Friday brought reports that Google and YouTube were in talks about Google purchasing YouTube for around $1.6 billion. Reportedly, both companies said they do not discuss rumors and speculation and refused to comment, but many said it was an obvious meeting.
YouTube is based in California and it is widely used to upload videos for sharing. Many spend hours just browsing the available videos. Voting and commenting is a popular way to express your opinion on the site.
More recently there was a new advertising campaign/soap opera that was HUGE on YouTube featuring a teen named lonelygirl15 and a mysterious life. It drew large crowds of commenters and speculation during the time it got big. The following was very cult-like and showed many that use YouTube for fun how involved you really can get.
YouTube has been criticized for allowing copyrighted materials to be uploaded to the site, but they still prevail. The respected Silicon Valley blog Techcrunch reported this rumor and claims it is unsubstantiated but definitely is being talked about.
CNN picked up the story soon after and I heard the information…seems quite interesting and worth a few moments of thought at least.
Do you feel Google, with its Google Videos would have any interest in YouTube? If so, why? Is there money to be made with video sharing and communities like YouTube holds?
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