Tuesday, May 23, 2006

Google launches video ads and takes first steps toward TV advertising

Google is taking its first steps to go after the huge market for television advertising this week with a new service that will place video commercials on the many Web sites where it sells advertising.

Google will not yet run video ads on their own sites, but will offer them across the hundreds of thousands of web sites that run their ad system. In the future, Gooogle is likely to branch into offering such video ads on their own sites as well as on TV!

The ads will be offered through the same auction system for existing text and image ads, and they will resemble an image ad until the user clicks on it - then a video will kick in.

Google is clearly making the first tentative foray into the banner ad world as well stepping lightly toward colourful image and video ads on their own sites. Plus, these video ads will allow Google to beat a straight path toward their advertising system enveloping PC's, TV, radio and mobile phones.

Within a couple of years from now Google will offfer one of the most comprehensive ad networks on the planet, both in terms of types of ads as well as a broad range of devices. Of course the Yahoo's and MSN's of this world will not be far behind.

Video is fast becoming the killer app for so many aspects of the broadband Internet and as a result, moves such as this and AOL's acquisition of Lighteningcast last week, will see TV style free programming spread across the web with video ads inserted. And this development more than any other will enable Internet TV and video to go mainstream.

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