Google, Gaga, And What’s Next (New) At YouTube

If this wasn’t the week that the AT&T/T-Mobile news broke, we might have seen more attention paid to some notable developments on the web TV front.

The “not-a-media-company” Google hosted Lady Gaga, who apparently can unnerve normally composed Vice President of Consumer Products Marissa Mayer (who doesn’t seem to know when to stop clapping or how to laugh naturally in this context).

The interview opens with  an awesome Google-produced video that illustrates Gaga’s ascendancy by charting the skyrocketing searches of her name, starting in mid-2007.  Even if you’re not a Gaga fan (I’m not) there are plenty of charming moments up close with her, like her seemingly un-ironic line that “Omigosh, my security is always…they want to shoot me,” when she leaves her home unannounced to hit the corner bodega.

Google bagged a winner, to say the least. Surprisingly, as of this writing, the video hadn’t yet reached a million views. Trust, it’ll get there over the weekend. But the perhaps more lofty announcements from YouTube/Google are the partnerships with independent producer network NextNew, and an Xtranormal video maker. Content acquisition and more functionality will lead to a lot more original video for YouTube, and further establish it as monolithic platform/content provider.