Triangle users glued to an evolving YouTube

Before Jesse Safir buys concert tickets, he goes to YouTube to watch videos other fans have posted of live shows.

When he's doing research, looking for images or editing photos, the UNC-Chapel Hill employee and student turns to Google.

The $1.65 billion marriage of the two companies announced Monday combines YouTube's grass-roots approach to videos with Google's populist approach to, well, everything.

"If anybody were to buy it, I'd say Google would be the best," said Safir, 31.

In less than a year, YouTube has become an Internet sensation and repository for everything from classic cartoons to Gilbert and Sullivan operettas to the latest campaign ads. The site's visitors watch 100 million clips each day, drawn by buzz about videos such as those showing the explosive qualities of Mentos submerged in Diet Coke and the fictional diary of the doe-eyed lonelygirl15.

They also contribute, adding 65,000 new videos daily. The San Bruno, Calif.-based company allows anybody with access to a digital video camera or recorder to post creations on the Web.

"They're dorky little things that somebody taped, but usually they're funny," said Anthony Dowling, executive producer of Durham's Eno River Media Productions, which posts its public access TV shows on YouTube. "They don't take a long time to download, so -- boom -- it's amusing and people get to see people doing entertaining things."

But Google is paying for more than just an amalgamation of quirky videos, said analyst Josh Bernoff of Forrester Research. "It's the social aspect of YouTube that is most important."

Similar to MySpace or Facebook, YouTube fosters social networking by allowing viewers to share critiques and recommendations of the latest videos. That creates a bond among YouTube aficionados and can stroke the egos of contributors.

"You can't leave, any more than you would want to leave a club that has all your friends," Bernoff said. "It is that stickiness, that loyalty, that Google is seeking."

Safir has received feedback on his own videos of performers from viewers as far away as Brazil. Before YouTube, he could share his videos only one instant message at a time. The music video "It's Carrboro," created by residents Brian Risk and Billy McCormick to trumpet the quirky town's charms in rap form, has drawn about 16,000 viewers.

"You'll post a video, and you like to see how many people viewed it," Risk said. "There's a certain degree of vanity."

Research - and slacking

Jonas Swartz, a 24-year-old Duke University Medical Center research assistant, visits YouTube sporadically for specific searches. For example, when he read about slacklining -- which, as the name implies, involves walking across a slack line instead of the taut line used in tightrope walking -- he went to YouTube to watch a video that gave him a better idea of what it was about.

Even when he goes to the site to check out something in particular, the urge to browse is hard to resist. "I end up watching a lot of other junk," he said.

Local fans are optimistic that Google will bring resources and innovation to improve YouTube -- or at least not mess with it too much. But they're also realistic about the consequences of a publicly traded company acquiring what until now has been an Internet-based free-for-all.

The site includes a significant amount of copyrighted material, including content ripped from DVDs or copied from television, as well as videos with original visual content that use popular songs as background music.

Risk, a 31-year-old programmer at Chapel Hill research firm Rho, said the best part about YouTube is the way people twist copyrighted material to form their own creations. For example, he recently found decades-old video of science fiction character Buck Rogers dancing to the 1993 Haddaway hit "What is Love."

"I thought it was brilliant," said Risk, who contrasted the clip to the all-too-common videos of teenagers lip-syncing to pop music.

But Google's deep pockets make it a much more attractive target for copyright infringement lawsuits than YouTube, which has raised only $11.5 million in outside funding. "Stuff like that might have to go away in the future," Risk said.

This week, YouTube signed partnerships with Universal Music, Sony BMG and CBS to avoid copyright liability issues, and it wants to sign with other media companies. Still, Bernoff said the chance of lawsuits is "a huge risk" for Google.

One thing's for sure: Google generates revenue by running advertisements on each page, and YouTube fans are likely to see more ads on YouTube once the purchase is completed.

"That would have happened anyway," Bernoff said. "You can't have a free party forever."