YouTube opens video rental store with decent prices, decent selection

Although YouTube has long since given up on its paid download feature, the popular video site has moved on to something bigger and better: movie rentals. You can now grab a 48-hour rental from YouTube for anywhere between 99 cents and $3.99. YouTube's rental library started back in January, when it offered a selection of movies from the Sundance Film Festival, but it's now expanded into all kinds of Hollywood and indie flicks, and dropped the prices a little bit.

The list of movies on YouTube isn't as extensive as more established sites like iTunes and Netflix, but it does have plenty of important films, and a bunch of indie stuff that iTunes doesn't offer yet. It also gives YouTube's producers an opportunity to make some money by creating long-form videos and offering them for rent. Although YouTube might not be you first choice for video rentals, it fills in some gaps in other sites' libraries, and it's very reasonably priced.

Tags: movies, rental, store, video, youtube