Thursday, August 23, 2007

YouTube tries out in-video adverts.

Only 10 short months after being swallowed up by Google, YouTube launched its first ever ad format. The new format embeds a semitransparent ad on the bottom 20% of a video after it has been playing for 15 seconds and disappears up to 10 seconds later if the viewer doesn’t click on it. Though many advertisers are wary to advertise on user-generated content sites due to the dubious nature of many clips, Google has already established revenue-sharing plans with 50 companies including Warner Music Group, and Ford Models.

How do YouTube diehards like it? Computerworld/IDG News Service reported today that it took only a few hours before fans started voicing their displeasure on a YouTube blog post asking for feedback. The 132 users at the time of the article gave it a resournding ‘Thumbs Down”. Are the video overlays here to stay? With a price tag of 1.65 billion dollars and lawsuits citing the large amount of copyrighted content on YouTube without permission I would suggest getting used to seeing the ads.


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