Launched early last year, www.video.google.com is the first open video marketplace where any video producer, large or small, can upload their content and distribute it for free or at a price. Video prices are set by the content provider with no minimum or maximum dollar-limit. Well it is 2007 now and Google video is still beta, which is sort of interesting, why is everything always beta no matter how much time passes. Is there something to it? Alright, the first thing that we need to admit is that we're standing on the shoulders of electronic giants - downloading Google Video is nothing new. In fact, the means to do it are plentiful.

Like the Google search engine homepage, www.video.google.com is very simple with an easy-to-read interface. The entire upload process in laid out in chart form to indicate the video status: Processing, Rejected, Failed, or Live. www.video.google.com is not available in many markets. I have been trying to see Seth Godin's Google presentation that is available on Google Video and I get to see only thumbnail images. Compared to any other free online streaming video site on the internet, Google Video is repudiated to carry the best social networking platform in the recent times. Videos on Google Video are available on all possible genres and the site also shows results from other non-affiliated video sites through its web crawls.

What this means for content already hosted on www.video.google.com is not clear at this time. Despite Google's reputation and money, Google Video is not the most popular video service; neither is it the first one. Nevertheless, the popularity of the service is rather great, and some very interesting and even exclusive content is available through this service only.

www.video.google.com is not purely search-focused at this point, with featured content from AOL Video, for instance, getting prominent placement and direct links rather than search frame treatment. Google Video is nowhere near as comprehensive as the service offered by ShadowTV, though unlike Shadow TV, it is free. Google Video is great - lots of videos there to keep me entertained.