Google's revenue is structured like this: search, peering agreements and whatnot, and way, way down the ledger: "other". Most of the products that google makes are just toys. The pressure is off because nobody at google expects anything in the "other" category to earn company-affecting levels of revenue. As a consequence google has spent years and years being in huge businesses that it barely understands and barely cares about. Youtube being a prime example of that.
Youtube has lots of problems, but it has lots of amazingly wonderful aspects as well. It is rapidly becoming a very important part of the way people communicate in the 21st century. Yet google is so ham fisted in their handling of youtube they have no idea what to do with it other than use it as a lever to compete against facebook. Google should be coddling the creators on youtube, these are people who have acquired very enthusiastic and very large fanbases through the medium of youtube. Some folks make their living entirely off of youtube. Others use youtube as a critical part of their brand and their business. Many musicians have kickstarted their careers through youtube, for example.
Google should be understanding the way these people use youtube, and improving the tools they have available to make their lives easier. To help them connect even better with their audiences and fan bases. Instead google treats content creators little better than any other average user of youtube.
Google didn't switch the youtube comment system to g+ for any benevolent reasons, those were just excuses and justifications for them to try to roll out the g+ empire far enough for it to actually get traction.
Meanwhile they are pissing off the people who add the greatest value to youtube. The trolls and spammers don't give a shit. Even in the worst case scenario for them where they are completely and utterly silenced it's not a big deal, they'll just find some other outlet. Meanwhile everyone else pays the price.
The saddest part is that google doesn't even realize the value of what they have, and because they are so inept at monetizing anything other than slapping ads on it they may never realize until they've destroyed it or driven everyone elsewhere.
Youtube has lots of problems, but it has lots of amazingly wonderful aspects as well. It is rapidly becoming a very important part of the way people communicate in the 21st century. Yet google is so ham fisted in their handling of youtube they have no idea what to do with it other than use it as a lever to compete against facebook. Google should be coddling the creators on youtube, these are people who have acquired very enthusiastic and very large fanbases through the medium of youtube. Some folks make their living entirely off of youtube. Others use youtube as a critical part of their brand and their business. Many musicians have kickstarted their careers through youtube, for example.
Google should be understanding the way these people use youtube, and improving the tools they have available to make their lives easier. To help them connect even better with their audiences and fan bases. Instead google treats content creators little better than any other average user of youtube.
Google didn't switch the youtube comment system to g+ for any benevolent reasons, those were just excuses and justifications for them to try to roll out the g+ empire far enough for it to actually get traction.
Meanwhile they are pissing off the people who add the greatest value to youtube. The trolls and spammers don't give a shit. Even in the worst case scenario for them where they are completely and utterly silenced it's not a big deal, they'll just find some other outlet. Meanwhile everyone else pays the price.
The saddest part is that google doesn't even realize the value of what they have, and because they are so inept at monetizing anything other than slapping ads on it they may never realize until they've destroyed it or driven everyone elsewhere.