Things could have been worse; Seth could have run off to Yahoo or Facebook, for example, and instead, he’s heading to a "beyond the browser" company called Cooliris.  (Care to guess how he came in contact with Cooliris?  The company’s PicLens viewer recently began to support YouTube.)

 Shashi Seth

Nonetheless, Om Malik points out, "Despite being the largest video-sharing web site, YouTube is still finding it hard to make money.  My sources say that YouTube made around $80 million in 2007, a number that could grow by more than 50 percent this year to around $125 million.  A Bear Stearns report estimated YouTube revenues at around $90 million for 2008."

And as you’ll recall, Google paid $1.65 billion for the property.  Seth might have been the best possible person for his job, yet even better results are needed, and it’s hard to imagine that the position wasn’t depressing.

At Cooliris, Seth will serve as chief revenue officer.  With the company’s 1,900 percent year-over-year growth, odds are better he’ll be able to achieve something there.