Blog Relations

A lot people are asking if Google’s $1.6 billion deal for YouTube is the high water mark of Web 2.0.  Today’s Guardian puts it like this:

If the decision of Time Warner, stalwart of the traditional media world, to buy upstart internet player AOL in 1999 marked the height of the last boom, does the move by Google to spend $1.65bn (£880m) on YouTube represent the peak of a new mountain of hype? Or is it a defensive move: a company protecting its territory? 

It’s a hard one to call, but surely Google if anyone can make money out of YouTube.  Contextual ads based on searches for content in the site will be valuable.  It won’t be long before the likes of you and I will be able to place video adds on the net, just as we can easily take out a Google Adwords account and advertise our services on pay-per-click.  I predict that you will see YouTube adds appearing on a blog near you soon.
If Google was going to grab a big piece of internet real estate, then YouTube was the one to go for.