video ads

Autoplay video ads may be coming to Facebook's news feed within the next six months, according to AdAge.

These video ads are supposedly scheduled to hit the desktop version of the social network first, then could be rolled out to mobile. According to AdAge, the ads will most likely play 15 seconds, could be targeted to certain users, and may even have an auto-audio function. On the desktop version, the ads are expected to get users' attention by expanding out of the site's news feed into the left and right columns.

Facebook's goal is to attract advertisers … Read more

Looking to amp up its ad revenue, LinkedIn rolls out global video advertising.

The professional networking site announced today that its self-serve platform, LinkedIn Ads, now lets advertisers use their YouTube or other videos to promote brands.

"Video ads are currently available through the LinkedIn Ads self-serve interface, our targeted advertising platform that lets large and small advertisers place text and image ads across the LinkedIn site," LinkedIn's online marketing manager, Will Hambly, wrote in a blog post today. "With LinkedIn Ads you can control your costs, pay per view or click, and stop your campaign … Read more

People in the U.S. have an insatiable appetite for watching online videos.

According to new numbers released by market research firm ComScore, 85.5 percent of people in the U.S. with Internet access watched online videos in July -- that's 184 million people who watched a total of 36.9 billion online content videos in only one month. For comparison, that is equal to every single person on Earth watching at least five videos each.

And U.S. viewers' venue of choice is Google, which is not really surprising given the growth and popularity of YouTube. However, … Read more

On today's 404 episode, we'll solve the mystery of phantom cell phone vibrations and why we're so often tricked into thinking our phones have a mind of their own. One psychologist from the University of Sydney thinks that it has to do with electrical currents running through parts of the body surrounding the phone, while another professor of psychology believes it's in ours heads, that our addiction to technology has made us paranoid about e-notifications.

Walking around New York in this heatwave is enough of a workout for anyone these days, but some gym-goers in Canada are so sick of skinny people making them look bad that they've issued a ban on anyone that can't be described as "plus size."

According to the NY Daily News, Body Exchange gym in Vancouver claims to be a "safe haven" for overweight people that feel scrutinized when they work out next to those without an addiction to food. Unfortunately, we'll have to defer to Richard to comment on this story, as neither Jeff nor I have ever been inside a gym.… Read more

Advertisements are a great way for Web sites that provide free services to help recoup the cost of operation. When ads pop up on YouTube, they're not too much of an issue, and are generally viewed as inevitable. However, if you're trying to find a specific video, waiting through a 20- to 30-second ad each time can become very frustrating. Fortunately for Chrome users there's an extension called Skip ads on YouTube - No illegal block, which allows you to skip the ads and get straight to the video.

First you'll need to grab a copy … Read more

Adobe Systems plans to acquire Auditude, a video ad-management company, and integrate it with its digital marketing tools.

The acquisition of privately held Auditude will give Adobe the ability to layer in monetization with its video publishing tools. Adobe will also look to cross-sell its analysis tools from its Omniture service.

Auditude's software, which plugs into various content management and video creation tools, allows publishers to create video ads for multiple screens. Auditude enables flexible ad placement and workflow tools.

Adobe's plan is to take Auditude's ad server and combine it with its Flash Media Server and … Read more

More people viewed video ads at Hulu than at any other Web site last month, according to stats released yesterday by ComScore.

Out of the 4.3 billion video ads that U.S. Internet users watched in March, 1.2 billion of those were at Hulu, making it the top site for video ad impressions for the month. Video network Tremor Media was next on the list with 804.3 million ad views, followed by video marketplace Adap.tv with 553 million video ad impressions, and BrightRoll Video Network with 398 million.

Internet users spent a total of 1.9 … Read more

The other day I downloaded Pik Pok's Flick Kick Field Goal Kickoff for the iPad. The description said something about it being a "free app of the day," so I thought I was getting a paid app for free.

Low and behold, after about 5 minutes of playing the game, a time out was called on the field, and a somewhat surreal video popped up on the screen advertising the Swiffer floor-cleaning system, complete with women in mud suits and Heart's "What About Love" playing in the background. (see the full ad here).

The … Read more

You might be more willing to watch video ads online than you think you are.

According to The New York Times, Turner Broadcasting, which owns TBS and TNT, recently tested how long people will watch television shows online with few ads, compared to how long they will watch shows with a slew of ads embedded in them. Jack Wakshlag, the company's chief research officer, told the Times that when viewers were presented with more ads, they would still "spend approximately the same amount of time watching episodes online."

According to the Times, which cited Turner's internal … Read more