Comments for Get Ready For YouTube Ads

Get Ready For YouTube Ads

2007-08-22T20:39:17Z

Hey there fans of watching people fall while stomping on grapes, YouTube has announced a new ad system for its videos. From the NYT:

Now Google believes it finally has found the formula to cash in on YouTube's potential as a magnet for online video advertising and keep its audience loyal at the same time.

The company said late Tuesday that after months of testing various video advertising models, it was ready to introduce a new type of video ad, which it said was unobtrusive and kept users in control of what they saw.

The ads, which appear 15 seconds after a user begins watching a video clip, take the form of an overlay on the bottom fifth of the screen, not unlike the tickers that display headlines during television news programs.

A user can ignore the overlay, which will disappear after about 10 seconds, or close it. But if the user clicks on it, the video they were watching will stop and a video ad will begin playing. Once the ad is over, or if a user clicks on a box to close it, the original video will resume playing from the point where it was stopped.

We're trying to picture ourselves ever clicking the ads and are unable to. To each his own.

Google Aims to Make YouTube Profitable With Ads [NYT]
(Photo:NYT)

Comment from discounteggroll on 2007-08-24

2007-08-24T06:41:42Z

im not reading the posts before me (shuns in silence), but I did stumble upon this during my evening roundups:

[lifehacker.com]

forgive me if its already posted

Comment from Rectilinear Propagation on 2007-08-23

2007-08-24T03:18:46Z

@s35flyer: WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

*goes back to panicing*

Comment from mruser on 2007-08-23

2007-08-23T08:55:52Z

@S35FLYER: I suspect most companies would want control over which videos their ads appear on. Certainly any reputable company doesn't want their logo/ad appearing on a video of some redneck badmouthing [insert non-white race or non-straight sexual orientation here].

Comment from cmize on 2007-08-22

2007-08-23T01:47:31Z

As long as they aren't putting ads that you're forced to watch before watching the video you want I guess it's not too bad. The whole thing makes me sad, though, because it seems like everything that is great on the internet just gets inundated with advertising. I'm so sick of being marketed to all the time.

Comment from Eyebrows McGee (now with more baby!) on 2007-08-22

2007-08-23T01:34:54Z

@Buran: Can't you move the CCing up to the top of the screen? My TV (it's old) gives me four options on where I want the CC to appear.

Comment from Schminteresting on 2007-08-22

2007-08-23T00:12:00Z

Sweetmothermaryandbabyjesusinthemanger. *shaking head* Can we not have just one entertainment portal devoid of these godforsaken ads that intentionally appear over page content? Who are the clowns clicking on these ads? Someone must be or else they wouldn't be appearing everywhere. Probably the same people who've given T-Pain three of the top twelve Hot 100 Billboard singles. If I hear that damn Buy U A Drank one more time I will flip out. What has happened to the world? Goodness, I'm so off-topic, sorry!

Comment from faust1200 on 2007-08-22

2007-08-22T23:49:18Z

One day when you look up at the moon you will only see a bright white disc that says GOOGLE.

Comment from s35flyer on 2007-08-22

2007-08-22T23:39:53Z

confined to corporate ads. right, for how long.....folks once the door opens you cant go home again.

Comment from mavrc on 2007-08-22

2007-08-22T22:40:24Z

If they'd put the ads somewhere else besides over the top of the video, this would potentially be forgivable.

Well, that and I'm just stunned that web ads still make money.

Comment from Juice Box Hero on 2007-08-22

2007-08-22T22:14:14Z

@Lin-Z: Pretty soon all video clips will start at :05 and :35. lol.

Comment from Juice Box Hero on 2007-08-22

2007-08-22T22:13:03Z

@ElPresidente408: No kidding. Can't be a ton of eligible ads for most user-created videos. What are they going to do? Put up ads for Diet Coke and Mentos? "Ace Athletic Supporters" on clips of some guy getting hit in the pills? Or Prozac for lonelygirl15?

