Google Video Store is LIVE

The just-announced Google Video Store is now live! You can browse the videos for sale from a new drop-down box. However, besides CSI and Survivor, I’m not super-thrilled with the selection, and apparently, I’m not the only one bemoaning the lackluster choices. Still, it’s a beginning…I guess. To see a 30-second preview of the video, you just click on it and the preview will play right in your browser.  If you want to watch the whole video (the entire episode, that is), you click a button curiously labeled "Day Pass." I suppose this is so you know you are not "purchasing" the video, you’re just getting permission to view it. Most current shows are $1.99, and let’s be honest, that’s all we really care about. Yeah, the Ed Sullivan Show is $9.99, but…ummm…who cares?

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AOL just bought a video search company called Truveo. This company uses something called "Visual Crawling," which AOL says "automatically discover(s) video files and related information on complex … Web pages." With Google announcing an online video store, combined with their purchase of a percentage of AOL, I expect we are going to see some major advances in video search this year.

At CES, Microsoft gave attendees a sneak peak at "Windows Live Expo," which is a website where users can post items for sale or rent, post job listings, and more. Sounds a lot like Craigslist, right? Or Google Base, perhaps? The site has an AJAX interface and Expo users can be notified of new items via MSN Messenger or email. Expo will also offer intergration with MSN Spaces. If you are on the Microsoft bus, this service may be useful. However, with mutliple companies (Craigslist, Google Base, and now Expo) trying to offer the same service, I think it will dilute the marketplace with too many choices. How many times will you have to post about that washing machine you have for sale? The more sites there are, the less useful they become.

Still, it seems to be Microsoft’s plan to make sure that anything Google comes out with, they will offer, too…and to hear them tell it — "better." And who knows? Maybe they will offer better products or services in the long run, but the delay to market is letting Google build up a fan base of users (like me). The bad thing about all this competition is that even if one of the two offers a better product, you will probably end up sticking with the company you have "sided" with. Everything Google or Microsoft offers is integrated into other software and services (for example, Gmail integrates with Google Talk and Google Desktop), so it makes sense to stick with your "team." Both Microsoft and Google want to be the "one company that rules them all," but where does that leave us, the lowly users? We will no longer be able to make choices based on the quality of the offering; we will have to choose based on branding alone.

Google announced that they have purchased a company called Reqwireless Inc. The company makes web browser and e-mail software for wireless devices, but their products are no longer being sold. In August, Google had purchased a company called Android, a company that makes software for mobile devices. Hmmm. Reading between the lines, I’m thinking that Google is interested in smart phones? Perhaps a "Google Pack," so to speak, for your PDA or cell?

The big news today is tha Yahoo! has bought Webjay, a playlist community. Webjay lets its users create and playback playlists of music and video from the web. I imagine the Webjay tools will be used to improve Yahoo’s Music Engine. What’s the next company to be acquired by Yahoo? Any guesses?

Got a new video iPod? (I am so jealous!) Well, this link is for you then: use your iPod to get directions from Yahoo! Local. Using the website ipodiway.com allows you to export online driving directions from results by Yahoo Maps and import them into your iPod. Well, now I just have to get one, don’t I?

If you haven’t heard of Gtalkr, you should definately check it out. Gtalkr brings the power of Google Talk into your browser, but it does even more than that. (I blogged about Gtalkr back in December.) GTalkr also integrates Yahoo Maps, Gmail (but of course!), offers a downloadable notifier, and now you can even add RSS feeds that you can view on your Gtalkr page. What’s nice about services like Gtalkr is that you can use the Google Talk service without having to download the app itself. Any upgrades to Google Talk will be available in Gtalkr as well…and since Google is now best friends with AOL, mabye we will see AIM integration soon?

So, what does the future hold with Gtalkr? Well, I had an interesting conversation (via Gtalkr, of course) with one of the developers. Nice guy. He tells me that they are working on some other extensions for the service, with del.icio.us being high on that list — yes!. Additionally, they are working on integrating libjingle. Here’s what he had to say: "Well, the straightforward benefit from integrating libjingle would be to get audio in Gtalkr. However, we’re more interested in the file transfer aspect of the p2p sessions negotiated using libjigle. Libjingle is a generic platform for negotiating p2p and there’s a lot of power in that…file transfer and file sharing…Video would be the next step after voice."

