JustPlainT wrote:Oh, no doubt that eventually someone would replace YouTube. But they'd always be the "alternative" one. I don't see the Google Empire being replaced in mainstream use.
We'd have a more difficult time reaching the non-gun community on an "alternative" site (some do exist today, such as vimeo).
Well, Twitter, facebook, MySpace, Google, YouTube, and much more ALL got there start in the world of geekdom. It's only after they have created it and used it that it filters it's way into the masses of public culture. If YouTube comes nothing more than paid advertisements, ads on videos, etc, it will become worthless. While the mainstream may stay there, other people will not. They will create videos on alternative sites which will then be linked via hyperlinks, emails, etc and eventually those sites will become more known and used by the masses, thus replacing YouTube. Look at the MySpace to facebook situation for example. People started sending out invites over facebook, which while it has not replaced email, in regards to getting invites to events, it largely has done that already. That's certainly not the only site or example, but it's a good one.
The very protocol of the Internet (TCP) was designed for dynamic routing so that if one path goes down, the datagram packets can still traverse the network and communicate across the wire. Well, information is dynamic and so are people. Like TCP, they too will find ways to route around the heavy content filtering, ads and etc of YouTube or any restrictive site. I'm not worried about the if or when of the next-YouTube, but rather who will create it and when?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPNlNTLDIxk