Why are we linking to YouTube?

I’ve had a few inquiries why Lost Remote is embedding YouTube clips of copyrighted material rather than linking to the video on the originating media site. It’s a legitimate question, but I’m staging a protest. As a blogger, YouTube’s functionality allows me quickly find and embed the player on the site with a simple copy-paste. When I went to ComedyCentral.com, I tried searching for the clip, but no luck. Once I found it, I tried to find the URL to link directly to it. Nothing. And of course, there’s no functionality to embed their player on the site. So YouTube it is. Media sites must realize that YouTube is becoming the Google of video. People are “YouTubing” to find video before visiting the originating site. And an army of bloggers are embedding YouTube players on their sites, which as an aggregate probably makes up a good third of YouTube’s total video traffic. Why aren’t media sites copying YouTube search and share functionality? Good question.