Google Extends InVideo Ads to AdSense Net

from mediaweek

Google is extending InVideo Ads – the "overlay" banner and text ad units the company rolled out on YouTube last year- to its AdSense network of Web sites.

Last summer, the Mountain View, Calif.-based search giant introduced InVideo ads – semi-transparent banner-like placements that appear once video clips start playing, as a less-intrusive alternative to pre-roll 15 and 30-second video spots. By extending them to AdSense, the company's ever-growing network of small and mid sized sites for which it supplies text and video advertising, Google says it will be able to deliver online video ads which are contextually targeted, based on either the actual video content they appear atop or the content on the Web pages they run on.

As online video advertising has risen to prominence, Google has run several test programs on its AdSense network, including a user-initiated "click to play" offering that invited users to sample short snippets of content to streaming video ads that participating publishers could implement and control however they preferred. Until now however, video advertising on Google remains in its infancy, as the company continues to garner the vast majority of its ad revenue from its core search ads.

For this new extension, Google has yet to list any advertisers that have signed on. Among the initial participating publishers are the sites VidShadow, Mondo Media and JoeCartoon.