Google eying Hulu

Hulu's apparently accepting initial acquisition bids starting Wednesday, and wouldn't you know it, Google's sniffing all around it. To be fair, Yahoo, Microsoft and Amazon (amongst a few others) are also interested, but it's always more fun to lead with Google since they seem to be getting their rather big hands into everything these days. According to the WSJ, bids could range from $500 million to $2 billion....but what do they know, right? They obviously haven't heard about this looming double dip recession thing.

So, someone wants to buy Hulu. But why? The owners of Hulu (Fox, NBC, ABC etc.) are busily trying to restrict their content as much as possible in order to make money off subscriptions, instead of charging more for advertising. Honestly, I can't see many people deciding to pay for Hulu, since we all got used to watching it for free.Then there's the issue of Netflix as a competitor. IF Hulu were free, it would be easier to undermine Netflix, but I'm really not sure how any potential buyer of Hulu hopes to handle Netflix. Yes, anyone reading this might have a different opinion, so please share your point of view in the comments section below.

Now, IF Google ends up scoring Hulu, it's my hope that they get rid of Hulu Plus, and increase whatever they charge for advertising. Maybe they can also come up with some kind of advertising profit sharing deal with the networks too, thus allowing them to release their programing for viewing on Hulu sooner than the current 8-10 day period. OR maybe they could just replace their current content providers; I wouldn't mind watching some HBO and Showtime on Hulu :).

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Photovine, by Google

Photovine is Google's latest foray into the social media world. It is a social photo sharing application, that lets people snap and share photos instantly, and group them thematically in "vines"; I would equate "vines" to twitter's hashtags. Anyway,the service which apparently was invitiation only just last month is now available for download. HALT! Before you all go running off to download it, you should know that this app is ONLY for the iphone.

Why would Google go and do something as crazy as that? Well, I read somewhere that this app may have been developed by a social media acqusition of google's, Slide. They probably started developing this thing before Google bought them last year. SO there you have it folks, yet another something to mold our ever looming hive society!

Check out the video below for a nice little demo on how this Photovine works:

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Next: Google Plane--- Coming in 2016

For most people, Google has been synonymous with search, search engines, and the internet for as long as it's been around; ask any "hip" 50-something using the yahoo! search engine what they're doing, and even they'll likely tell you they're "Googling".

Over the last few years however, Google has looked more and more like it's nickname: "The Search Engine that Does Everything". Products like Google Maps, Gmail, and Docs, and acquisitions like Picasa, Blogger, and youtube, have made Google into some kind of internet hybrid creature, built up like Voltron!

And now they went and bought Motorola :). Next they'll be buying planes, and Google Airlines will be flying out of LAX and JFK!

This is now the Google Xoom :)

Not that there's anything wrong with Google growing in all directions at once (i.e. Social networking, Phone hardware, routers and modems, television etc.), as long as they can handle it... but what does this mean for us, the little consumers? Probably we'll get more quality products that connect us better... but we'll also have so much of our information tied into Google that Facebook will look like child's play.

Update:


I found this great video featuring Darth Stever Jobs, talking about the Google Motorola merger. Enjoy!

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Google Chrome OS in the works

Google's at it again, and this time it's the endgame-- they're officially taking over the world! O.k, so i'm exaggerating a little bit (I actually really do love google and all it's innovations), but think about it: for so long, the only thing that most regular PC users (minus my geek roommates :)) have knew were the Windows and Mac OS's, so with the advent of the Google Chrome OS, we could be in for some interesting times.

Effects on Microsft you ask? I did an arbitrary search of the number of people using the google browser, google docs and the the google chrome browser. And you could guess the results: MANY! That said, could you imagine what could potentially happen to Microsoft's user base given all the bugs that the recent Vista OS came with? Also, since Google's OS is Linux based and open source, some expect it to be free (monitization would come from corporate use with all the additional bells and whistles. Ref: Gmail for corporations), which would be another HUGE blow to Microsoft whose OS's run the gamut anywhere from $75 to $300.

The Google Chrome OS should be available in it's bare-bones form mid-2010. I can't wait to see how all this plays out!

Here are some other places to read more about Google Chrome OS:

Google announces Chrome OS
Does the world need another operating system
5 questions (and answers) about Google Chrome OS

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