Does GooTube mean anything for Rich Internet Applications?
Unless you've been hiding under a rock, or maybe following the big news on that other meme you know that Google has taken the plunge and agreed to buy YouTube for $1.65 billion in stock. The blogosphere has, predictably, gone totally crazy and everyone is talking about what this means for Google, the web, and the tech industry at large. Mark Cuban even used a smiley.
So what does this mean for my little part of tech, the Rich Internet Application? In the short run, not much. We won't see any big changes for YouTube, and Google hasn't talked much about integration. For the most part it is going to be Web 2.0 as usual, albeit with some bigger numbers thrown around. But as Richard MacManus and Paul Kedrosky noted, it does legitimize online video to the tune of 1.65 billion paper clams and put internet video into an even brighter spotlight.
Video on the web has been the hot thing for a long time now, and there was never an issue that it was going to be a big deal. Even in the 90's it was clear that video was going to be big. But the Google acquisition is telling because of what they stand for. If Fox had bought YouTube or even one of the other major content producers, then online video could have simply meant reaching out to the valuable 18-35 demographic that is increasingly online. If Yahoo or Microsoft had won the bidding war, it would have been seen as the two companies trying to keep up with Google. But it wasn't, this was Google, the advertising juggernaut, saying "This is the next step in the evolution of the internet" and implying that they had the knoweldge and wherewithal to monetize video through advertising.
That may seem silly, but if you think about it, who has made money off of online video? YouTube was losing a ton of money before it was purchased, Google Video obviously wasn't cutting it. Even RealPlayer, the company that could be considered the father of online video, is a shell of its former self. So now Google buys the biggest online video site, and the social network that goes with it with the belief that they can make money. I hope they do, because if they can, a lot of smaller companies can follow their lead and a richer, more interactive web becomes the norm.
We aren't going to see it happen overnight, but where Google goes, so go the masses, and video will be no different. Once people see it's possible to monetize video, we'll see more interactive videos, more web applications built around video, and companies working video into their brands. This is all very good for Rich Internet Applications because you simply can't do video on the web without them. Flash has become the de-facto standard, but technologies like Windows Presentation Foundation, that make use of Windows Media will also see adoption. HD Video will be the next step, and Rich Internet Applications will be there to take the mantle.
Video is the future, and the web is going to get a lot more of it. People love text partly because it's so simple. Rich Internet Applications can bring that simplicity to video and make the web a more interactive place.