Yeah, yeah, you’ve all been reading about it…how one Tweet set off this tidal wave of press regarding the potentially large purchase of Brightcove by Google. An “insider” close to Mark Glaser tipped him off and the Net went wild. And Twitter’s to blame? Dan Rayburn spurns Twitter stating that it’s a “dangerous” tool, but I struggle with that statement asking, what the heck is new here? It’s the Internet, we live in the era of mass communication! Of course rumors fly and gain unsubstantiated, roller coaster-like momentum. It’s not Twitter’s responsibility to weed out the chaff, it’s ours…the writers AND the reader’s.
Before Twitter it was the bloggers who were to “blame” for all the atrocities of the Internet. But readers have come to love and embrace the bloggers of the world with great passion. I spend every morning of my life reading blogs. And look at blowhard Arrington for crying out loud, the man is adored (stretch) and more widely read than most of today’s outlets, traditional or new media.
Back to the point at hand. Is Larry right, are the rumors false? I’m still not convinced. The fact that people close to Brightcove are being told that they, “do not comment on rumors” is a rather bold statement in and of itself. And they’ve been very vocal lately, especially about the Brightcove Partner Alliance. Seems interesting to me that Jerry himself flew out to California to host a Meetup with a handful of partners rather than having them meet in MA where Brightcove is headquartered and where Jeremy lives. They weren’t here for TC50 and decided to make a week of it. So, who were they here to meet with other than partners…Google? Brightcove has over 200 partners in their Alliance whom they say they are very close with and have even go so far as to offer free training to their partners to help them gain traction in reselling or adding value to Brightcove customers. These would be valuable relationships to Google, expanding their reach in new avenues, exposing them to new revenue streams.
I’m an optimist at heart (hahaha) and my gut is telling me that this rumor is not dead yet, and deep down inside I hope it’s true. This would not only be a well-deserved victory for Brightcove but also for the online video platform space in general. Further proof that the economy is coming back, companies are willing to spend again, and online video is worth the investment. IMHO (H is for humble), this might open the doors for what we thought was coming in 2009; buy-outs, mergers and acquisitions, high valuations, etc.
Per my Tweet yesterday, Go Jer, Go!
Peace
I think it`s not going to be Google but Adobe…
I don’t think Twitter in of itself is the problem- our increasing dependence on Twitter is.
In the Twit-age, “mass” and “communication” has been amplified by significant orders of magnitude. Being that as it may, we’re all slaves to mass media, and if “new media” is being thrown into our faces in current proportions, it is but natural that we fall prey to rumor-mongering at a far greater rate than ever before.
And THAT is a huge problem by way of inefficiency. It’s almost paradoxical to the attention-deficient mass-conomy that is being created. On the one hand, we have so little time for each snippet of information, and on the other, we have billions of new snippets to parse through.
And what of Br-oogle..? I suppose I’ll hold back judgment until I actually see it happen- it’s a lot fun-ner and easier to form opinions after the fact!
Well said, and I agree…as I do with many of Dan’s other points re: Twitter. It can be a very irresponsible tool.