Google Still Trying to Make Money off YouTube, Starts Selling Search Terms

Paul Lilly — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 11:40:46 -0600

YouTube might not ever be the cash cow Google hoped it would be when it purchased the video sharing site for $1.65 billion, but it won't be from lack of trying. The latest money making scheme being rolled out is a new ad platform YouTube is calling Sponsored Videos.

Sponsored Videos will let users promote their videos by bidding on keywords, whether those users be individuals or corporations. To help with the process, Google has created automated tools for users to place their bids for the keywords they want. As surfers type in those keywords, YouTube will display the tagged videos next to the search results. The new feature seems like an obvious one, so what took YouTube so long to implement it?

"In hindsight, it is a natural transition for YouTube to make," said Matthew Liu, a YouTube product manager. "We've been working on this for months. The key was, we wanted to make sure we got it right. There are a lot of intricacies involved. YouTube is a video discovery platform. We've been integrating with Google AdWords for some time, and now we're at a place where it can be win and win."

The Sponsored Videos will be clearly labeled when they appear following a keyword search and come priced on a cost-per click formula.

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Google Still Trying to Make Money off YouTube, Starts Selling Search Terms