In the early part of the 20th century, radio and the moving picture changed everything and now we are witnessing dramatic changes in media all over again, only this time we don’t need to read history books because we have a front-row seat! YouTube, the website that really popularized the idea of video on the internet is now in the awkward position of catching up to the fast moving industry. Last year Hulu.com stepped into Youtube’s turf by offering some of the latest TV shows and films and to the surprise of many critics (I include myself) the website has been a huge success for NBC and FOX.

So how is Youtube planning to compete? By offering movies! MGM and YouTube are joining forces to combat the ever successful Hulu. The partnership is starting small by offering “episodes of its decade-old “American Gladiators” program to YouTube, along with full-length action films like BULLETPROOF MONK and THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN and clips from popular movies like LEGALLY BLONDE.” If that line-up sounds pathetic, it’s because it is. The challange ahead for the site won’t be an easy one for three reason:

1.) I love YouTube to death, but it has a horrible user interface. You would think that Google, the masters of sleek web-design, would be able to make it better but so far Youtube remains clunky.

2.) As much as I dislike their interface, it works pretty well as a social video site. Unfortunately, I think it’ll be difficult for users to separate Youtube the social video site from Youtube the alternative to services like Hulu and Netflix. Google and YouTube should launch a separate site instead of lumping all this content together.

3.) The biggest reason users will have a hard time taking YouTube seriously is its poor video quality. It’s true that they offer HD now, but even their HD doesn’t compare to sites like Vimeo.

So what do you think, am I being too hard on YouTube here? Remember that Google tried their hand at providing TV content before and failed to Apple’s iTunes Store.

Source: NYTimes