You Tube Platform
“The decision to expand YouTube’s application programming interfaces is the smartest move by management since it agreed to lighten Eric Schmidt’s wallet to the tune of $1.6 billion in 2006.”
So says Charles Cooper at News.com.
He goes on, he’s really very excited:
“With the announcement, developers get more direct access to the service while it also facilitates the proliferation of so-called “chromeless” players without the traditional YouTube interface and branding.
Eric Schmidt: YouTube everywhere? Why not?
I don’t want to get all giddy on you but this is a big deal. Instead of promoting YouTube as a destination site, this lays the groundwork for YouTube’s transformation into a video service. If it goes according to plan, the world starts building gobs more video products using YouTube’s infrastructure. YouTube’s corporate parent, Google, thus becomes the host for that much more of the world’s video. (Think about what that suggests in terms of indexing and monetizing potential.)”
But Steve Rubel really nails it:
“The leading players on the Web all see the train coming. They are wisely creating APIs and turning themselves into plug-and-play services, not just big destinations. YouTube is just the latest to do so today. Amazon has S3. Google has OpenSocial and an extensive library of APIs. As does Microsoft. Facebook is allowing its applications to live outside the site. Twitter is an API first and (eventually) a business model second. Finally, the booming widget economy shows the promise of small content that can go anywhere.”
If you haven’t bookmarked or subscribed to Steve’s virtual musings, do so now, he’s probably cleverer than Alex Iskold at RWW, so I’d say he was the 15th cleverest person on the web.
I for one shall be re-shaping my life around the new You Tube API’s, possibly melding man and machine in the process, I’ll report back on how it all goes…
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