YouTube Owner Breaks The Rules With ‘AtGoogleTalks’

We all know of Google?s established time limit for user-submitted material to be uploaded to YouTube. Ten minutes. That?s it. No more. Have a good twenty minutes or more of highlights from that Little League baseball game you?ve wanted to share with the extended family via the video host? It ain?t happening. At least not in one whole shot. Long-form podcasts? Nien!

And we all know why the cutoff point was established some time ago. To combat piracy and copyright violations and whatnot. Of course, site members found a way to get around that hurdle, cutting up television shows and DVDs into small portions that YouTube?s new uploader would accept, but that?s neither here nor there. (A total misuse of that phrase, but what the hey.)

Google, however, has made a number of exceptions to the rule. There was the much-publicized addition of educational material added by way of UC Berkeley back in early October. And Google itself certainly gets free reign to do as it pleases. Enter, the AtGoogleTalks video trove.

Whereas for most intents and purposes YouTube?s video limit is generally an acceptable restriction, some things are best delivered in unabridged form. Such is the case with the recordings located on the AtGoogleTalks page. Whether they be interviews with US presidential hopefuls or ones spotlighting authors and their fiction and/or nonfiction work, the ?sit-downs? Google has made available for YouTube users? perusal make for pretty decent entertainment.

That is, if you?re into watching video captures of hour-long interviews and presentations and such. Which ? and we?re guessing here ? most YouTubers aren?t.

But for those who want to spend some quality time observing the walls of Google?s auditoriums and conference halls whilst people like Barack Obama or Michael Bloomberg or Joseph Stiglitz spout their thoughts (or even hear a performance by the artist Jose Gonzalez in the first installment of the newly created Musicians@Google series), you might just find the AtGoogleTalks selection appealing.

So brew that coffee (or cocoa, if that?s your thing), grab that mouse, and enjoy what Google?s given you.

Seriously. No joke. If you?re not entertained, Google will know. And…well…you don?t want to find out what they do with folks who fail to appreciate. Trust us. That ?Don?t be Evil? slogan has writ large over at HQ? That message is directed at us out here in the public ether. Not at itself.

See something of interest in the AtGoogleTalks library? Share your picks in the comments below.