Yeah, I'm unsure of most of the writers so want to be careful not to offend anyone, but the guy who wrote that, and also that G would be ahead of them soon and just needed Java people, AND that he didn't think much of their system and talent...did not seem in tune with reality.
It's hard to remember that period well and put things into context, but if you were there, honestly, Google Video was pretty good. In the very early days Google Video vs YouTube could have been a toss-up. There was nothing particularly compelling about the UX on YouTube (it got much better later). Google Video wasn't amazing UX, but technically it was fine. And had the advantage of getting prime real estate in search results.
YouTube's early success I suspect had a lot more to do with them paying fast and loose with enforcing IP rules. It wasn't until a bit after the Google acquisition that they started getting more serious about it.
EDIT: also remember this is an era when Google was actually doing quite well shipping rather geeky and minimalistic invented-by-engineer consumer-facing things. There was no reason to assume they wouldn't do well with Google Video. They had just recently had a lot of success with Gmail. Gchat was a thing. Their calendar was good. They were making some ok stuff.
Yeah, it has been a while for sure. You make good points, and Sacca kind of touched on a similar note in his reply. Google had thus far been technically correct, and built good tools(email, search). But video is such a different realm...as he said... people just wanted to have fun. And for that technical correctness meant little... it's not a problem you can throw brains at. Even today, look at how TikTok has absolutely crushed others. Even with the power of big G, YT feels stagnant and dated in comparison.
