Earlier today, Google announced that it has acquired YouTube. One only can ask: why?

When you think about sharing online video, what comes to mind first? It’s certainly YouTube that flies above the rest. Google Video pales in comparison. The social aspect of YouTube have people sharing links all the time, whereas Google Video just doesn’t come close. I’ve rarely seen a Google Video URL circulated around the Internet lately, but as for YouTube: everyone’s talking about it.

As for this new acquisition: we know where Google is headed and it seems to be pretty serious about video. The copyright issues that will arise from this will barely make a scratch on the company, but they’re already getting started in addressing those concerns.

The Washington Post has an article about Google’s “I’m Feeling Lucky” button.

The button has a goal to bring the user the first result for a search term (which a lot of SEOs aspire to), but I’m generally more interested in the 2nd through 7th results. I generally ignore the first. That’s just my personal browsing behavior and it’s usually pretty subconscious.

In fact, I must’ve used this functionality a total of five times ever since Google was created — even before I knew what it did.

Yet despite its infrequent use, Google won’t remove it. The article says:

In user studies, Google loyalists volunteer that “I’m Feeling Lucky” offers a touch of whimsy and reassurance that the company doesn’t take itself too seriously even after growing into a multibillion-dollar behemoth.

Maybe this is the case for the majority. And I realize that sometimes I have a smaller voice in the crowd. But the “I’m Feeling Lucky” button predates Google’s rise to fame and fortune, and I think that a change would be interesting and welcome.

I found Ron’s top 10 geek business myths pretty interesting. He has a lot of good things to say on how businesses thrive and what are the forces behind success, but what I think drives it home is in Myth #8:

…what you do need is a willingness to work your buns off … The reason is very simple: if you don’t believe in the commercial potential of your idea enough to give up your evenings and weekends to own a bigger chunk of it, why should anyone else believe in it enough to put their hard-earned money at risk?

Dead on the money, even for bloggers.

I’ve had a few blog ideas for years (especially one in the nature of a photography blog). My biggest challenge was getting them started. I guess I had all of my eggs in one basket: when I initially came up with my idea, I had unrealistic expectations that it would be easy to get the followers I needed to make it a popular endeavor. I’ve written blogs in the past; I know it isn’t that easy. For that reason, I told myself that maybe it wasn’t worth it.