“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.”
Via NYTimes
The ads should be up on YouTube as I type this and, as the article states, only show on YouTube’s content partners. It’s definitely a better idea than the random, or sometimes forced, 15 second ad clips that show on other video sites but I don’t imagine too many people wanting to click on them for the simple fact that we as people hate interruptions. This is the reason why the classic video ad, a TV commercial, is so widely hated.
Even so, I suppose being given a choice to interrupt your video is better than not.
3 Responses to "Google announces plans for YouTube ads"
Aug 28, 03:33 PM
I have to admit that adverts are getting really really annoying. And, honestly, i highly doubt that Youtube/Google really need that sort of crap. It’s not like they’re poor now is it?
Well, i’m watching videos and such on Stage6 right now and greatly preferr that. Yeah, it doesn’t have the huge community like youtube or the sorts, but the quality of the vids is ALOT better.
Sad, but i guess i’ll do most of my video browsing there from now on :P
Aug 28, 04:05 PM
Yea, I hate those forced ads, but I guess having 1/5 of the screen covered by text is a little better. Remember, they paid a shit ton of money for YouTube, so they’re gonna wanna make money from it :P