On: Why does everything suck?: The Stats Are In. YouTube Really Is A Turd

[pchristensen]

I'm glad someone else pointed out that Google's ad-funded largesse won't last forever, and the free web will take a big hit when it does.

[kingkongrevenge → pchristensen]

I'll guess that longer term free video will be distributed via some p2p system. Torrent-like capabilities will be transparently integrated into players, the kinks will be worked out and video will be smooth, and free sites for reliably indexing and distributing the "torrents" will emerge.

I doubt youtube is viable long term. They are popular because they hand out free bandwidth and storage, and have lots of copyrighted material. Youtube will be pointless once it's as easy to post a video as it is to stick a picture somewhere online.

[jcl → kingkongrevenge]

Youtube will be pointless once it's as easy to post a video as it is to stick a picture somewhere online.

So it will be as pointless as Flickr is right now?

[kingkongrevenge → jcl]

The flickr of video is a vastly different proposition than youtube. Flickr has paying subscribers.

[gojomo → kingkongrevenge]

You think that people will pay to host (smaller) photos, but not (larger) videos?

[pchristensen → gojomo]

The fact that people are willing to pay for smaller photos is a fantastic sign that they would pay for larger videos!

They might pay to host higher quality or longer videos. Here are some things a premium youtube could provide:

- longer videos

- higher quality videos (for screencast, plays, etc)

- spam filtering or policing comments

- ???

The fact that people are willing to pay for smaller photos is a fantastic sign that they would pay for larger videos!