Google’s new overlay advertisements on YouTube might be drawing criticism and charges of patent infringement, but it looks like the search giant could have a decidedly 1.0 stopgap measure — banner ads on the homepage.
Since acquiring YouTube in 2006, Google has been hard at work trying to mine the site for advertising dollars. About 4 billion videos are viewed monthly on the site, but Google has not yet found what its CEO Eric Schmidt has referred to as the "holy grail" of YouTube's revenue potential.
But it is trying. Last week YouTube began experimenting with advertising on its mobile site and introduced overlay ads to YouTube’s web videos — a move that brought both accolades and uproars from users. The new revenue sharing model could stand to make Google — as well as YouTube celebrities — millions of dollars. But many users were fervently dismissive of ads on their favorite amateur videos. Oh, and rival VideoEggg claims that YouTube ripped off their business model with the move.
Today, Silicon Alley Insider hears that YouTube may have a temporary solution in a homepage redesign:
If SAI hears correctly, new banner ads will soon dominate YouTube’s splash page. Accommodating high-definition video, the space will feature tabs activated by a cursor. Early sponsors would be offered about the same price of the current, smaller advertising slot in the top corner of the page — about $200,000 a day.
The move is interesting considering Google's strident refusal to place advertisements on its own homepage. The new design sounds a lot like MySpace’s current home page ad model and could bring in a good deal of money while Google sorts out how to monetize the actual videos on the site — though the impact could be lessened by the fact that most YouTube viewers bypass the homepage when looking for videos.
See Also:
