Thursday, November 20, 2008

YouTube (and Google) Sells Out...

Google made a proud announcement last week...
YouTube Sponsored Videos is our new advertising program that enables all video creators -- from the everyday user to a Fortune 500 advertiser -- to reach people who are interested in their content, products, or services, with relevant videos. Anyone can use Sponsored Videos to make sure their videos find a larger audience, whether you're a start-up band trying to break out with a new single, a film studio seeking to promote an exciting movie trailer, or even a first-time uploader trying to quickly build a following on the site.

Sounds innocuous, almost democratic, until you realize that now anyone can pay to have their video leap to the top of a search. As TechCrunch points out, run a simple search on sports, and take a look at your top result:



Not that I've watched it. But I doubt it has much to do with sports. It's only been a week since YouTube started this, and you know it's only a matter of time until these start popping up on every search.

For those of us who have finally prevailed upon the powers that be to unblock YouTube, this is a big setback. It is long past time for YouTube/Google to offer an "education" version of YouTube. Yes, there's Teacher Tube, but it lacks the sheer variety of information available on YouTube.

In the meantime, here's a nice collection of video resources from the Free4Teachers blog.

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