Analysis and discussion of issues that impact business

 Another upstart technology company is swallowed up.

YouTube is swiftly adopting Google's informal corporate motto on not doing evil. Google has a lot riding on it—$1.65 billion in stock, to be exact. That's how much the Web search giant is forking over to buy You Tube, the popular online video and social networking service that in just a year and a half has become one of the most visited sites on the Web.

I'm reminded of the Star Trek nemesis, The Borg. Resistance is futile.

Big just keeps on getting bigger.

Google executives said the deal would help transform their company into a global media powerhouse and provide new audiences for the targeted advertising that's the lifeblood of Google earnings. Executives plan to keep the company as a standalone service, while continuing to nurture Google's existing video service.

Could this just be a case of buying an audience?

But if YouTube is to remain a good fit, it will have to keep its new parent free of costly copyright infringement lawsuits, filed by media companies and other content providers concerned their material is being used illegally on the site.

This could be a real challenge for Google. Part of the business model (whether the folks at the top realize it or not) is that YouTube is kind of a 'bad boy' and if they're forced to clean up their act because their parent company, will that make the service less desirable.

If YouTube's content partners are too aggressive in deciding which videos cannot use their content, or YouTube delays uploading videos until content owners can be briefed, it could lose part of its audience. Spark's Dagres says too aggressive policing could kill the video star. "YouTube is where it is because it was a little bit naughty," says Dagres. "Now they are going to have to remove the naughty. And if they become nice, will people still be as attracted to them?"

 Ahhh, the quandry. Methinks that someone that pays $1.7 billion for something will not be too eager to risk it just for the sake of being "naughty".

This isn't the Playboy Mansion.