On July 3, 2008, Google AdSense made the following announcement on its official blog: Earning revenue from YouTube videos just got easier We'd like to let you know about two recent improvements to video units that make them more easy and appealing to place on your sites. First, we've partnered with some new content providers that we'd like to highlight. These partners have signed on to let AdSense publishers embed their videos and share in the ad revenue. Broadbandtv: "Broadbandtv is partnering with YouTube to bring the very best video program lineup to a growing and engaged online audience. Broadbandtv ...

With the television rerun season kicking into full gear, kids breaking out of school for summer and Hollywood's dream factory potentially weeks away from a labour shutdown, it's a perfect storm for launching our FanTrust video contest, "I Know What TV Did This Summer." We're encouraging television fans from around the world to riff on their favorite TV shows, by submitting videos that creatively interpret shows past and present -- and answer that age-old fan question: "What the %&*! did these characters do all summer?" Here fans can celebrate TV, make great stuff that other fans want ...

After a whirlwind month of speaking on the future of digital entertainment and online video at the Vancouver International Game Summit, VIDFEST, Cossette Convergence Day, and nextMEDIA - I've decided to take a break and let someone else do the pontificating. Ninja, of viral video "Ask a Ninja" fame, shares his thoughts on online video audiences, content and monetization below. Enjoy! [youtube bSZg927QP_0]

A recent CBC Spark podcast introduced me to a great new series of “Paperworks videos”. The CommonCraft Show, produced by a husband and wife duo, uses low-tech paper cutouts and whiteboards to explain Web 2.0 tools and technologies. Two Web 2.0 tools that I couldn’t imagine living without – RSS and social bookmarking. Both are easy to use and boost productivity, but sound complex. Sachi LeFever and Lee LeFever understand that these tools aren’t difficult to use – techies and insiders often just do a bad job of explaining the ...

YouTube recently announced that it would continue testing to determine the best embedded advertising model for its site. According to the Wall Street Journal, “You Tube has spent months testing different ad formats to figure out which models don’t alienate viewers. It found that viewers abandon videos that include pre-roll ads at a rate of more than 70%, so it ditched pre-roll commercials.” YouTube’s next phase of testing: overlaid advertisements – semi-transparent ads that run on the bottom 20% of the video window. Ads appear 15 seconds into the clip and remain present, ...