YouTube, Google and the future of the internet economy

Youtoogle? Gootube? Yoogle? Whatever you call it, the YouTube buyout propelled user-generated internet content into the public consciousness this year like nothing else. Even my mother was asking me how to use YouTube--and she's still getting a grip on this whole "email" thing. What made YouTube such a big story was not the service itself (it's not like YouTube was the first site on the web to host user-uploaded videos) but rather, the paradigm shift that Google's buyout represented. Google wasn't buying anything physical, tangible or even profitable--heck, you could go as far as to say that Google wasn't buying YouTube at all. Rather, they were buying YouTube's audience. And when someone pays over a billion and a half dollars for a few million sets of eyeballs, you had better believe that's gonna turn some heads. Google's buyout of YouTube represents a brave new world for the internet economy and suggests that your attention is quickly becoming the most valuable commodity there is.