When you think of Rabbis, lesbians and glow-in-the-dark condoms probably don’t follow in the stream of consciousness. On Google Video, though, they are somehow linked and may cause some head scratching embarrassment if you leave it on Continuous Playback.
Sound off about this topic in SyndicationPro.
Google updated its video service with a few minor changes, one of which could have embarrassing effects. One of those updates is a default continuous playback function that plays videos in succession until you tell it to stop. The onus is put on individual users to turn off the feature.
It seems a no-brainer, at least in hindsight, that this could cause problems for more sensitive viewers as they end up with a continuous stream of unasked for videos.
Inside Google blogger Nathan Weinberg humorously illustrates what can go wrong with this offering. Weinberg points to a play list that includes a video of Hassidic rabbis dancing to a parody song called “Rabbis in da Shul” by Jewish rapper 50 Shekel (a play on the popular 50 Cent).
Imagine now that Weinberg sends a link to this video to his own rabbi for chuckles. At the video’s conclusion, the next video begins – a music video by the Russian gratuitous lesbian pop duo t.a.T.u., entitled “We Are Lesbians.” Not only do the girls in Catholic schoolgirl outfits make out incessantly, but when their mouths aren’t busy they’re explicitly singing about the joys of lesbianism.
And boom, your rabbi thinks you’re a pervert. Among that same list of “related” videos (they’re apparently related the video submitter), are ones titled “Glow in the Dark Condoms” and “The Three Stooges Do Madonna.”
“I couldn’t find any straight-up porn, but I doubt you want them popping up in your cubicle, and I doubt you want to accidentally send them to your grandmother,” writes Weinberg.
“But what if someone just intended to send the two dancing rabbis?” asks Philipp Lenssen of Google Blogscoped. “To the receiver, it will look as though both videos were sent… which can lead to potentially embarassing situations.”
Both bloggers and a few commenters agree, Google needs to fix this feature ASAP so that it’s OFF by default instead of ON.
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