Google's Paid Video: A Happier Ending

Yesterday, I kvetched here about the fact that Google told people who had "bought" videos from the company that those videos would be rendered inaccessible, and that refunds would be provided in the form of Google Checkout coupons. Last evening, Google revised its shutdown of Google Video's purchase and rental options, and the news is somewhat better for people (like me!) who had plunked down money.

Details are here: Google will give real credit-card refunds to compensate for the service's disappearance; the Google Checkout coupons stand, too, so folks will get both cash and a coupon. And while videos that Google had supposedly "sold" us will still be rendered unplayable, the company's going to terminate them in six months (originally, August 15th was the cut-off date).

This is still a good example of the gotchas that are inherent with Web services--if you buy an automobile from Chrysler, the company can't announce later that it's discontinuing the model, and, oh, by the way, computers embedded in all existing examples of the car have been programmed to disable their engines permanently. But props to Google for revising its shutdown policy and making it at least a tad more consumer-friendly....

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