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The big online news this week is that Google paid $1.65 billion for YouTube, a Web-based video hosting service that started up in 2005.

YouTube became wildly popular by allowing users to upload and watch videos. With more than 100 million videos watched on the site every day, it's not hard to see why Google wanted YouTube -- and didn't want Yahoo to get there first.

Especially given the problems that Google has had with its own online-video offering, Google Video, for a while now.

Gee, what tasteful and thought-provoking content! Google Video initially seemed to have something interesting to offer -- Comedy Central, MTV -- but many of the links lead to pay-per-download content.

Most of Google Video's free content seems to be scraped from other sites, the most prominent of which is something like "bedumb.com." I'm not suggesting you go there and won't be responsible for what you find if you do.

Here's a sample Google Video daily top five to help the uninitiated understand what's we're dealing with. I've left the titles intact, with original spelling and punctuation, and added a brief description.

1. "Steve Irwin stingray video -- Extreme" If you watch it, you get what you deserve.

2. "Shakira -- Hips Dont Lie spoof." Described as "my brother's Spanish final," a high-school guy lip-syncing to Shakira

3. "A Man's Favorite Tool." A Foster's beer commercial masquerading as a porno movie.

4. "Fittness cica." The description is perhaps in Polish, the still is of a grossly overweight woman wearing a bikini while walking on a treadmill.

5. "Kick boxing Accident." Broken leg footage.

Can we draw any conclusions from the lack of spelling and grammar skills? The lowest common denominator aspects of popular culture, the bodily harm, quasi-porn, blatant misogyny?

The obvious reply is, "Spend 1.65 billion and get some real content, folks!"

At least YouTube makes it very easy to get their offerings. Some Web sites make you jump through an awful lot of hoops. Take Salon.com, for instance. I tend to browse the Internet with some features turned off. I like windows that don't open, close or move around unless I tell them to.

To have this kind of control over Web pages, I add several extensions to my Web browser. Recently my extensions interfered with Salon's ads. All I got was a link that said "Need help?"

There was a lot about cookies and browser versions and then the useful advice: "Sometimes a firewall or Internet security product will block some of the information. ... Try temporarily disabling these products if you can."

That's remarkable! Have you ever tried to read a book that said, "If you are having trouble reading this book, try leaving the front door of your house open, put your wallet on the table and go take a walk around the block."

Pardon the house metaphor. Geeks like to use metaphors to explain things that aren't intuitively obvious. If you follow Salon's advice and leave your front door opened, you can look forward to visitors.

They'll come on in and find your credit card numbers. They might steal your books, tools, papers, letters, photographs, movies and music. They might make a bonfire and throw all your stuff in, or they might lock it in a box and offer to sell it back to you. They might start having all their friends over. They might turn your "house" into a soldier and add it to an army to attack other houses!

OK, that metaphor just exploded. I never said geeks were good at metaphors.

Pris Sears grew up in Florida, lives in Blacksburg and works among Virginia Tech's computers.