Google’s Internet Video Service ‘Embarrassing’

By Tony Glover, The Business, London

Jan. 15–Google’s new internet video service is attracting criticism in the US, with consumers being warned they are “likely to be sorely disappointed” by an “embarrassment of a video store”.

Last week, Google announced “the first open video marketplace where consumers can buy and rent a wide range of video content from a major television network, a professional sports league, cable producers and film makers”.

Google’s initial offering includes prime time and classic shows from CBS plus content from ITN and music videos from Sony BMG. But there is growing speculation that Google may have launched the service too early, virtually beta-testing it on the general public. The Chicago Tribune, for example, warns: “If you have any expectations beyond the most basic — you’re likely to be sorely disappointed.”

The Tribune said Google is in danger of driving potential users away with an offering that is awkward to use with only patchy information about the limited number of quality videos available. “On the few current network shows available — mostly Survivor and CSI, both from CBS — there is little information, certainly not the solid episode description you get from iTunes Music Store when you download, say, an episode of ABC’s Lost,” said the Tribune.

Calling Google’s new service “an embarrassment of a video store”, online technology news service The Register advises: “Do yourself a favour and don’t visit the Google shop for a few months. Google has done nothing to celebrate its unique access to shows such as CSI, Survivor and Star Trek. Instead the company has buried CBS’s shows beneath a dismal interface wrapped in a shambles of a delivery mechanism.”

Google declined to comment.

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