New at Google Video

Lots of improvements to Google Video over the past few months, including (as they point out in an email):

– A flash-based video player
– A brand new home page (http://video.google.com/)
– A larger format playback/viewing window with standard user controls
– “More videos” tab on playback page along with “Related” and “Popular”
videos links
– A Send link so fans of your video can send it to their friends
– A new video blog

Currently featured on their front page is Where Eagles Fly, a 4-minute homage to the military using Sammy Hagar’s music as the soundtrack. I guess I won’t sweat the use of copyrighted music to home videos on the nonprofit Ourmedia if Google’s allowing the same thing.

While I’m a fan of Google Video, I sure don’t like the lack of metadata with these videos. Who took them? What’s the story behind the video? Where are the creator’s other works? We don’t have a clue. Where’s the context?

JD Lasica, founder of Inside Social Media, is also a fiction author and the co-founder of the cruise discovery engine Cruiseable. See his About page, contact JD or follow him on Twitter.