As numerous World Cup games have shown in recent weeks, watching Web video in the workplace can be a recipe for disaster. And with YouTube being one of the Web’s most popular destinations for watching video online, the Google-owned site is, not surprisingly, also a potential source of pain for network administrators looking to rein in their employees’ runaway bandwidth consumption. That problem may be poised to get even more acute for enterprise IT, considering that YouTube is looking for ways to increase its viewership to more closely rival TV usage patterns. Datamation has a look at the implications.
SAN BRUNO, Calif. — Google’s YouTube is nowhere near as popular as television, but the popular video sharing site is working hard to change that with a new method for video viewing and discovery.
While YouTube is focused on consumers, there’s no question the site is a popular destination for office workers looking for a distraction or simply clicking through a “You’ve got to see this” e-mail message from a friend with a link to some oddball YouTube video. But if a new YouTube service proves popular, enterprises could see a significant uptick in the time employees spend on the service, potentially impacting productivity.