My Friends Wear Diapers

Not really, but now that I think about it, if they did, they probably wouldn't tell me anyways.

YouTube is "rolling in the coin" these days by selling ad space everywhere and anywhere on their site and in their videos. Do you remember the time where we could watch funny cat videos free of charge without pop ups or whatnots? Ah, the good ol' days. No matter, I'm sure we've all already learned how to ignore these ads completely.

I can't even do that yet!

I have a friend who lives in New Zealand and we'll chat over Skype or send the occasion letter over the Pacific. We're both musicians, though we like quite different kinds of music, and we enjoying sending each other videos or tracks of each other playing whenever we can find the time to.

She sent me a link to a video she posted on YouTube of her covering a song by a band that I don't care too much for (no offense, Emma! it's still quite good!). As I was watching it, a nice little ad popped up from the bottom of a screen.

YouTube InVideo ads, if they were groundhogs.

Annoyed, I slammed by finger on the touch pad and slid it across the ice smooth surface to close the ad. All of a sudden, I burst out laughing. Before I clicked the ad into oblivion, I had just noticed what it said:

Click for a bigger image (heh.)

Her face in this screenshot captures what her actual face would have looked like if she knew.

InVideo ads can be bought on YouTube videos, the price depending how long your animation is (if you have one at all), how frequently you want it to run and how big it is. When you buy this space, you are also allowed to track who has seen it, how many times it's been clicked etc.

The way that they circulte the ads is simply by audience targeting. By demographic, content and interest-bsed targeting, they can send out ads that will reach the audience the product fits. Good for the companies, but not so great for unsuspecting victims like my friend here.

Other than InVideo ads, you can also buy Companion Display ads (the ones that appear beside the video), Flash Video ads (the ones you actually have to let play before the video even starts), or the Masthead ads that take up half of the entire YouTube homepage.

As new technologies come out, ad folk will learn to infiltrate them like the silent assassins they are. There's no escaping from us. That's something you can Depend on.