YouTube morphs into TV-wannabe with a splat of social goo Identity farmer Google has redesigned its YouTube product to bring it more into line with the rest of the company's online estate. Mountain View is also hoping to morph the service into a broadcaster that might eventually compete with other TV networks. "Today we're introducing a new homepage, Channel design and a fresh coat …
I've always said the internet will eventually turn into a glorified cable TV channel. That's what the media corporations have been pushing for ever since Napster gave them a kick up their backsides all those years ago. They (and governments, and other big corporations) hate user-generated content. Can't think why....
And you can hardly upload a video of your cat to TheirTube these days without getting a copyright warning because a neigbour two doors down had the radio on.
This morning, after I carefully signed out from Gmail (the only service I'm using) I visited some websites and finally came to this article on El Reg site. Curious to see how the new You tube page looks like I typed the URL in my browser and I was horrified to see how Google already signed me in with my existing Gmail acount. I wonder what else can they do with my credentials without my permission ?
Shameless bastards!
I wanted to watch a video posted on youtube - a site that used to allow you to put on any video for others amusment - and was told I had to register and log on.
Why exactly?
Pointless exercise, google now have a hotmail email address thats not monitored and was free, a bogus name, false address etc. the hotmail account is also similarly full of garbage.
I have taken to a new approach to all these websites that demand my details - a made up name (anotherfakename does really well - they don't even seem to notice), the address and phone number of the company owning the website. Next I will start using the CEO's or HR's email account for the coimpany whose website it is.
If we all do this sort of thing they'll eventually realise they are collecting crap and stop doing it.
..though I do believe they'll want you to be logged in to view a video that has been flagged as containing potentially adult content. By "potentially adult" I mean "the moral minority hath spoken" rather than "phwoar", but still, that's possibly why you were asked for account details.
Zuckerberg doesn't see this as a threat? I don't believe that for a second. Given the size of the userbase YouTube has, and the loyalty it commands from that base I certainly would. He can't pull them from Facebook as he'll upset too many of his users - I would be spitting teeth if my competitor could get the eyes of my customers on my own platform.
I logged on the other night to upload a video to my "channel" (spit) and stumbled into their spiffy new redesign, which looks like an even bigger pain in the ass than before.
Needless to say, the first thing I did was visit the Privacy settings to make sure it was still locked down tighter than a prima donna's corset.
"It added that the design of YouTube's Channels page had also been rejigged to help users 'find great videos'."
Oh, would that be the excuse for that column that gobbles up a third of the page when I go there, and is full of bullshit videos I'm not the least bit interested in -- and which I can't get rid of? It was bad enough that when I visited there (without logging in) the screen was crammed with boxes recommending crap like glitzy music videos and shitty trailers for shitty movies. Seriously, man... every time I go there now, the screen is at least two-thirds full of boxes recommending useless shit that I wouldn't watch with a gun to my head.
About a year and a half or so ago, I integrated one of my Gmail accounts -- one I opened in order to start a Blogger blog -- with my YouTube account, which more or less accompanies the blog... but only after ignoring about six months of their goddamn' nagging, and only after they basically forced me to.
The new uploading scheme is a piece of shit, too. I never could get it to upload properly -- it just sits there at 0% while my router flashes away as if there's data going up -- and ended up choosing the "old upload method" option. Cripes, how long before they take _that_ away?
Goddamn' wankers.
Screw it, man. I'm off to Vimeo.
Some 5 years ago I connected my YouTube account to my Gmail account and it was subsequently banned for copyright infringement (videos which are now on youtube by others who are not banned and have ads play over their vids instead). To this day I cannot log into YouTube without signing out of Gmail / Google+ and then signing in with another email account - hardly the best way of getting people sharing stuff? Google needs to look at that!
Hmm... just came home and switched it on. Sorry, guys, but your description didn't do it justice. It's absolutely HORRIBLE! Less control over what you want to watch, a design that jars the eyes... I signed out immediately and decided to go to bed. Once I signed in here to publish my disgust.
One good thing that comes out of it is that I get a chance now to catch up on my other viewing. "You" Tube? No sir, not me.
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