Google begins ad testing on YouTube mobile
There's no escaping those little blue boxes...
Google has unveiled plans to include advertising on its mobile YouTube site in a bid to maximise the eyeball real estate.
Over on the official blog, it states:
"You may have noticed that we started running a test of display ads on select pages of the YouTube mobile site in the U.S. and Japan.
"This is our first step in testing mobile advertising for YouTube – it will give you a new way to interact with content on the go, while allowing us to learn how video viewers engage with mobile advertising."
Apparently, this will be similar to the unobtrusive (to a degree, depending on how much you want to be informed of cheap designer jeans) little blue boxes in Google Search and Gmail.
Not for certain
Its seems the test isn't a definite move towards advertising on the mobile, something that has been mooted for a while by analysts and rival companies, but does seem to hint that Google is ironing out the problems rather than using YouTube mobile as a litmus test.
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"At YouTube, we are constantly testing new ways to deliver the kinds of ads that contribute to the user experience while making the most sense for advertisers, and we've learned a lot about what works for YouTube and what doesn't.
"We're excited to explore new approaches to mobile advertising, and will evaluate this test closely over the next several weeks to make sure we provide our community, our partners and advertisers with the most valuable and effective mobile experience possible."
Well, it will certainly improve profits, but does anyone ever click on Google ad links?
Quick checks here at TechRadar showed no advertising on our mobiles, so perhaps this hasn't spread to the UK as yet?
Gareth has been part of the consumer technology world in a career spanning three decades. He started life as a staff writer on the fledgling TechRadar, and has grew with the site (primarily as phones, tablets and wearables editor) until becoming Global Editor in Chief in 2018. Gareth has written over 4,000 articles for TechRadar, has contributed expert insight to a number of other publications, chaired panels on zeitgeist technologies, presented at the Gadget Show Live as well as representing the brand on TV and radio for multiple channels including Sky, BBC, ITV and Al-Jazeera. Passionate about fitness, he can bore anyone rigid about stress management, sleep tracking, heart rate variance as well as bemoaning something about the latest iPhone, Galaxy or OLED TV.