YouTube ads 'to get more interesting'

12th May 2008

Advertising on YouTube is ready to evolve, the video streaming site's owner announced recently.

Google, which bought the user-generated broadcasting site two years ago for $1.65 billion (£846.14 million), admitted in a recent interview with CNBC that the investment had so far not been adequately monetised.

Chief executive officer Eric Schmidt told the news provider that a "breakthrough" would be the focus of Google's efforts this year.

And at a shareholder meeting in California last week, the executive gave more details on what such a breakthrough might entail.

The traditional format of "pre-roll" and "post-roll" adverts, shown during YouTube videos, may be replaced by a more integrated strategy, Mr Schmidt commented.

He said: "Think of them as ads that use the page around YouTube in interesting ways."

About 80 per cent of searches conducted in Europe in March of this year were carried out on Google, a recent comScore report revealed.