News Bits: Google Rolls Out Video Ads, Opens Up

Written by Frank Smith

Wednesday, March 26. 2008 at 11:30 AM EDT 1 comment

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In a move that's sure to please advertisers and perhaps annoy users, Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) has introduced video ads to its search queries.

Word first bubbled up back in February that Google was intending to give video ads a go, but Digital Inspiration found some videos pulled up by a search for phone. Searches for Intel laptops also bear video fruit.

The video ads aren't as intrusive as one might first expect. Instead, the videos are indicated by a plus sign, which the user can chose to expand or ignore, that appears beside the search result query along with messages such as "watch commercial," or "watch testimonial."

In other Googly news, the search giant is giving up its control of the Open Social trademark.

OpenSocial was Google's answer to Facebook 's application platform where developers could create one app that could be deployed across all of the member networks. Facebook had yet to join OpenSocial.

Yahoo Inc. (Nasdaq: YHOO) and MySpace have committed to joining on, which offers up the two companies' substantial user base. Other social networks and content streaming sites like Imeem have recently opened up their platforms to developers as well. Imeem retained membership in OpenSocial.

OpenSocial has now been turned into a non-profit organization with the mission of creating standards that can be applied to any social network or site that embrace them.

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