I guess then, I will go from YA meetings to GA meetings. Of course, all I'll be thinking about is getting back home to watch video from when David Letterman regularly wore jeans.
And you know what? I'm down with that. To the high priests and priestesses of youtubula...you rock!
hey if u could, can u send me the link to the Ted Ginn film with the black betty song. I've been trying to find it with no luck,
thanks
Posted by: mckenna | November 04, 2006 at 11:40 AM
http://youtube.com/watch?v=WGyrgqOKZLg
Posted by: Tim Taylor | November 04, 2006 at 12:00 PM