bitbol

Google has just announced that they have finally merged Google Video with YouTube. I see this as a big annoyance, and something that really needs a lot of work.

For one, I have used YouTube for video viewing, but occasionally wander over Google Video to see if there is anything different. It doesn't help me to see the same videos listed at another site. What's worse is that I can find no way to limit the search to only Google Video. I tried -site:youtube.com and -youtube, but nothing will refine the search.

Google says that it wants a place "where you can search for the world's online video content, irrespective of where it may be hosted." That idea doesn't work well if the basic search operators like site: don't work. At the very least, Google should support the site: operator, or set up another site like videosearch.google.com (like blogsearch) just for global video searches.

But, this week is the week of Google bashing:

• Blogger control panel fails
• Google maps gets confused
• Google image results become annoyingly simple
• Google error in place of my blog
• Blogger goes down, again
• Racial blunder in Google search results

For Google's sake, let's hope the list ends here, but I don't mind adding on if they continue.

Labels: Google, Google Video, Internet, YouTube