Google have recently announced their newest video service, called ‘Youtube Leanback‘. The site allows you to watch video in full-screen, continuously, without the need to search for new videos or click onto the next one. The only thing is, I’m not quite sure it’s a service anyone needs. When I first went to the site I immediately thought ‘wow’, this is a pretty nice service, nice layout and I don’t need to search to find videos, I can just sit back and be entertained. A few minutes in, however, and I’d lost interest.

I think the problem with the service is that it’s attempting to turn the computer into something more like a TV, when this isn’t really something we want when we’re online. We like to find content, share it, discover suggested content, and importantly, be able to click onto something else while we’re doing it. The other thing that I find odd is that the content is watched out of context. I’m just used to watching a description beside a video and it felt somehow odd to watch something without knowing where it came from and, oddly, how popular it is.

Looks familiar

The tool on the left is Google Reader Play, which was released earlier this year. The concept was actually pretty similiar – an alternative way of viewing your content, where you could flick between each item. You could either log in with your Google Reader account to see your content, or find content tailored to you. I think this shows that Google have actually stopped trying a bit, when it comes to their new services. We’ve certainly seen no shortage of tools from Google – Leanback, Play, Wave, Buzz, but what we’re not seeing are services that stick around and continue to be of use, or entertaining.

I hope we start to see some of the magic we associate with Google soon. Google Me could be it, but the jury’s out for the moment! I don’t think Leanback is going to be a wildly popular service but I’ve no doubt that there could be lots to come in the way we view videos online, that makes it into a better, or completely different experience.

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