Video, guys! Video! Even though Google is getting into the commercial video service space, they haven’t integrated video into Google Talk. Gtalkr may beat them to the punch! Very cool stuff.

You know what’s another nice feature of Gtalkr is? The ability to view a log of your entire conversation with one of your contacts…and to search those logs by keyword. Nice. (Not to worry - I made sure that it was okay to post from our chat before doing so!)

So, yes, those Google rumors about Google Pack and video were true (see the coverage at Engadget for details). Yipee! And in other big news from CES, Yahoo announed Yahoo Go! Yahoo Go is actually a combination of 3 items…Yahoo Go Mobile, Yahoo Go TV, and Yahoo Go PC. Go Mobile integrates the Yahoo’s services with the phone’s built-in email, messaging, address book and calendar applications. What’s so great about this is that if you lose your cell phone, your contact information isn’t lost — it’s available online and can be synched with a new mobile phone. Now that is a NICE feature.

Yahoo Go TV will bring Yahoo services to your television. This service is "coming soon," and there isn’t much detail as to how this will work…anyone know? I’m guessing it will have something to do with their partnership with Tivo.

Finally, Yahoo PC will initially include the Yahoo Widgets Engine and a Yahoo Go Desktop dashboard. The dashboard will allow you to Keep your friends, contacts, news, mail and more right on your desktop, one click away. The Yahoo! Widget Engine (formerly known as Konfabulator until Yahoo bought them) will obviously be a big part of this.

Wow! Go Yahoo!

Tomorrow it is expected that Google will announce a new video download service. This is in addition to Google’s Video Search, and Google’s partners in this service will be CBS and the NBA. Up until now, CBS has been reluctant to sign on with any video service, so it is interesting that they chose Google, considering that CBS is currently the network leader. I wonder if other networks will follow CBS’s lead, if this rumor is true.

In other BIG Google news, Google plans to introduce "Google Pack," which is an application bundle. Included in this bundle will be a Google-tweaked version of Firefox (OH MY GOD, YES!), Acrobat Reader, antivirus software from Symantec, AdAware, Trillian (what, not Google Talk…weird), Google Desktop Search, Picasa, Google Earth, Google Talk, Real Player, and Google Toolbar. Save for Real Player (ugh), that’s everything that I already download and run on my computer right now! How convenient to have it in a pack for my next PC. (I don’t see the purpose of uninstalling everything and then downloading the Google Pack.)

I am curious if the Google-flavored version of Firefox is going to be offered as a separate download at the Google website. Is it going to be Firefox with the Google toolbar, or will it be something more? I guess I have to wait until tomorrow!

Rumors, rumors! Sources say that Google is in talks with Walmart to sell a Google PC. Via an LA Times article (and to you via fellow blogger Nick Burns):

"The machine would run an operating system created by Google, not Microsoft’s Windows, which is one reason it would be so cheap — perhaps as little as a couple of hundred dollars. Bear Stearns analysts speculated in a research report last month that consumers would soon see something called "Google Cubes" — a small hardware box that could allow users to move songs, videos and other digital files between their computers and TV sets."

But then again, there have been a lot of crazy rumors lately haven’t there? Didn’t both Microsoft and Google buy Opera at some point? I like getting excited about the rumors out there, but I’ll believe it when I see it in this case. This rumor comes far too soon. Personally, I would be surprised to see a Google PC prior to the release of Google Office (a web-based office suite based on Star Office), though I would love to be proved wrong!

These "Google Cubes" sound interesting, but exactly how are they any different than a portable external drive? Sounds like a re-branded HD to me, and quite frankly, that’s not anything to get excited about. Besides, who wants to bet we’d pay more to get it in red, yellow, and blue than in Seagate gray? I guess we will find out Friday, when Larry Page, Google’s co-founder and president of products, gives a keynote address at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

My vote, Google Office, not Google PC….what’s yours?