News.blog: No merge likely for Google and YouTube

Google says its YouTube viral video-sharing site, acquired last year for $1.65bn in stock, will remain an independent subsidiary of Google and continue to operate separately.

Most of the user-generated and premium, licensed content from the likes of CBS for example, will be hosted on YouTube, the company says. YouTube, meanwhile, will benefit from future Google Video innovations, including video search, monetisation and distribution.

So, status quo for now. Except now there is a tad more integration. As of yesterday, when you type "cats dancing" in Google Video's search box you will get relevant video from YouTube too. YouTube's results were already being included in the main Google search box.

As with Yahoo's decision to run Yahoo Photos and Flickr independently, it's a bit confusing why Google is insisting on keeping two separate video sharing Web sites.