At a time around Google introduced Google videos in order to counter Youtube video sharing service. As Google acquired Youtube later on, but they still sticked to Google videos for no purposeful reason. Seeing the current situation Google have decided to shutdown Google videos. The giant search company have sent out an email warning to its user who have previously uploaded their videos on their video sharing service.
From April 29 Google videos wont be available for users to watch any of the videos. Those who have uploaded videos may however download their videos till 13 May 2011, and Google is encouraging them to put their videos on their alternative video sharing site Youtube.
Google launched their video sharing site on 25th of January 2005, but later on Google acquired Youtube for 1.65 billion in October 2006. By 13th June 2007 Google introduced search results of videos in Google videos. In May 2009 Google videos stopped accepting uploads. And now the search giant have decided to finish the service by deleting all the data in it.
Here is the email sent to Google video users by Google.
Dear Google Video User,
Later this month, hosted video content on Google Video will no longer be available for playback. Google Video stopped taking uploads in May 2009 and now we’re removing the remaining hosted content. We’ve always maintained that the strength of Google Video is its ability to let people search videos from across the web, regardless of where those videos are hosted. And this move will enable us to focus on developing these technologies further to the benefit of searchers worldwide.
On April 29, 2011, videos that have been uploaded to Google Video will no longer be available for playback. We’ve added a Download button to the video status page, so you can download any video content you want to save. If you don’t want to download your content, you don’t need to do anything. (The Download feature will be disabled after May 13, 2011.)
We encourage you to move to your content to YouTube if you haven’t done so already. YouTube offers many video hosting options including the ability to share your videos privately or in an unlisted manner. To learn more go here.
Here’s how to download your videos:
- Go to the Video Status page.
- To download a video to your computer, click the Download Video link located on the right side of each of your videos in the Actions column.
Once a video has been downloaded, “Already Downloaded” will appear next to the Download Video link.
If you have many videos on Google Video, you may need to use the paging controls located on the bottom right of the page to access them all. Please note: This download option will be available through May 13, 2011.