Date: Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Google video no longer

Google has announced this week that it will be closing down its online video store, and that those customers who have already paid for clips will not be compensated.

This announcement by Google has left thousands of consumers furious over the fact that they have paid for products that they will now not be able to use. Scores of consumers splashed out on videos of their favourite shows such as CSI and NBA basketball games. The announcement comes following the resignation of the head of Google’s video division, leading commentators to surmise that Google is moving towards amalgamating its video division with the recently purchased YouTube. The only compensation those who have bought videos on the site will have is a $2 (£1) credit for digital goods, however Google has stated that these must be purchased through services which use its own Google Checkout payment system, and must be claimed within 60 days.

Therefore Google customers seem to have got the rough end of the deal, but analysts such as Jupiter Research believe that Google Video did not have much chance of succeeding in the first place. This was because the product had no relationship with the companies making video viewers, and the proprietary video digital rights management (DRM) system which Google used was not compatable with any of the major players such as Apple’s iPod; furthermore the products on offer were haphazard in their selection, and bore no correlation in price. The closure of Google Video is is the first casuality of the DRM system, which serves to protect bought content by allowing it to be downloaded but not permanently unlocked, however the system has actually caused the videos to become obsolete due to this protection. The DRM system means that companies who use it get to contol where and when consumers use it. This is the case with many other video services who also use DRM to protect their content, such as Apple's iTunes Store, BitTorrent and Amazon Unbox.

Source: Guardian