GooTube?

Looks like it's official:

Internet search leader Google is snapping up YouTube for $1.65 billion, brushing aside copyright concerns to seize a starring role in the online video revolution.

The all-stock deal announced Monday unites one of the Internet's marquee companies with one of its rapidly rising stars. It came just a few hours after YouTube unveiled three separate agreements with media companies to counter the threat of copyright-infringement lawsuits.

I'm still trying to figure out what I think about this.  I like the innovation Google has brought to many things on the internet -- their search engine, GoogleMaps, GMail, Google Video, Google Reader, etc.  Still, I think part of why they have been such great innovators is that they've had such good competition.  By buying YouTube, it they've taken away their chief competition in online video.  This also makes for a more concentrated target for copyright lawyers to attack.

Here are some more opinions.

Read Google's press release here.

Does anyone else have any thoughts on this?