Skip to Content

Submit your nominations for the Luxist Awards' Best in Decor
AOL Tech

Filed under: Business, Internet, Google

Google goes ad-crazy with video game ads, YouTube purchase links


There's a saying that "advertising abhors a vacuum." In other words, if there's a blank space on a wall, telephone poll, or the back of your eyelids, eventually someone will figure out how to put an advertisement there. With that in mind, Google has rolled out two new features this week intended to help fill the vacuum.

First up, the company continues to try to justify its massive investment in online video. Making money from YouTube videos has proven surprisingly tricky. May viewers are resistant to pre-roll and post-roll video ads. And in-video pop up ads can be even more annoying if not handled properly. One possible solution? Affiliate links.

YouTube is rolling out "click-to-buy" links on some videos allowing you to purchase music featured in a video from Amazon or iTunes. Even if you're not planning to buy the song, the links can help you identify the music playing in the background of some popular videos.

Google is also rolling out a beta of Adsense for Games. Basically, these are ads designed to be integrated with web-based video games. Ads could include video, image, or text ads that will appear within the game.

No word on the AdSense for eyelids thing yet.

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Featured Time Waster

Graveyard Shift - zombie-busting Time Waster

With Halloween fast approaching, it's a great time to get in some practice defending your territory against zombies. In Graveyard Shift, you take aim at zombies and other creepy-crawlies, blasting them into splatters of cartoony green guts. It's a casual first-person shooter, and it's very easy to get the hang of - use the mouse to aim, click to fire. Graveyard Shift has at least 15 levels, and it might even have some secret stages I haven't unlocked yet. They key to getting good at Graveyard Shift is learning to use ...

View more Time Wasters

Featured Galleries

Defective by Design, London: Protest Pictures
Microsoft Security Essentials
Chromium Pre-Alpha on CrunchBang Linux
Safari 4 Beta
10 Firefox themes that don't suck
IE8 RC1
Download Squad at the Crunchies After-Party
Download Squad at the Crunchies
WordPress 2.7
Cooking Mama: Mama Kills Animals
Windows 7 Hands On
Comodo Internet Security
Android First-look: Amazon.com MP3 Store
Android First-look: Twitroid
Google Reader Android
Android Hands-On
Twine 1.0
Photoshop Express Beta
Mozilla Birthday Cake
Palm stuff
Adobe Lightroom 1.1

 


Follow us on Twitter!

Flickr Pool

www.flickr.com

More Tech Coverage

AOL Radio