One place where YouTube’s success isn’t being celebrated is in the offices of Universal Tube and Rollerform Equipment Corp. near Toledo, Ohio.
The company, which sells used machinery for making tubes to clients worldwide, has seen its site utube.com knocked off line by millions of online searchers looking for video site.
“It’s killing us,” said Ralph Girkins, president and owner of the 22-year-old business. “All my worldwide reps use our Web site. Customers all over the world use it to bring up photos of the machinery, descriptions and specifications there.”
Girkins says his site, which has been online since 1994, got 68 million hits in August.
One of the most damaging aspects is that the company advertises to customers worldwide under the name utube.com, Girkins says.
When clients try to look them up, they get a streaming video site. “It’s lost credibility as well,” he says.
13Oct06 — 1
68 million? Rename the company and plaster the site with google ads.