Om Malik:
>Facebook’s acquisition of Instagram reminds me of Google’s acquisition of YouTube — buying a whole different kind of engagement and interaction medium from their core offering.
This has been said to me many times since I reacted so strongly to the acquisition by Facebook. I think that analogy fits, but unlike others I think that makes this even worse.
Since acquiring YouTube, how has Google made YouTube better? The best quality videos are on Vimeo. The funniest are usually on Funny or Die. And unless I am mistaken neither were major players in the video space when Google purchased YouTube back in 2006.
YouTube still can’t playback video smoothly, it still takes forever to load, it still looks like crap, it still has the worst — most hate filled — comments on the web. It is still a flash laden nightmare.
So what about Google buying YouTube was exactly good? Honestly.