Forget YouTube, now Google has BizTube

By Davey Winder
Friday, 05 September 2008 14:49

Strategy

Remember when Google was a search engine? Slipping in under the media radar, while Chrome took all the headlines, was Google Video for business. But just what does BizTube bring to the video sharing party?

You can be forgiven for not noticing that Google had introduced a new video sharing service this week. After all, it was hard to see anything other than the dazzling announcement of the now somewhat tarnished Chrome web browser client.

However, while business users are unlikely to be embracing an unproven Beta browser any time soon, Google is hoping to capture the corporate market and the corporate dollar with Google Video for business.

For once, the sultans of search have missed a marketing trick it seems to me. Why assume that the suits are all boring? Why not brand this BizTube?

Anyway, Google Video for business has been added as a new application to Google Apps. If it had been called BizTube the functionality would have been pretty obvious without any need for further explanation.

What it does is provide functionality for sharing video within an organisation in about as simple a way as possible. Forget complex video conferencing tools, BizTube ain't that.

Users just upload a video and then invite others to watch it.

It isn't meant to be a real time communications tool, it is envisaged as being used more for training videos, as a reporting tool, even a product marketing one. Why not just use YouTube? Because BizTube provides a secure method of distributing the video content.

Part of the Google Apps Premier Edition service, BizTube carries no additional charge. Of course, there is the relatively small matter of a USD $50 per user per year fee for the Google Apps service in the first place.

Every Google Apps Premier Edition domain immediately gets 3GB of Video storage per user account.

According to Google, this new addition provides video owners with multiple controls for sharing videos such as the ability to share with individuals, groups, or the entire organization; adding descriptions and tags; embedding videos in any internal web page, including Google Sites.

Viewers can search for any video to which they have access, and watch them from pretty much any browser including Safari on the iPhone. Rating, comments and additional tags can also be added.

"YouTube has enabled millions of consumers to easily capture and share video at an unprecedented level, yet corporate video has remained expensive and complicated," said Dave Girouard, president of enterprise, Google. "With Google Video for business, our customers get the ease of YouTube combined with the simple and secure sharing of Google Apps."