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Something about this just makes me laugh. Apparently Google Video files (.gvi) are nothing more than repackaged .avi files which can not be played back in Windows Media Player.

Turns out that Google Video’s downloads, called .gvi files, are just standard .avi files that have been altered to be unplayable in Windows Media Player. When you click in Google Video to download a video to Windows/Mac, you download a .gvp bookmark, which loads Google Video Player and downloads the appropriate .gvi file (opening the .gvp in a text editor will reveal the URL of the .gvi, if you don’t want to install the Video Player).

Anything that goes against the mainstream – like the .gvi files being unplayable .avi’s for WMP – is enough to make me point and laugh at the ridiculous player.