There are a lot of great clips on YouTube, and as the writers’ strike continues, they’ll look increasingly tempting in comparison to television programming.  I still have to wonder, though, whether putting YouTube on TV, as Google and Panasonic are preparing to do, is a good idea.

Let’s start with the length of YouTube clips – these videos last only a few minutes, or even seconds.  Now, people watching traditional TV admittedly tend to channel surf, but the usual goal is to find a program that’s at least half an hour in length.

Then there are the resolution issues.  If YouTube videos look crappy on computer monitors, they’re not going to do any better splashed across 50-inch plasmas.

Still, I’ll give Google and Panasonic credit for trying something interesting.  Duncan Riley writes, "The deal is said to be non-exclusive with the first units set to be launched in the United States in Spring."  He also notes that Picasa’s content, in addition to YouTube’s, should be accessible through the televisions.

Picture quality, reliability, and price are likely to remain top issues, however, and I say that as someone who’s tentatively in the market for a new TV.