Google Video
If you can’t beat them, buy them. Google Video was an in-house effort to take on YouTube, the leading free video-sharing platform at the time (and still today). Launched in 2005, Google Video allowed videos to be uploaded onto Google servers and embedded onto other websites. Along with amateur videos, the platform was meant to host commercial professional media, like TV shows and movies. Despite allowing free uploads for a wide range of formats, Google Video couldn’t keep up with YouTube and amassed only 2.8 million uploads in its seven years of existence.
When Google acquired YouTube in 2006, it all but signaled the demise of Google’s own video site. However, it was a slow, agonizing death for the platform. Within months, Google began merging Video with YouTube, but it wasn’t until 2009 that it stopped uploads. Google Video lived on for another two years before Google shut it down for good.
