Conflicting Responses to Google’s Video Ads

Yesterday Google announced that it would experiment with online video ads (activated at viewer's request) on websites that syndicate Google's "AdSense" ads. Bloggers had conflicting reactions. I was intrigued, and DVGuru raised an interesting point: "This is exciting news to me for one reason: there will be a lot more paid work for filmmakers." But TechCrunch outlined 6 reasons to "bet against it" and has already received 81 posts reacting to it.

For a sample of a video ad, see the announcement on Google's AdWords blog. One interesting note from Google that reinforces the implication of this news to small video makers: "But, you may say, video is only for big branding oriented advertisers. We beg to differ. This feature makes video ads much more accessible to all advertisers. Now, an owner of a small bed & breakfast in Lake Tahoe can put a video tour of his beautiful chalet right next to an article that talks about skiing the epic slopes of Squaw Valley."