If you happen to have any videos stored at Google’s Google Video service, better head over and grab them. Google Inc. announced in an e-mail to users that from Friday, April 29 onward, that it is shutting down the service.Google Video was set up in 2005. YouTube was launched in the same year, and the popularity of the independent video platform outshined that of the Mountain View-based Internet search giant. Google decided that if you can’t beat them, you might as well buy them, subsequently purchased YouTube in 2006 for $1.65 billion.
Although in the mail to the users of Google videos, it advised them to move their videos to Youtube but the site does not provide for this option. Thus the users have to follow the entire downloading from Google videos and then uploading it to YouTube on their own. Many users feel that it is a very odd move as Google should have created a way where they could automatically transfer their videos to other sites like YouTube.
When Google Video ceased the ability to upload videos two years ago, many people, were befuddled as to why Google Video kept trudging on. It is anyone’s guess, really, especially when it became rapidly clear that YouTube would become the favorite, successful child.
The move is not surprising, given YouTube’s place in the market. Google said it would instead focus its efforts on video search technologies
Google might be placing new emphasis on YouTube. According to a recent report, the company is planning to invest as much as $100 million to produce original content for the site.