White House Didn't Ditch YouTube
The blogosphere was abuzz Monday over President Barack Obama's weekly video address -- not because of the content (an explanation of the budget outline he sent to Congress) -- but because footage of the four-minute speech was not embedded on the White House Web site from YouTube. The video was instead presented on a generic video player leading some to believe that the administration was distancing itself from the popular Google-owned video sharing site, which has been under pressure lately for how it tracks users' Web sessions with cookies.
But White House spokesman Nick Shapiro told Tech Daily Dose the uproar was unwarranted. He said the Web team simply tested a new way of presenting Obama's weekly address by using a player developed in-house. The decision is "more about better understanding our internal capabilities than it is a position on third-party solutions or a policy," he said, noting the video was also published in third-party video hosting communities. "We will likely continue to embed videos from these services on WhiteHouse.gov in the future," he added.
Update: YouTube's Steve Grove weighs in on the Google blog.
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