Video infrastructure site Delve Networks launched TroopTube in partnership with the Department of Defense a few days ago as a more secure alternative to YouTube, which the DoD banned in 2007. TroopTube is basically Youtube, but without the embedding feature, and the DoD has moderation and censorship controls.
Now Delve Networks CEO says Google is up to no good, trying to convince the DoD that TroopTube won’t scale, and that YouTube’s exclusive arrangement with Barack Obama means the troops won’t be able to watch the president’s weekly talks. “Google is trying to attack TroopTube,” he says.
The email is below, and we’re following up with Google for a comment.
I should not be telling you this and will get in big trouble with the DoD, but it is just too interesting to not mention.
Today, I was informed that Google is trying to attack TroopTube by telling all sorts of technical lies about Delve’s ability to scale. Apparently, they don’t really understand the cloud computing thing.
They also claim that because Barrack Obama is posting his presidential messages on YouTube and not TroopTube that the troops wont be able to get video from the president and that is another reason for the DoD to cancel the TroopTube project.
So much for do no evil. I guess Google would rather have troops be unable to get videos from their loved ones this Thanksgiving.
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Yeah, Google is the evil one here.
If this is true they are insane. Do they really think Obama will side with Goog over the DoD?
Once again, TC blows the big one:
“Google is up to no good”
This is called business strategy. If you were Google, you’d the same. But then again, this is just a dumb blog.
you’re banned.
Michael, just curious, why don’t you just delete these bad/pointless comments rather than replying “banned”?
bc i’m pretty sure they’re all from Jim Brady and if I delete them we lose the IP addresses.
http://www.techcrunch.com/2008.....ersonally/
This is good entertainment. Looking forward for the next round.
It’s all business. If you’re calling Google evil, then you shouldn’t be in the business world. That’s all.
slow news day? huh?
http://www.techcrunch.com/2008.....but-arent/
haters always talk more than lovers ! relax he knows well we all respect you more than he plus 1000 like him…just another dust on the road of success
how come the presidential weekly address belongs to a certain corporate entity. Obama the candidate could have such a deal. Obama the president can’t.
I was just thinking the same thing Ron. Once he becomes the actual President there cannot be a “deal” for exclusive addresses. Imagine the Prez saying I’ll only speak on FoxNews not CNN. Just wouldn’t fly. There is no merit to what Google is saying and hopefully this can all get worked out, for our troops sake.
It’s because it doesn’t. There is no “exclusive” deal with youtube he is posting on yahoo video and aol video as well, he even makes a high quality quick time video available for download, so it could be uploaded just about anyhwere. It’s straight from change.gov.
“Also available on Yahoo and MSN.
High-resolution, Quicktime format (32 MB .mov file) available here.”
“evil?” sounds more like google wants the dod to allow youtube again, and migrate over trooptube to youtube. I presume the goog doesn’t want trooptube down without some alternative in place first.
Obama does not appear to have an exclusive relationship with YouTube. He posted his most recent address to AOL, Yahoo, and MSN (though AOL then shut down its video site). See http://change.gov/newsroom/ent.....te_change/
Somehow I doubt that Obama is cool with our troops not being able to see his speeches. But then again I doubted many things that he actually is cool with.
You guys are the best. Got a good laugh today
Its the Government even if they have a contract with YouTube they can void it easily thats why Google is scared and I would be to if I were them.
The weekly addresses can be found elsewhere other than directly on YouTube. Besides, change.gov (Obama’s new site) that posts the videos, has closed commenting off.
If military who can’t access YouTube wants to watch Obama’s fireside chats, they can at http://www.DiscussTheFireside.com.
And it is interesting this argument about exclusivity between government and one company. We shall see how that holds water once he actually becomes president. Will other video sites make waves?
You might want to check your advertisers or stop doing bad things because Google Chrome blocks your site for spyware because of a site that it has a relationship with.
http://safebrowsing.clients.go.....p;hl=en-US
I don’t have a relationship with that site and have never heard of it. I only launched a few days ago. But thanks for the heads up.
Google is no organization of saints, but the guy comes across (in the email snippet) as a bit foolish/ignorant.
* If Google is telling “all sorts of technical lies” maybe he could name one or two instead of being so vague? People usually keep accusations vague when there is nothing factual to be detailed about.
* I wonder what his own understanding of “the cloud computing thing” is. Is he implying that because their service uses something someone calls a “cloud” it will scale for ever and ever? Shouldn’t someone in his position understand that “cloud computing” is basically a vaguely defined marketing term?
* He might want to learn how to spell the name of the President Elect and maybe figure out a more professional way to refer to him.
* “So much for do no evil. I guess Google would rather have troops be unable to get videos from their loved ones this Thanksgiving.” Oh, way to pull the “won’t somebody think of the troops” card.
The more I read it the more it sounds like B.S..
Agreed
The YouTube address was just a nice add-on. The weekly presidential address has always been available to the public via radio, and will continue to be available in that way.
I’m pretty sure the military can still access the white house website, where I’m positive an mp3 clip of the address would also be available. Yeesh.
Cloud computing is the magical elixir that fixes everything. Wah wah wah Google says we can’t scale like YouTube: CLOUD COMPUTING! HAHA! I’m using the Internets!
sheesh. If I was YouTube, I would at least be a little annoyed that TroopTube stole their logo/font.
The military has several intranet sites that mimick commercial applications like wikipedia and others. TroopTube is an awesome idea, 99.9% of the military don’t care who provides them the link to their family, they just want the link! I don’t think anyone posting comments to this blog can comprehend the emotion of getting a video from your wife you haven’t seen in 11 months while in a combat zone. Instead of bickering about non-sense, how about donating your time or money to something that supports our troops and thier families? Mike, I’d like to send you links to several charities that support troops and their families.
– “99.9% of the military don’t care who provides them the link to their family, they just want the link! I don’t think anyone posting comments to this blog can comprehend the emotion of getting a video from your wife you haven’t seen in 11 months while in a combat zone. Instead of bickering about non-sense, how about donating your time or money to something that supports our troops and thier families?” –
Good point. Semper Fi.
Ok wait.
1 - TroopTube is censoring content for soldiers who are fighting for freedoms.
2 - YouTube is claiming that an INTERNET broadcast by the President is their IP?
Time for Vimeo to erect the “we’re not evil banner”.
WTF.
this is crazy, how in the world can the DOD say “we are banning you-tube because of bandwith”…. but we are going to allow Troop-Tube???? A video is a video and if server from Troop or Evil Youtube it still uses bandwith….
Also how in the world is it right that our SOLDIERS getting shot at have less freedom than the rest of the country…. They should be able to view any video not have a censored list of aproved video’s ….. SHAMEFULL
I think it’s funny they called TroopTube
Which sumo is which?
If anyone is interested, I built a military social network on Ning’s platform, and we offer video uploads as well as blogs and all the other goodies– we just don’t have the DoD’s budget: http://www.TroopSpace.net