YouTube testing out video ads

San Bruno (CA) – Yes it had to happen, the world’s most popular video sharing site, YouTube, is finally testing out advertisements inside of videos. The ads are placed along the bottom portion of the video and start part-way through the videos.

Apparently YouTube has been testing out the ads for a few weeks and the company says only “select” companies can submit ads. The overlaid ads take up the bottom 20% of the video screen and appear approximately 15 seconds after the video plays. You can see an example of the ads in this YouTube video “Madina Lake – House of Cards” .

Since the ads are mainly transparent, most of the underlying video can still be seen. The ads can be dismissed by clicking the X on the bottom-right corner of the screen or by simply not clicking anything for several seconds. Clicking on the ad will pause the main video.

While millions of YouTube videos are watched each day, so far the company has resisted embedding ads inside of the videos. Instead, YouTube has made most of its money with advertisements placed to the side of the screen and by hosting sponsored video content.