Seems Google is thinking about placing advertisements on YouTube in an attempt to get it to make a profit. http://news.ebrandz.com/content/view/1897/568/
Well, personally I do not mind such advertisements myself, as long as
they do not come in the form of "roll over", pop up or other such
annoyances, and especially not if they starts containing sound and
music.
What strikes me most though, is that YouTube isn't making Google much
money (nooo, really, a free service isn't turning a large profit),
which fits nicely into my Web 2.0
piece I wrote the other day. t looks to me very much like people
(companies) just though that money would flow in, if you "Web
2.0"-ified your websites, whereas even a company as Google decides to
start using ads on their Web 2.0 sites. And this is on top of the
copyright problems associated with a service such as YouTube which I
bet is also a large cost.
Now I'm sure Google doesn't need the money, but it all comes back to my
point - Web 2.0 is not a silver bullet. Revenue is not guarenteed, and
it is not a new economy (like the internet bubble buzz back in the mid
90s). It still needs to provide a product - adverts now - to be able to
turn revenue.
It will be interesting to see how far Google will go with their
advertisement, cause if they go a overboard (I doubt it, but well, I
guess it is possible), the "customers" will simply move towards the
next service which provides something comparable. A number of them
already exists.