Disclaimer: The following revelation will likely not come as an eye-opener to many people.

For some reason, I’ve been thinking about Google’s acquisition of YouTube all wrong. When I heard the news, I thought, why is Google so interested in user-submitted video? And honestly I never thought of a reason except, well, it’s popular.

Something just clicked, and I got it.

Google has little or no interest in user-submitted content. Could care less. Google is interested in search. Obviously! And when I, as a user, wonder to myself where I can find video of Michael Richards’s breakdown, I think YouTube. Not Google.

That developing mental model was a potentially huge problem for a brand that prides itself on being able to find anything.