The Google Video Store was online late Monday after being announced Friday--and judging from first impressions, Blockbuster Video and NetFlix may not have much to worry about yet.

The video store was accessible at the top of the main Google Video page with four rotating featured videos. At one point they were: "Star Trek Voyager-Tattoo," on sale for $1.99; the Jan. 4 Heat-Hornets basketball game for $3.95; an ITV news segment of the Christmas dinner held by British troops in Bosnia in 1995; and a video that teaches youngsters "essential early-learning color concepts" for $2.49.

A drop-down menu lets people browse selections of NBA basketball games, movies and music videos, as well as television shows like "The Brady Bunch," "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine," "Nova" and "The Ed Sullivan Show."

Diving into the video selections unearthed tantalizing titles including "Birth Control: Myths & Methods, Spanish Version," "Bobbito's Basics to Boogie" and "ChinaPortal Presents: Xu Genbao and the Future of Chinese Soccer Part 1."

A search for the keywords "John Wayne" turned up a 1934 movie titled "Blue Steel" for sale for $1.99, a bunch of interviews with James Garner and other movie stars, and video from a 2005 Long Beach city council meeting.

The main Google Video page also has rotating feature videos categorized under "popular" and "random" sections. Samples of those included the notorious Tom Cruise appearance on "Oprah Winfrey," a "biker dancing silly" and a documentary claiming to expose "the conspiracy between the Free Masons, U.S. presidents and the 9/11 terrorists attacks."

The Web site adheres to the Google philosophy of less-is-more but lacks any slick design elements that would signal the existence of sexy content such as, say, movies. And, rather than still images from videos to click on for a sample clip, many thumbnail images and preview boxes feature only plain screens with the name of the show--or a blank black box.


Full article: CNET News.com