“I know Apple, and you’re no Apple… “This is a truly historical meeting of the established and new media,” said Les Moonves, the head of CBS, about his network’s new video partnership with Google. Um, no, Les. So far, it’s just a really crap web site,” Ashlee Vance writes in her review for The Register. “If, like us, you expected the new and improved Google Video service to rival something like Apple’s iTunes store, then do yourself a favor and don’t visit the Google shop for a few months. Google has done nothing to celebrate its unique access to shows such as CSI, Survivor and Star Trek. Instead, the company has buried CBS’s shows beneath a dismal interface wrapped in a shambles of a delivery mechanism.”
Vance asks, “Think we’re being too harsh? Have a look for yourself.”
Vance writes, “Google Video will no doubt improve over time. Coming out with such a poor initial service though is a huge mistake. Google would have done better to refine its product and release something that comes close to being Apple’s red-headed stepchild. We’re not even sure what life form Google Video is. It’s certainly not human.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Peter G” for the heads up. See something that should be on MacDailyNews? Click contact and send us the link.]
Vance’s review is spot on. This thing from Google basically sucks worse than a 1.0 version of something from Microsoft. It’s that bad. Yuck.
CBS, hello? Mr. Moonves? Pick up the phone. Dial Steve Jobs’ number. Run over to Cupertino and sign on the dotted line. Stop screwing around. You’re supposed to be the “Tiffany Network,” your products should be available via Apple’s “Tiffany Media Portal.”
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Apple is going to make all others look like children. Design (not just looks..but compete integrated systems) has won the day. Not many people understand the power of good design…or even how to begin to do it.
how’re you supposed to browse in that mess? There’s no logik to it. It is a Beta though.
Just another data point showing that CBS is the most poorly run network in the U.S. When will Moonves get the boot ?… the guy has no vision and no backbone.
It’s ugly and there are no prices on anything and why are all the videos all spread out all over the place. Then I clicked on the Lucy show only to be greeted with a message that says only Windows 2000 and XP users can purchase this video. Try doing that to your customers in a real video store and see how many come back. I’ll tell you how many, ZERO!
That’s like saying only green people are allowed to purchase our videos.
THAT WEBSITE IS SO SAD!
And you can’t even see a preview of the video if you are not from the US.
Did anyone else notice the following in the referenced article?
Incidentally, if you do an episode search for “God,” the last entry is an interview with WSJ hack Walt Mossberg. So, it’s pretty clear that the Google Video search has been infected by the same blog noise as the regular Google search engine.
Walt Mossberg a hack? Hmmmm.
I wish I could get NBA games from iTunes store. Preemptive rebuttal for the anti-NBA response – I’m just using my fav sport. Consider if games from your favorite sport were available. It would be cool to save the great games.
oh, and the google interface is crap, too
their primary colors on butcher paper approach doesn’t translate to this application very well…
I don’t agree. Google’s flare is simplicity. The prices are clear for pay videos, the others are free. For navigation, use the drop down menu or search. The videos download fast and are Mac accessible through the browser.
I think everyone is being a little hard on Google Video. I’d rather look at a white background than a bunch of advertisements.
Did anyone look at the Charlie Rose episodes she mentions? Each one just has an image of Rose in a different suit.
Content brought to you by the man (Les) once known as Pasquale
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Oh. My. God.
I’m stationed in Germany, but because I have a US credit card I can buy from Apple’s store. I tried browsing the Google store and was told that it was not available for my country. Uh Google, just because I have a German IP address does not necessarily make me German.
Magic Word: because – as in because I’m an American.
Google is not known for hiring web designers.
Total geek city at that company.
that site sucks and blows.
gimme iTMS
So, tell me, am I missing something? I drink the kool-aid regurlary and I’ve got my “mac geek on” in a big way, BUT I’ve never been able to preview video on the ITMS. There are shows that I’m not familar with on the store and would like to at least see a 30sec video clip, but all I get is a short audio clip that’s not even representative of what’s being sold. At least the Google site wins my vote for that and I had a hard time giving it a “complete” thumbs down.
So am I missing something? Does the ITMS have this “view videos before you buy” feature? We can preview music clips, why not video? Seems so obvious. I MUST be doing something wrong.
Viacom and its companies are very, very arrogant. They will go around the world twice and back again just to avoid Cupertino.
And 3rd Kidney, you can view video previews just by doubleclicking on the the item you want to see. Make sure you have the latest version of Quicktime on your machine.
For a company with such a high value stock this is embarrasing. It looks like someone just vomite all over the screen. Absolutely no presentation…
It has to be a spoof, surely?
If not Google has truly just shown itself to be mortal..
A blast from the past!!
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4436710013736446644
Google Video was a very nice Christmas gift to Apple.
It confuses the nonPod market while at the same time promotes the market that Apple dominates.
Paid conent is mixed with user uploaded content which is a HUGE mistake and dilutes the brand of the paid content. Seeing CSI with some cheap user uploaded video makes me think very badly of CSI. This store is a mistake. Once iTunes gets sports, then this store will be histroy.
countdown to 1000 downloads!!
“And 3rd Kidney, you can view video previews just by doubleclicking on the the item you want to see. Make sure you have the latest version of Quicktime on your machine.”
Thanks JadisOne, after reading your instruction and clicking around for a bit, I discovered the “hide video viewer” button at the bottom left of my ITMS window. Yep, I had my view window hidden!
Ahhhh, now I’m a happy man and can get to buying some video content. Oh, btw, NOW I can dog the Google site in good conscience!
Thanks again for your help.
“I’m gonna kill F’n Google”
haaaa… by the looks of it, Google is gonna F’n kill Google, lol.
-L