Google annonced today that they are adding YouTube-like video communications features to their business application suite, looking to make video-sharing among office workers as easy as trading e-mails or instant messages.

Unlike YouTube, which is aimed at consumers, Google Video for business is designed to be shared among designated users within an organization's own Web domain, protecting executive speeches, product training, sales meetings or other employee video messages from unauthorized disclosure outside the company.

"What YouTube did in the consumer world, Google Video for business is going to do in the enterprise," said Matthew Glotzbach, product management director of Google's Enterprise division, the unit responsible for Google Apps.

Personally, I can see the value of these features to the enterprise going far beyond what YouTube offers to consumers. YouTube offers usually trivial (although often entertaining) video content across a broad global audience. Although you can do things like take guitar lessons, most of the content is meant to entertain - and be used as a vehicle for advertising.

One can easily imagine how valuable easily accessible video content could be in an enterprise setting. For example, imagine a line worker who needs to understand how to perform a specific task, whether it is assembling a widget, assisting a customer with product support, or correctly performing a service. The worker would be able to easily search for video content that would show them exactly what to do - in context. They would be able to use the Google interface to search, as well as find content through tagging. This type of on-demand video content is a bit of a nirvana in Learning Management and Performance Support circles.

Although video content can be offered to the enterprise today through video-conferencing, learning management, and content management systems, none comes close to the accessibility and ease-of-use of the Google interface. Of course the additional benefit of a Google offering is that everything is accessible through a web browser - no additional hardware or software required.

It will be interesting to see if Google can preserve the intuitive interface and ease-of-use in an enterprise environment that will surely require more controls and security than YouTube.

Here's a link to the original article: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080902/ts_nm/google_video_dc_5