Livin' the life...

Well I blogged about it 3 days ago and now, it has come to pass... Search giant Google has bought video giant YouTube in 1.65 billion dollar stock deal (Ref). Now... I knew these vids were popular but '1.65 billion dollars'-popular... I did not see that one at all. Google is really going all out these days to get its hand in a lot of stuff (ex. images, vids, news, groups, chat, mail, maps, etc). Its becoming as household a name as Microsoft, but actually with a much more diversified portfolio. Doubt me? Check the Google Labs site... I definately will monitor this company, even if only to see who they buy next.

With YouTube gone now though, I wonder if MetaCafe, possibly YouTube's most known competitor will go next. Possibly by one of Google's competitors?

Anyway, in closing, I just want to mention a couple points about YouTube which I found fascinating. YouTube:
1. Launched from a garage (...)
2. Launched in February 2005 (yes, it's that young)
3. Has only 65 employees (must be hard workers... then again, there must be about 5 pcs to 1 worker!)
4. Claims that more than 100 million videos are watched daily by site visitors (wow)
5. To complete this rather cool rise to fame, they have just been acquired in a 1.65 billion dollar stock deal!!
(Ref)