YouTube

The LA Times reports that Google is in preliminary talks to acquire the online video service, Hulu. Google, in addition to companies also involved – Microsoft and Yahoo, would use this purchase to extend their current online video offerings. Google, of course, is the company behind YouTube. Google would also use this Hulu purchase to extend the range of content offered on YouTube, namely in a push for more professionally produced content, something that Hulu manages to accomplish very well.

Google, which has had a testy relationship with Hollywood, is making a major push to add professionally produced content to its mix of user-created videos on YouTube. It has hired industry veterans to help the Internet search giant make inroads and strike deals.

Hulu is in a prime position for a sale as it has recently signed new licensing agreements with programming heavyweights, Disney and News Corp.  Exact details of the possible Hulu purchase by Google are yet to be revealed: this includes any sort of public confirmation from the companies about the talks and terms of the deal.

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Our invites came in and we’re up and running.  Here’s the initial reactions:

The first annoying thing is that Google hasn’t allowed Apps for Domains in yet.  They are “working on it”.  If you are like me and have your life in a Google Domain account this is a major pain.  I’m going to have to reconnect to everyone and they are going to have to put me in their circles all over again.  Bad start.

Once signed in, the interface is very “Facebook feeling” Google has found a lot of people who know me or are in my contacts so adding them to circles is easy.  Unfortunately my gmail.com account has a lot of people from school (when I used it last) and not a lot of the people I deal with on a day to day basis.

Friends seem to be coming in from way back in history – very Facebook like.

It will be interesting to see how Google keeps people coming in and more importantly coming back.

Because I can’t stay logged into this and my normal Apps Google account at the same time, it won’t get used very much.  I imagine there are a lot of power users in this exact same boat.  I wonder what Google’s plan for this is.  I’m hoping there is going to be a merge button at some point in the future.

Overall, I have to say that the product feels very good…like if all of my Facebook Friends came in, I’d probably leave Facebook immediately.  But how do I use both at the same time?

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You’ve probably heard by now that today marks a rare astronomical event, a 100-minute total lunar eclipse. It begins today at 11:20am Pacific time, but only folks from the right hemisphere will be able to enjoy it (South America, Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia). Worry not, Google has partnered with Slooh Space Camera “to let you experience the spectacle wherever you are in the world, in real time”.

Googler Noel Gorelick, chief extraterrestrial observer and technical lead in special projects (you gotta love Googlers for their sense of humor) noted in a blog post that Slooh will host a live mission interface using Google App Engine right here.

Live event begins in an hour or so so don’t forget to visit the site, they’ll host audio narrations from real-life astronomers. Live stream? On Google’s official YouTube channel. You can also check out the Sky layer in Google Earth or enjoy the eclipse on the go using the free Slooh Space Camera app for Android.

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