VideoGoogle Video Now Features Premier Content, New Design Corrects “Big Mistake”

Google Video Now Features Premier Content, New Design Corrects "Big Mistake"

Bloomberg’s Jonny Thaw’s story: Google Says It Made Mistake in Design of Online Store, includes comments from Google’s Marissa Mayer who said that the design of the Google Video home page (which received a makeover yesterday) didn’t do a good job of promoting content that was available for sale from the new Google Video Store.

From the article:

“We made a big mistake, “Mayer, who oversees all of Google’s search products, said yesterday. “You can’t come out and launch a product like Google Video and say `CSI’ and `Survivor’ are there if they’re not on the home page.”

However, Mayer said the response to Google Video has been “absolutely fantastic.”

The remainder of Thaw’s article includes a number of stats from Nielsen//NetRatings including:

  • Google’s video site attracted 3.04 million U.S. users in December
  • Microsoft Corp.’s MSN video had 9.46 million users
  • Yahoo video site had 2.15 million

As far as iTunes go, Thaw also uses Nielsen//NetRatings numbers to report that iTunes has a user base of numbered 20.7 million and according to Apple, they’ve sold sold 8 million videos and TV shows since October, when the video iPod debuted.

Finally, Thaw points out that at this point copy protected material purchased from iTunes can be played on portable devices or laptops that are not connected to the Internet.

Other services in addition to iTunes including MovieLink, Vongo (my new fave), and CinemaNow (all three U.S. only services) do allow for offline viewing of downloaded content.

Brad Hill and Nathan Weinberg point out the new look of the Google Video Home Page. Both note that the new page offers 24 thumbnails of programming for sale. If you’re interested in a comparison, here’s a screen cap of the previous Google Video Home Page.

In terms of promoting video content for sale, shortly after the Google Video Store launched, Google was promoting content like CSI and NBA highlights with links on the primary Google home page. A post on Searchblog and then one on our site discussed if this was a promo for a Google service or an advertisement since the content being linked to was for sale.

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