YouTube to Carry Video Ads

By Geoff Duncan Published July 24, 2014

In an effort to make its free video charing service into a money-making operation, the industry-darling online video company YouTube announced today that will begin placing video advertisements on its site alongside text and graphical advertising already appearing on the site. According to YouTube, the first video advertising client will be Warner Music Group, which will promote Paris Hilton’s (*cough*) music album on the site via the Paris Hilton Channel, which is sponsored by Fox Broadcasting (itself part of the Murdoch media empire which includes MySpace) to promote its television drama Prison Break.

By some estimates (HitWise, we’re looking at you), YouTube about a third of the U.S. online video audience are devotees of YouTube—although, to be sure, many of them are also devotees of Google Video and (especially) MySpace.

Recommended Videos

YouTube hopes to increase its advertising revenue through development of additional Brand Channels like the Paris Hilton Channel; channel contents are integrated into the YouTube user community (yeah, you think that ParisHilton account is really hers?). Advertisers will be able to customize the channels and encourage YouTube users to subscribe so they’re notified whenever new content is added. According to Reuters, YouTube also plans to roll out Participatory Video Ads, which users can choose play. Of course, they can also comment on the ads, rate, and share the ads, as well as embed the ads on their own Web pages.

Former Contributor

Geoff Duncan writes, programs, edits, plays music, and delights in making software misbehave. He's probably the only member…

Emerging Tech

Remember Samsung’s Ballie home robot? It may finally be inching closer to reality

Leaked app wireframes give the strongest hint yet that Samsung's Ballie home robot, first shown at CES 2020, might still be headed toward an actual release.

Samsung Ballie robot in a room next to a dog feeder.

Samsung's rolling home robot has been the industry's longest-running "will it ever actually ship" joke, and I'll admit I'd mostly given up on it. Now, there's finally a glimmer of hope.

Samsung first unveiled Ballie as a concept at CES 2020. Then, it showed it as a significantly upgraded version four years later. However, the company never confirmed a release date or committed to releasing it at all.

Smart Home

The US foreign-made robot crackdown is coming for future Roombas too

Future Roombas face new US sales hurdles, but existing models are unaffected

Roomba 980

The FCC has already made it much harder for foreign drone makers such as DJI to bring new products into the US. Now, the same crackdown is reaching a machine far more likely to be moving around your living room.

The US government recently added foreign-made advanced robotic devices to the FCC’s Covered List. The announcement appeared focused on humanoids, robot dogs, and industrial machines, but an FCC spokesperson has confirmed to The Verge that robot vacuum cleaners are covered too.

Branded Content

The GOKO M6 Robotic Lawn Mower Brings Industrial Robotics to Modern Lawn Care

7 reasons this AI-driven powerhouse makes hands-free yard work smarter than ever

Grass, Lawn, Plant

Robotic lawn mowers can save homeowners hours of manual yard work, but not every model is designed for challenging properties. While many perform well on flat lawns, larger yards with uneven terrain, steep slopes, and multiple mowing zones require a mower built for more demanding conditions.

Developed by GOKO, the consumer robotics brand of Robot++, the GOKO M6 is an industrial-grade 4WD AI-powered robotic lawn mower that brings more than a decade of industrial robotics expertise to residential lawn care. It combines AI-powered four-wheel drive, advanced navigation technologies, and AI QuadVision obstacle detection to tackle complex landscapes with less manual intervention.