i wonder what's going to happen to google video. this is great news in my opinion, potentially strengthening google and moving them towards creating an operating system

damn 1.6 billion....Well google has turned into one of the most popular if not most popular site in the world.

Anyways I like google and hope they get bigger and bigger and bigger.

if youtube dosn't sell right now they can sell later (maybe next year) for a even higher price.

YouTube isn't going get any more valuable if it gets run down....

YouTube got big in 3rd world countries just like most of these new "fad" sites that are emerging. It doesn't generate anywhere close to billions in revenue, it has high operating costs and a limited shelf life. Is their brand and presense worth 1.6 bil? Hell no! You invest to make money, and the people coming up with these inflated, speculative valuations are possibly among the biggest morons around.

YouTube COULD make money if they started cramming ads down its user's throats, perhaps sneaking ads in before displaying videos...but that would change the core at which YouTube is, and what makes it so popular.

Google should stick to what they DID best - search. All their little side projects are cute, but if you haven't noticed the SRPs on Google are getting lower in quality as time goes by. Not to mention their Adwords program (primary source of revenue) being frought with spammy ads as well as rampant click fraud. Seems like 1999-2000 has escaped the memories of many. Hey, Maybe AfterDawn should sell out to the MPAA for 5 billion, then the can start filling the site with anti-dvd copying propaganda. ;)

Google has become a corporation..sad

I dont see how Google taking YT would protect it from the horror of the mafiaa that said YT can really only go down from here unless they start puting 10-20sec ads before videos and having abunch of ads on the page....any way you look at it You tube as it is now is dieing,there are plenty of free video sites now to many for the Mafiaa to kill...

Sukhvail, Google creating a OS, where did you hear about that???

~LoL~ @ the Google YouTube takeover, next..Google takes over the world for roughly $8282.7bn :-p

......It'll happen one day, watch !!

Word!

rav009
couldnt they team with lunix and make a uber lunix package and sell it for 50-100,it wuld have wine and everything preinstalled to paly moives,music,DX games and surf the net with Firefox and such :3

Bring on the Google!

If this proposed merger is bad for the public, President Bush will be blamed for the consequences.

I for one hope they don't sell. Why? Thre little letters DRM

this is crap why would google want you tube?

Google want's Youtube because they want to be a "player" in the online video sharing market. If they were to buy Youtube, it would move them closer to that goal. It will probably be like an addition to "google video", which is not quite as good in my opinion.

EDIT.

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If I owned youtube I'd sell in a second. Thats alot of money and doesn't seem to make sense for google. To me the best part of youtube is searching for things when I'm bored that you can't find anywhere else. Example: I just typed in "Jim Carrey" and found great 5-10 minute segments from Letterman and skits from SNL and In living Color to remind me how awesome this guy is. My question is why is it such a bad thing to have free access to these types of things. Don't the anti-piracy groups realise that by letting you sample anything you want, there is a better chance your going to go out and buy something, besides, any of these type of clips I could have recorded myself at one time or another. Didn't I pay for the cable to enter my house originally for the right to tape these things back then to a VCR?

IF google buys youtube somethings have to change. As of now youtube isn't profitable. I think if google buys youtube, they are going to change it into a videostore like guba w/ maybe more features. If google intends on keeping youtube the way it is.....I would have to say we are in a bubble. I do think it could be a smart thing to buy youtube, but not for 1.6 billion!

c4iscool
Makeing profitable deals with the Mafaa,Addign clips befor a vid is played,doubling or trippling the current moderation setup add a word filter to remove or suspend some vids becuse of CP/IP reasons there are some things they can do to it to make it make money without killing it but.....in the end theres no telling what most people will put up with.

It's official: Youtube is now Google's bitch.

It's Official: Google Buys YouTube
As rumored last week, search engine giant buys popular video site.
Nancy Weil, IDG News Service
Monday, October 09, 2006 02:00 PM PDT
I know its its late, but here's a little more info:

The companies will merge Google's search expertise with YouTube's video expertise, pushing what executives believe is a hot emerging market of video offered over the Internet. Google Video will continue to operate, executives said, calling that service "a very valuable aspect of the Google experience." The aim is that it will improve as a result of the acquisition, Google executives said.

The number of Google shares to be issued will be based on the 30-day average closing price two trading days before the deal is completed, Google said.

yup, it's official. YouTube is now GooTube. Errr wth they decide to call it. Expect a really whacky name, because Google is just whack.

I have a channel on YT with about 500 videos. I expect major Hell to be headed my way & every one of my friends with licensed anime. But we already have a battle plan against them. Unless they are willing to manually search tens of thousands of videos, I think our idea will work. As a matter of fact, our strategy is so sure to work I'm already laughing.

YouTube has about 70 employees. If you split that $1.65 billion that's $23.5 million a piece. NOT BAD!!