Just off the phone with an AP reporter (Jessica Mintz, sharp reporter from the Journal who moved over) who was grokking the fact that Google has added Video to its hallowed first tier of search options on the home page, and relegated Froogle to a pop up window off the “more” link. Does this mean Google is reacting to YouTube? Well, yes, of course, but also, Google is following the users, who told Google via YouTube’s popularity that video means a lot to them, and that Google was failing to give the users what they want. And Google is also reacting to the market, which is saying it wants as much video advertising as it can buy. Will moving Video to better real estate mean Google Video will overtake YouTube? That is the billion dollar question. Google’s recent moves with Viacom and MySpace may position the company as the “safe” alternative to YouTube, one could presume – and the company does have one hell of a network to work with AdWords/sense. But do the consumers want Google video? Despite the initial hit of traffic, it all comes down to community, methinks, and that’s what Google so far has not done as well as others.