I hope they integrate Google Video technical advances into YouTube.
Things like skipping to and linking to any point in the video. Higher quality and longer video.

"...it does seem odd for Google to have two partially competing* products with no direct announced plans to merge them. Not only is this against Google’s Marissa Mayer’s voiced strategy to merge Google services wherever possible to create better bigger services."

I don't remember exactly when or where I saw it, but didn't someone from Google recently state that YouTube was mainly about content while Google Video would be focusing more on the search aspect, and would include content from not only YouTube, but other video sources.

Dave B
I seem to remember that too. Google Video would index everyone else's sites (including Youtube) and provide a quick and easy search.

I wonder, if Google perfects its image and audio algorithms using Youtube, will they be able to use it to "scan" other sites' video. Nah, the bandwidth requirements would be enormous.

simsbox
I do prefer Google Video's "theatrical" interface. It's really nice on big monitors.

merging YouTube and GVideo, except possibly for search, is and/or will be a disaster.

youtube == community

and all the things that come with and out of that.

gvideo == general-use video platform for serious content

Mayer's comments are highly offense – we're too stupid to remember a few products. She's going to create gargantuan products with no form or function so when we refer to google product 'x' we will actually have no point of reference. Brilliant.

i'm glad she's so much smarter than me and the rest of the rabble. where would we be without Marissa Mayer?

> we're too stupid to remember a few products

Well, if you ask someone on the street "Guess what's Picasa?" they might have a hard time giving you an answer, but if you ask "What's Google Photos?" they might at least take a good educated guess. Consequently, on the new Google homepage the dropdown menu says "Photos" and not "Picasa," because that would just be confusing for many (it even says "Mail" instead of "Gmail"). Google also recently dropped the name "Froogle" in favor of the easier to understand "Google Products Search"...

Of course, you could make a similar argument in reverse with Google Video/ YouTube... (as perhaps more people know YouTube... dunno). And easy-to-understand may not always equal fashionable & sexy... sometimes, the indecipherability of the codes of an "in-crowd" add to its cult status! "I flickr'd a photo" sounds cooler on a convention than saying "I uploaded a photo to my Yahoo Photos account..." (Hmm, but fashion fades...)

Exactly, Youtube's an established brand, Google Video not so much. And this isn't about users not being smart, just remember that your average user isn't reading SEO blogs and doesn't know the Net like most of us here do. There's a reason simplistic interfaces and obvious naming schemes work.