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Google’s mission is “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful” (Google). Web video, the visual component of information in the Internet world, was not universally accessible or useful before Google’s era of indexing. To test this, think back to the last time you wanted information with a visual component, using a commercial starring the actor Robert Conrad, for example. The vault of your memory may well contain the context of a virile Conrad hawking a well-known battery brand; however, before web sites like YouTube and Google, there was no easily accessible method to obtain information about commercials, let alone view them. In 2008, all one needs to do is perform a Google search for Robert Conrad+battery, and, in a few clicks, be harkened back to the Eveready commercial played during a baseball playoff game in 1977. Organizing obscure video information like this fits into Google’s far-reaching information indexing and marketing strategy.

Media pundit and blogger Jeff Pulver understands that companies like YouTube operate best in the “bottom-up space of knowing what users want.” Google’s philosophy on how they view the Internet is “focus on the user and all else will follow:”

“If you take the elements of Google, including their micro-payments capability, and the IP-based communications capabilities of GoogleTalk and now YouTube, we may be seeing the formation of a fully functional next generation ‘TV Network of the Net.’ Google could very likely deliver contextual advertising in those videos, thus proving a way to drive revenue through even the stupidest pet trick video” (Pulver).

This leads one to ask if Google’s strategy is an egalitarian duty to its users or a fiduciary one to its stockholders and if the utopian hope of Larry Page’s “perfect search engine” is mere subterfuge for the commercialization of all modes of information. When the sale of YouTube was complete, Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt publically referred to the deal as “the next step in the evolution of the Internet.” The 1990’s strategy of attracting as many eyeballs as possible has not changed as the standard measure for the 21st century.

Google may eventually allow advertisements to run before certain videos begin playing, a move counter to YouTube’s original policy and community expectations. Google’s advertising technologies present a common façade to benefit users’ experience and help advertisers monetize their content. Up to the purchase of YouTube, Google’s own video site lagged far behind in the number of viewed videos. The increase of four times more traffic is an agreeable boost to advertisers and advertising revenue for Google.

The purchase of YouTube has other advantages for Google’s long-term strategy. While it does not seem logical or profitable for Google to purchase YouTube with the potential for significant copyright infringement lawsuits, any legal precedent derived from copyright litigation could have promising implications for their future financial plans with advertisements and video. Google’s deep pockets will allow them to defend their ideas against the onslaught of possible lawsuits. New copyright precedents could position Google to become further entrenched in the online video and advertisement market space.

Google, through its new data center and dark fiber purchases, may be setting itself up to become the most important video carrier in the world – supplanting both cable and network television. Before being purchased by Google, YouTube had signed major advertising deals with CBS, Warner, $ony, and Universal to allow for shared advertising revenue that would have easily propelled YouTube to become profitable on its own without Google.

Google built a network designed to bring video costs down to a penny or two per hour. If they obtain video for free from users, they can afford to serve it to the public just for the related ads. There is a significant amount of video on the shelf not making money which could be distributed through Google. If they follow their mission statement, Google wants the “long tail” (Anderson) of video indexed and searchable to make money for their advertisers and their company now and into the future.