Marketing Pilgrim

Online ads might be working well for news sites, but YouTube is always looking for a bigger piece of the online video advertising pie. As of today, Google is testing skippable ads on YouTube, as part of its ongoing search for the “right” way to monetize the most popular video site on the web.

The test will run with videos from content partners who have opted in to the program. The preroll ads will feature a link to skip through the ad and go straight to the video content.

MediaPost says that this test will provide Google with a demographic break down of their audience for high quality ads:

This is one of those subjects that I can say that my personal experience actually mirrors what the rest of the market is apparently seeing. Oftentimes that’s not the case since I can be somewhat of a contrarian in my views and habits. Apparently much of initial push back against ads attached to video, in particular pre-roll, is starting to give way to some level of acceptance. While I am still not thrilled with it, I do tolerate it much more these days especially when an advertiser actually gets that 10-15 seconds is not nearly as annoying as 30 seconds.

The NY Times reports that news sites are finding more and more success with their online video offerings as ways to increase ad revenue. The impact is even being felt beyond the delivery of news.

Yesterday, Twitter started to officially roll out its own retweet function that has been the cause of some serious consternation from the Twittersphere (or whatever silly term you want to apply to the Twitter community).

Before we go into any detail please note the following and make sure you filter your reactions through the most important piece of data that you will need to know about this whole thing: you don’t have to use the new function. You can do whatever you want with regard to keeping your version of the status quo or adopting Twitter’s new retweet function. Also, this is not the final product as Evan Williams points out in his explanation of this overly controversial move by Twitter.

You know what’s missing from your social business profile on LinkedIn? Your tweet from yesterday, “Just remembered how much I like pickles.” Twitter and LinkedIn have anticipated your whim—today they’re announcing a partnership.

Okay, seriously, plenty of real business information is shared on Twitter. Depending on how you use the service, this really may be just what your profile needed—proof that you’re engaging with others in your industry, sharing helpful information, and have the know-how to do your job.

On the other hand, Twitter has also become an easy way to promote yourself—both in touting your abilities and giving yourself an actual promotion, to “guru.” Not everyone tweeting, and not everything said on Twitter, can be taken as evidence of expertise/guruosity/genius.

Real time and local mobile search are two of the major hot spots in search today. and now they’re coming together. We’ve heard more and more about OneRiot now that their rumored deal with Yahoo has been confirmed in testing—and OneRiot is bring real time (and social) to mobile, this time through a partnership with mobile search provider Taptu. Says MediaPost,

People can search on their phone for real-time news. “You hear there’s a hurricane and want to read the latest buzz on your mobile phone,” says Tobias Peggs, general manager of OneRiot. “So, you do a search for ‘hurricane,’ but you don’t want to see the Wikipedia page. You need quick access to real-time news.”

Free wifi seems to be the new black as of late when it comes to Internet companies promoting their offerings. As you may or may not know, I am a disgruntled Blackberry Storm user who went with an iTouch so I could at least be in the same room as the cool kids but if there’s no Wifi there’s no go. Well, depending on where I may roam and when I am out and about I may have more connectivity then I am accustomed to thanks to a rush of folks thinking it would be cool if there were “Wifi for all” during the holiday season. Hmmmm, I wonder if they have ulterior motives other than just being nice……

Here’s a list of who’s doing what and where.