Comment from Rectilinear Propagation on 2007-08-22

2007-08-22T22:03:12Z

@putch: I have clicked on a few of the Gawker Artist ads. I've clicked on one for the guy who does the red/white/black portraits and one for the deer screensaver thing. A couple of others too. Those probably don't count though.

Comment from Rectilinear Propagation on 2007-08-22

2007-08-22T21:58:21Z

@schmeckendeugler: ????

Comment from something_amazing on 2007-08-22

2007-08-22T21:57:54Z

@wring: IT crowd? Come on man, best thing about that show was the theme song. I can't believe that the internets can be so starved for geek humor. It was your standard sitcom with a office sitcom with a few dilbert jokes thrown in.

Comment from Lin-Z [linguist on duty] on 2007-08-22

2007-08-22T21:57:12Z

Glad to see that YouTube took a page out of TBS's handbook. and boy, do I ever appreciate that!

Comment from putch on 2007-08-22

2007-08-22T21:49:30Z

We're trying to picture ourselves ever clicking the ads and are unable to. To each his own.

yeah, well no one clicks on the stupid ads on this site either...

Comment from wring on 2007-08-22

2007-08-22T21:37:44Z

If this means bringing back the complete episodes of IT Crowd on Youtube, bring the ads on!

Comment from Fist-o� on 2007-08-22

2007-08-22T21:23:59Z

OK that woman's cries after she hit the ground were disturbing.

Comment from gibsonic on 2007-08-22

2007-08-22T21:20:59Z

i make it a point to intentionally no buy anything that is advertised in such a manner. Pop-up video ads that auto-start, advertising across the bottom of the TV, etc.

Comment from Doc Benway on 2007-08-22

2007-08-22T21:16:05Z

Great way for another enterprising startup to steal market share from youtube. I could understand before the video and then after the video but overlays during the video. That is just fucking annoying. If I want random shit scrolling across the screen I would watch MSNBC of Fox.

Comment from Buran on 2007-08-22

2007-08-22T21:08:39Z

@Rectilinear Propagation: Yeah, no kidding, as a hearing-impaired person I can't stand it when programs put relevant info to whatever is at hand on the bottom of the screen that then gets covered up by the closed captions.

Video editors: Put the name and title of the interviewee at the top -- PLEASE! Or at least move the captions a bit, just for a moment.

Comment from Buran on 2007-08-22

2007-08-22T21:07:10Z

@ekthesy: *props*!

Comment from ElPresidente408 on 2007-08-22

2007-08-22T21:03:22Z

Yea I can't imagine a sponsor wanting their product being advertised during most of the user content that's uploaded to you tube.

Comment from AbstractConcept on 2007-08-22

2007-08-22T21:00:52Z

Well, a company needs to make money and advertising is the way to do it. At least they didn't make it as invasive as those ads that play the video automatically. Sounds like a smart idea

Comment from Rectilinear Propagation on 2007-08-22

2007-08-22T20:54:53Z

WAAAAA...
If you read it carefully, though, ads will only be in corporate-provided videos.
A..oh.

At least it will be something you can close. I hate it when banner ads cover up the subtitles on TV.

Comment from rbb on 2007-08-22

2007-08-22T20:52:27Z

www.break.com has been putting ads in their videos for a few weeks now. They are the internet equivalent of having a tall guy blocking your view of the screen in a theater...

Comment from ekthesy on 2007-08-22

2007-08-22T20:49:35Z

@Buran:

You're more than just Consumerist's Marilyn Monroe.

Forty whacks with a wet noodle to whoever came up with this idea over at Google. Terrible, although at least it's confined to corporate shilling.

Comment from Buran on 2007-08-22

2007-08-22T20:46:45Z

I read this last night. If you read it carefully, though, ads will only be in corporate-provided videos.

You won't get an ad on the crappy cell phone video filmed from the 22nd row of that Elton John concert.

(props to anyone who figures out the joke in that sentence).

Incidentally, Youtube needs a "don't show crappy cell phone cam videos in search results" checkbox ... no matter what I search for I get a ton of those that I then have to weed out as I try to find whatever I am looking for.