Following Behind Photobucket, YouTube Implements Web-Based Video Editor

We all knew it would happen. It was only a matter of time.

Over the weekend, YouTube, following closely behind Photobucket (now a MySpace entity), told the world it too had fallen for Adobe’s Web-based video editing software solution, Premiere Express. Photobucket began offering its own Premiere Express-powered editor back in late February of this year.

Other than the thematic color choices, not a drop of uniqueness appears within either Photobucket’s or YouTube’s implementation of the product. And Adobe wouldln't want it any other way. It's regularly much easier to market uniformity, after all.

As predictable as these moves by Photobucket and YouTube are, they’re rather momentous, though not in the way of expanding the powers provided by the respective video hosts. It’s really Adobe who emerges from these developments as the greatest benefactor.

The reason for this is simple: By inking deals with the two largest video hosting sites on the Internet (if this assertion is incorrect, please do put us right in the comments), Adobe has effectively solidified its place as the one-stop shop for Web video solutions. Not a bad position to be in at all.

At its center of its power force is Flash, by far the most popular standard for online video today. And now with the infusion of Premiere Express into the most popular video sites on the planet, Adobe has quickly spread its reach far and wide, and any efforts by competitors to challenge the king will no doubt have to offer something(s) significantly more impressive technologically and tout them much more loudly to carve sizable and comparably lucrative niches of their own.

We can safely predict that initial beta of Adobe’s Premiere Express application is only the first notch on the company ladder for Web-based video editing. There’s surely more to come in the way of additions and enhancements. And the more Adobe puts out prior to the introduction of equivalents by competitors, the greater the piece of the pie it will take and retain in the coming years. So get cracking, competition. As much as we enjoy the bounties of Flash video streaming across the Net all seconds, minutes, hours of the day, we’d hate to see Adobe claim such a great hold without so much as a small struggle.