Our senior editor talks with New Media Strategies' Pete Snyder about Google's acquisition of YouTube and how it impacts fans and users, its role in Google and the landscape of Web 2.0.

Editor's Note: This article is part of our special series on Google's acquisition of YouTube, with commentary and analysis from practitioners and thought leaders throughout the industry, including: 

A roundup of news from around the net
Search Editor Kevin Ryan wondering, where's the ROI?
Criticism of mainstream coverage by columnist Mark Naples
Briefings of the deal's implications from top online marketers
A look at potential new marketing opportunities
How AdSense may be integrated within YouTube

Ranging from the 30,000 foot perspective to the deeply practical, our contributors will help you make sense of the latest shift in the media landscape.

Dawn Anfuso: What has reaction been thus far to the news of the acquisition?

Pete Synder: As we've seen before in this space, young Web 2.0 fans have no problem leaving one technology for a newer or better one. We saw that when Friendster lost ground to MySpace, and even today, MySpace seems to be losing some of its own young audience. With YouTube, the major risk I see is that their core audience could decide tomorrow to go somewhere else, especially since YouTube's core technology is not very advanced-- meaning that a newer, more advanced online video service could pretty easily capture those users.

YouTube really does resemble MySpace more than it resembles Google Video, but YouTube users are even less entrenched there. At MySpace, everything revolves around your page and that of your friends. At YouTube, viewers don't need an account, and it stands to reason that most do not have them.

Anfuso: What does this acquisition mean for YouTube's users and fans?

Synder: Well, even though Mark Cuban famously stated that given the potential copyright issues, "Only a moron would buy YouTube," I don't think that this deal makes Google "a moron." They never would have considered the deal if they didn't have a plan to iron out copyright issues.

The music licensing deals YouTube cut over the past week certainly make it less likely that a wall of lawsuits are coming along-- and of course, Google has the resources to fight if they're sued, which YouTube never had.

Anfuso: What role will YouTube play for Google?

Synder: This is a tremendously big get for Google-- even Google doesn't spend $1.6 billion unless they see real landscape-changing opportunities. This acquisition is going to allow Google to attract millions of young, Web 2.0-savvy eyeballs, and that in turn will bring the advertisers Google relies on. Google hasn't done very well in social marketing so far-- its entry is called Orkut, and while it is very popular in Brazil, it's virtually unknown in the United States. But Google has tended to be a good steward of acquisitions, such as one of its earliest purchases, Blogger.

YouTube probably couldn't fit into Google's AdSense system any better-- it has millions of unique pages with unique keywords. And of course they recently signed a deal to put ads and search on MySpace. So in just a few short months, Google has become a major player in social media.

Google has already said that Google Video is not going away, and despite many guesses about whether there might be a GooTube coming up, YouTube will also remain YouTube. So Google clearly has very different plans for each. Google Video now no longer has to worry about making itself more social-friendly, and YouTube no longer has to worry about upgrading its quality to any large degree. Partnered to compete against other offerings, they can each focus on what they're good at.  

Anfuso: How significant is this acquisition in the internet world (i.e. Web 2.0)?

Synder: As we've seen, Web 2.0 just keeps getting hotter-- already, this deal is worth multiples more than Murdoch's acquisition of MySpace, another leader in the Web 2.0 world. This is a smart but obvious move for Google, as they work to make sure they play a big role in the next web evolution. 

Anfuso: What's next?

Synder: Well, with Facebook in talks with Yahoo, I wouldn't be surprised if we heard an announcement soon. This is just the beginning of a trend that's bound to continue as larger, more established web and media giants work to get in on the Web 2.0 game.

Pete Snyder is founder and CEO of New Media Strategies, an online market intelligence and word-of-mouth marketing company based in Arlington, Virginia.