It has taken awhile following the $1.6-billion purchase of YouTube but Google has a launched a new video search tool. When your search is completed, you can rate the video, share it, and watch related videos. Google Video covers videos from a wide variety of sites, including Metacafe, iFilm, Grouper, Yahoo Video, MySpace, Break.com, Daily Motion, Vimeo, Veoh, AOL Video, Jumpcut, Revver, Guba and BBC - although the predominant result is, surprise, surprise, YouTube. Veoh, by the way, raised $26-million in venture capital recently.

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It's still early days but I think Google's move into the radio advertising business could revolutionize (or perhaps evolve) the way the industry does business. In a test project, Google is providing 20 AdWords customers with access to more than 730 stations, which run ads in more than 260 U.S. markets. The AdWords system is linked through Google's dMarc, division, which was acquired for as much as $1.13-billion earlier this year (it was Google's biggest deal before YouTube came along). According to CNet, the 20 selected customers will see a new "audio ads" tag when they log into the AdWords system, which allows them to bid on air spots and target their ads by geography, station type, listener demographics and time of day. Given that the radio business has operated in much the same way for decades, Google is trying to implement a huge new approach to selling advertising. It could be the wave of the future or it could fall flat on its face. Nevertheless, give Google credit for trying something that could potentially be extremely disruptive. As well, the beta test and Google's deal with BSkyB are more evidence of the company's strategic thrust into new markets beyond the online paid-search business.

I was watching a YouTube video (another funny take on Weird Al's Canadian Idiot) last night, which made me wonder how and/or if Google Video and YouTube are going to co-exist.
Let's start with YouTube given it's more popularity (23 million unique visitors a month can't be wrong, right?). Obviously, Google is probably going to implement AdSense throughout YouTube as a way to generate revenue. There will also be high-revenue banner ads to capitalize on the traffic. Then what? Does Google create a YouTube Premium section for people who want to download/buy videos such as TV shows and movies? If so, how would this affect YouTube's image/mojo given it's the place on the Web to access free video, albeit most of them amateur productions that leave much to be desired. If YouTube tried to make money from selling videos, would this potentially drive people away.
Then, there's Google Video, which has been a modest success since its launch. After all, Google would not have bought YouTube if its video strategy didn't need a $1.6-billion jump-start. Does Google stay upstream by mostly focusing on the sale of TV shows and movies, or does it continue to attract user-generated content as well.
Assuming YouTube pursues a premium strategy, and Google moves deeper into the user-generated content world, at what point will the two services start to look the same? If that happens, does it really matter as long as both businesses as thriving?
News: Google has signed a deal with BSkyB that will see Google provide its user-generated video, e-mail, search and targeted advertising tools to customers of BSkyB’s broadband internet service. “This is a really, really big deal for us,” said Google CEO Eric Schmidt. “If it works, it will become our most lucrative deal from the get-go.”

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Google has its hands in lot of different pies these days but an area that doesn't get a lot of attention is its relatively small investments in start-ups. Perhaps the highest profile investment is FON, which is trying to build a global Wi-Fi network. Google's most recent investment is Meraki Networks Inc., which is developing low-cost products and services to deploy wireless networks. Meraki is an off-shoot of MIT's Roofnet project.

In what may be a first for Google, the company has decided to shut down one of its sideshows/experiments - Google Answers - after more than four years. Is this a new strategic direction for Google and/or a sign of the times that some projects should die a quiet death if they're not working well? If this is Google's new approach, you wonder how long it will be before Okrut and Froogle are pushed out of the portfolio. Who knows, maybe this move suggests Google will be more pragmatic about rolling out new services rather than slapping stuff on the wall and seeing if it sticks. While Google gets points for experimenting with all kinds of different things, its less-than-stellar success into new markets (Google Spreadsheets, anyone?) has arguably damaged its reputation as an innovator more than it has produced tangible benefits. Update: Rex Hammock has a theory why Google Answers failed: Wikipedia.