The three things Google can do to make YouTube worth billions
As you’ve probably heard, Google has bought Youtube.
There has been a lot of talk about this on the web over the past few days. Now that the deal is done, some people are just glad it’s over. Om Malik still thinks it’s not a good idea in the long run. others think that only Google has the advertising muscle to make Youtube profitable.
But I don’t think it’s just a matter of plastering YouTube with Adsense ads, at least I hope not for Google’s sake.
Think about it this way: why didn’t advertising on the Internet work before Google? Well, the banner ads were repetitive, uninteresting, and eventually became an animated, distracting annoyance. The popup ads were worse, and worse still were those disgusting Flash travesties that covered up what you were trying to read. I talk about these ads in the past tense as if they are gone, but they still lurk all over some sites.
The point is that Google took something that was a ubiquitous annoyance and turned it into something that created value for both users, site owners, and advertisers. They made ads that were:
- Not hideous—basically they don’t detract from the browsing experience.
- Actually relevant to what a user is looking for. This is an important point, because it means that adding these ads to your site might actually provide value to your users. If they got to your page by searching for “how to get a good divorce lawyer,� they are in the market for a divorce lawyer and might find one through the ad.
- Measurably effective for advertisers, without all sorts of “mindshare� vagueness.