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Google's not-so-hot video premiere

Scott Ard Former Editor in Chief, CNET
CNET former Editor in Chief Scott Ard has been a journalist for more than 20 years and an early tech adopter for even longer. Those two passions led him to editing one of the first tech sections for a daily newspaper in the mid 1990s, and to joining CNET part-time in 1996 and full-time a few years later.
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Scott Ard
2 min read

When it comes to marketing a new product, Google might take some cues from Apple Computer--and a few hundred other companies.

When Apple is making a much-anticipated product announcement, it temporarily shutters its online store while the new Macs and iPods, for example, are added. Indeed, most companies launching a new product (TV show, magazine, whatever) try to make a good first impression on the public.

Enter Google's video-on-demand site.

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company's Video Store and more.

The company's press release says the service will be "available soon," but countless consumers on Friday undoubtedly checked out the site--video.google.com--hoping to get a glimpse of the service or to learn more about it. Indeed, Google co-founder Larry Page said in his keynote speech: "Beginning today, CBS' CSI, Survivor, NCIS and Amazing Race will be available for download for $1.99 each."

The Google Video page went live last year and is in beta. It is very sparse, with little more than eight photos and links, and no mention of the coming video-on-demand service. The videos are user-submitted, which means they're the types of clips your friends send you marked "funny" or "NSFW."

To wit, these are a few of titles that visitors to the Google Video page saw Friday following Page's highly publicized announcement:

• "Tom Cruise kills Oprah" (the infamous scene of an excitable Cruise on Oprah's show, but this time with lighting bolts of electricity shooting from Cruise's arms into Oprah while the two clasp hands).

• "Rocky horror" (a heavy-set man, naked above the waist, lip syncs to a song from the movie, apparently in front of his Web cam).

• "Internet is for porn" (a computer animation video with... never mind. It's hard to describe).

• "RPG Sequence" (young men reenact a fighting scene from "Final Fantasy" around and in an indoor swimming pool).

• "Me wrestling" (a boy apparently films himself performing WWF wrestling moves on a stuffed animal in his bedroom).

Not exactly "I Love Lucy" or the Lakers, but hopefully Google will get the promised content up soon. How long has Google News been in beta?