this post was submitted on 04 Feb 2024

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My real worry with Google's voyage into enshittification (thanks to Cory Doctorow @pluralistic the term) is YouTube. (aus.social)

submitted 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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My real worry with Google's voyage into enshittification (thanks to Cory Doctorow @pluralistic the term) is YouTube.

Through YT, for the past 15 years, the world has basically entrusted Google to be the custodian of pretty much our entire global video archive.

There's countless hours of archived footage — news reports, political speeches, historical events, documentaries, indie films, academic lectures, conference presentations, rare recordings, concert footage, obscure music — where the best or only copy is now held by Google through YouTube.

So what happens if maintaining that archival footage becomes unprofitable?

#tech #technology #Google #enshittification #youtube #video @technology #capitalism #film #television #cinema #art #arts #SocialMedia #business #economics

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago (3 children)

@ajsadauskas @pluralistic @technology
"So what happens if maintaining that archival footage becomes unprofitable?"

Things improve.

Youtube does not have a monopoly because it's the only video app installed on your computer, but because it's the one everyone uses.

Plenty of people have tried to compete, but Youtube was good enough. Others had good reasons to try but concluded that Youtube was good enough.

When Youtube is no longer good enough, they get to show they can do it better.

Google search is worse, because it hasn't been good enough for a long time, but somehow every competitor has decided to be worse. Altavista 25 years ago beat what Google search is today, I can't imagine Microsoft being unable to afford to bring Bing up to Altavista levels.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago (2 children)

@ajsadauskas @pluralistic @technology Some of it is saved by public services (for content in french, by INA).

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

@[email protected] Minor correction: "becomes unprofitable" should be "becomes insufficiently lucrative".

Furthermore, how much revenue Google needs to make from each of its properties including Youtube keeps going up quarter after quarter thanks to insatiable shareholder appetite.

It's like sending a citizen each day to the nearby dragon to get it to leave you alone, but over time the price keeps going up.

@[email protected] @[email protected]

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

@ajsadauskas @pluralistic @technology i think it already is unprofitable, just that they haven’t decided (how) to act upon that fact.

On the other hand, is hosting it all become more or less expensive over time? If server costs are getting lower faster than the amount of stuff people upload grows, they could well keep it just to know what every person online wants to watch (and show ads, I guess).

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

@ajsadauskas @pluralistic @technology

"If"?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

@ajsadauskas @pluralistic @technology Or Elon Musk takes over?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

@ajsadauskas @pluralistic @technology truth!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

@ajsadauskas @pluralistic @technology
Hear hear! That Do No Harm motto seems to have become increasingly flexible...

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

@ajsadauskas @pluralistic @technology and I have a vimeo account, and I keep "meaning to try" to use it....there's even good stuff on there! It's affordable if it's pay-to-view! But no....

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

YouTube as 'too big for ethics' and also 'too big to compete with' is terrifying AF.

Nothing can replace YT and it's success or failure is in the hands of one unscrupulous company.

@ajsadauskas @pluralistic @technology

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago (2 children)

@ajsadauskas @pluralistic @technology @fanf that is why @brewsterkahle created https://archive.org -- support them so we can keep an archive of important things, otherwise commercial companies will restrict and control the information in the future, and those who write the last are the real winners...