Watching some random videos on Google Video I saw that they all had at the top:
This video will be removed on April 29, 2011. Learn more.
That says that “On April 29, 2011 videos that have been uploaded to Google Video will no longer be available for playback“, the people who uploaded them can download them (in FLV format only) to be uploaded elsewhere, but that’s all folks. Confirmation comes from this blog post which posts the (translated) text of an email from Google to Google Video uploaders:
Later this month, hosted video content on Google Video will no longer be available for playback. Google Video stopped taking uploads in May 2009 and now we’re removing the remaining hosted content. […] On April 29, 2011, videos that have been uploaded to Google Video will no longer be available for playback. We’ve added a Download button to the video status page, so you can download any video content you want to save. If you don’t want to download your content, you don’t need to do anything. (The Download feature will be disabled after May 13, 2011.)
Sadly this means that Google have gone back on the promise from 2009 when they turned off uploads, saying:
Will all of the videos in my Google Video account be deleted?
No. The videos that are already in your account will remain hosted by Google Video. You will still have access to all the existing management tools for them.
So if you’ve got content there, go grab it before it goes away!
I’m becoming increasingly certain that the only real web content is self hosted. Everything else will be hone before it’s time.
I suspect even self-hosted content will self-destruct eventually, there’s only so much time we’ll be alive and paying for the hosting for.
I think the lesson is if you want it to last, print it out on acid free paper and store it well. Either that or store it in a peat bog and hope for the best, it worked for the Roman’s at Vindolanda. 🙂