Nearly ten years after purchasing it for $1.65 billion, Google has a plan to make YouTube way better than ever before.
In order to compete in an increasingly crowded marketplace of digital video content — from upstart live streamers like Meerkat and Periscope to growing streaming service Netflix (NFLX) to newly digital HBO — YouTube has to differentiate itself. To do that, Google (GOOG) is tapping into the Google Brain service, which may someday be more complex than the human brain. For now, though, it’s going to help wayward web wanderers find the best new videos to watch on YouTube, Fast Companyreports.
Google Brain will collect huge amounts of data about how many people watch videos, how long they watch them, and other points of interest to spit out which videos a user should watch.
There are other avenues by which Google is pushing YouTube as well: advertisements for content partners on public transport, for example, and an upcoming ad-free subscription service.