Bookmark Vlog Blog
Aug
27
When YouTube announced the other day that they would begin using overlay ads on some of their videos, many in the online video world decided that throwing a bucket of gasoline on this small, burning match would be a good way to put it out.
First, those who think everything in the world should be free (except for their own time, labor, and products, of course) took to the YouTube blog to denounce the move. You’ve ruined everything! they cried. I’m never coming back here ever again! It’s my video, and I’m going home!
My guess is they later sheepishly realized that YouTube was their home. But maybe they did go off to some other video sharing site, whereby they quickly surmized that the sheer size of YouTube’s community made up for a lot of its “problems.” They were on YouTube in the beginning for a reason, after all.
Just as large cities aren’t for everyone, not all sites are made the same. If YouTube ain’t your home, to paraphrase Jim Croce, then you simply get out. If New York isn’t your thing, you don’t stand in the street, screaming and kicking and crying because it isn’t Des Moine.
I said it at the time, and I’ll say it again: the overlay ads are a good move by YouTube. YouTube is a business. They’re in it for the money. And what’s even better is that eventually even your average vlogger will be able to make money off them too.
Sharing revenue with users who generate content is already a firmly established business model on the web. Although you may not see it everywhere, it is the way of the future — and Google (YouTube’s daddy, let’s not forget), has officially recognized this. Google representatives have gone on the record to say they are actively working on ways to make it easier for all sorts of users to get paid for what they contribute to the sites they visit.
And, of course, this only makes sense. Giving the little guy a shot at some dough by sharing revenue is a large part what made Google the behemoth it is today. (They do this for web publishers with their Adsense advertising platform.) Extending that even further to a site’s visitors, as well as to the publisher, is a logical next step.
Sure, it would be nice if there were no advertising, if everything were free, if we didn’t have to work or sweat or worry about cholesterol. But we live in a world of molecules. And as every 5th grade science book will tell you, advertising and molecules go hand-in-hand. (Ok, well, they don’t say that, but it’s true. I could flush it out for you, but really there’s not time for that now.)
So given that advertising is going to be a part of our web lives, the overlay ads are a hundred times better than pre-roll ads, in my opinion. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve clicked out of a website when I discovered I would have to sit through thirty seconds of a car commercial in order to watch a video that I may or may not be interested in.
I can’t ever imagine clicking out of a site because it has overlay ads. In the first place, personally, they just don’t bother me. But if they ever did, I would simply click them off the screen, as you can do with the YouTube ads. When I can control them in that way, I’m fine with them.
And so all the screeching about advertising on YouTube’s videos is a little silly, in my opinion. But then came the screeching from other video companies.
Someone on the YouTube blog accused YouTube of claiming they invented overlay ads. They never said that, of course. But then VideoEgg, a company that had been using overlay ads for about year, chimed in that they weren’t very happy that YouTube seemed to be ripping off their idea. YouTube shot back with some type of snide comment about using flash video well before VideoEgg, and that perhaps VideoEgg had ripped them off.
But then AdBrite and Brightcove jumped into the fray, saying that they had been using overlay ads even before VideoEgg. … Whoops.
And so now the question is: Who do we believe?
The official answer to that question is: Who cares?
Or, maybe I could say it a different way: We don’t care!
Or, let me say it this way: We don’t CARE!
Maybe this way will work: WE DON’T CARE!
No? How about: WE … DON’T … CARE!
It’s my guess that now everyone will want to sue everyone else, and the only ones who will really lose out are the vloggers and the viewers. These kinds of fights aren’t even fun to watch.
And so, as a consolation, a little bit of Jim Croce to soothe a vlogger’s soul:
Jim Croce - New York’s Not My Home
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