YouTube to Make Ads Skippable Later This Year

by Caleb Johnson on July 1, 2010 at 08:45 AM

Google Senior product manager Baljeet Singhe announced Tuesday that YouTube, which is expected to finally make a profit this year, will begin embedding skippable ads in some videos within the next six months. Allowing users to offer feedback or choose ads is hardly new; Hulu lets you choose your commercials with Ad Selector, and Facebook's ads can be voted up or down. As with most everything in the Googleplex, Google has been testing how well these ads, which can be bypassed with the click of a mouse, fare with viewers. Singhe claims the higher quality commercials were skipped less often than the lower quality ones, a finding he thinks should drive advertisers to improve their ads. Even if the viewer decides to skip the ad, there is a silver lining for the advertisers; Google won't charge for skipped ads.

While Google's Tuesday event was taking place, Hulu meanwhile was unwrapping plans for its $9.99 monthly subscription service, which lets users access full TV show series on computers, TVs and mobile devices. YouTube, of course, is a different beast from Hulu -- with an enormous mix of amateur and professional videos, ranging in length, quality and legality. Simply ripping television ads from the living room, and pasting them on your 30-second kitty clip masterpiece (or Van Halen mashup) will only frustrate users' chances at viral success, so a one-size-fits-all solution doesn't seem to be in Google's future anytime soon. [From: The Wall Street Journal]

Tags: advertising, commercials, google, streaming, StreamingVideo, TargetedAdvertising, top, video, Web, youtube

Comments

DreolinJul 1st 2010 3:19PM

Neutral

I was hoping that they were going to do away with comments. I like Youtube, but I hate seeing all of the comments under the videos, some of them are completely out of line. I once saw a comment by an apparent stranger under a clip of a woman and her poodle who was doing a trick that said to the effect that that the person was going to hunt her and her dog down and then listed all the things he/she would do to them. I reported it and Youtube removed it, but crap like that shouldn't even be allowed to be posted. I rarely go to Youtube anymore for fear of running into more stuff like that or worse accidently seeing disturbing videos that snuck in and hadn't been removed. I generally just view clips that are recommended by friends and try to ignore the comments.

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darkgemineyeJul 1st 2010 3:34PM

Highly Ranked

yes do away with comments, who needs freedom of speech, right?

if you find someone's comment offensive you can report it and they will take it upon their discretion but not all comments are out of line and vulgar.

If you dont like something dont look at it. You have choices. Move along.

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samanthaJul 1st 2010 3:44PM

Neutral

i like comments they allow you to get the viewers point of view and while some might be horribley mean you just have ignore them and go on with life because why should i care about a loser looking to hurt me

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KrystleJul 1st 2010 6:48PM

Neutral

Little kid much? I'll agree, a lot of people think that just because they're behind a computer screen, they'll go all American Psycho and say stupid/ignorant/violent things they wouldn't dare say to someone's face. People do just go plain over the line.

But that's a very small percentage of comments on YouTube. I love reading comments on YouTube, because not all of them are from sad, pathetic dips**ts. The vast majority are either funny, supportive, or just downright true. Either way, YouTube is about the VIDEOS, not the comments. There's a lot of good (wholesome? non-disturbing?) stuff on YouTube, and if you can't handle the comments, don't read them, but don't cut out a whole website because of it. It just like if you find a video on a subject you can't stomach, you wouldn't watch it.

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Mike Ski WekarskiJul 1st 2010 3:57PM

Neutral

Reading this makes me feel scared like a little girl. I am going to retreat to my bunker until all this hubbub about you tube comments fad blows over.

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akm21Jul 1st 2010 4:46PM

Neutral

Yeah, but comments are very useful. And will this affect the partners income?

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GerardNYCJul 1st 2010 4:08PM

Neutral

I'll tell you why these 'commercials' don't work.. the masses go on 'convenience for themselves' if youtube becomes too much work.. guess what happens? Someone else puts out another service just like youtube and gets all the people to sway their way.. Napster is an original example.. as soon as napster became 'legalized' out came bearshare, morpheus, kaaza and on and on.. napster? napster who?

so who will put out the next thing to help everyone move on from corporate scum? Time will tell. We the people are not just money objects.

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TigreJul 1st 2010 7:15PM

Neutral

How about no video ads period. I had no problem with the ads that sit off to the side but now those are talking when you roll the mouse over them and so now those are annoying too.

Let's go back the way it use to be. Regular, no animation, & no sound ads on the side.

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