Streaming Google

I ran across an interesting article this morning. Google is experimenting a bit more with streaming video. However, this time it is for ad and marketing messaging, not simply user content through their Google video model.

After reading this piece my mind immediately wandered to where the business model is for Google with streaming video. The example in the article states that Google has started experimenting with streaming ad messages that run at different times during the Charlie Rose show that resides on the site. Then the article starts talking about where they placed the ads (beginning and the middle of the show).

Let's start there. I always love how the media trades focus on where the spots are placed. Is it "pre-roll" which is just a fancy way of saying the spot runs at the beginning, before the actual show begins. Or they make a big deal about how revolutionary it is that instead of pre-roll someonoe actually runs the spot in the middle of the streaming video program. Gee, it sounds just like TV to me. No real revolution there. If people tune out of TV spots, why wouldn't they do the same of these spots assuming they are as irrelevant?

Positioning is not the story here, in this guy's opinion. I believe this is merely a test. I think this is a largely developer driven company testing more with streaming media. I believe Google realizes that they can, will and should get on the streaming content bus. However, they are smart enough to know that doing so without a great model that keeps content relevant is a waste. Their adsense program is a great example - that even with boring text ads - relevancy can win the day.

So, where does this all fit. I think that Google is thinking about and starting to flirt with search relevant video ads - the same concept as their adsense program, just with streaming content instead of or in addition to text ads. If you see what they are doing with BSkyB in Britain you would see that I am not uts, rather they are brilliant. This model can be applied to traditional publications online models (newspapers, TV, etc.) and give them a model they have never had - one based on relevancy to the user's behavior based on content search and consumption.

It is just a shame Google is the one always coming up with these models. The technology is not that daunting, the idea behind the profitable business model however, is. The enormity of the opportunity is HUGE.

The article -
Google Tests In-Stream Video Ads