October 21, 2009 5:30 PM PDT

Can ads make Google and YouTube more attractive?

by Chris Matyszczyk
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Rumors have begun to trickle from Googleville that the Jolly Search Giant is beginning to change its mind about those fickle fellows who espouse creativity.

You know, the sort who don't necessarily think you should research 41 different shades of blue. The sort, indeed, who sleep under their desks at ad agencies.

Which leads me to wonder whether a certain rebalancing might shortly occur in the tender relationship between the left-brainers and right-brainers of product selling.

The Web largely began as a functional experience, where everything you looked at was created by those who felt that what it does would always be a little more more important than how it looks. Partly because these people had no idea, nor did they really care, how to create something that actually looked truly inviting.

Few might agree that Google and YouTube, despite the fact that huge numbers of fingers populate them daily, are the most aesthetic of locations. Utilitarian would be the polite way of describing their sense of design.

A 10-year-old mathematician's idea of pulchritude would be a less charitable version. Somehow, every time I go to YouTube, in particular, it feels like the crummiest of Blockbusters, with DVD boxes that are fraying at the corners.

A little like a crummy video store?

(Credit: CC Original Hamster/Flickr)

Ad agencies, very heavy on pretty and very light on engineering, at first tried to mimic print ads and billboards and squeezed them into a medium that was far more individual, far more personal than any seen before.

The Googlies thought ad agencies somewhat risible relics of a disappearing world--like a bunch of Don Johnsons trying to deal with the brainy world of CSI.

Yet while the Web is still very functional, it is also the place where we increasingly live far too much of our lives. We watch TV on the Web. We read papers on the Web. We find lovers on the Web. And we continue to tell them how much we love them on the Web.

I know that some people feel that the pages of, for example, Yahoo Sports and the Huffington Post have been occasionally enhanced by wallpaper ads that add energy to the home pages without taking away from the content.

So advertising, done right, surely has a chance to make Web pages more attractive, more involving, and more inspiring.

There was a time in the U.K., for example, when the TV ads were actually more interesting than much of the programing. It is possible. It does happen. Brazil is another country where advertising can be far more involving far than the latest soap opera.

As Google decides that display advertising is where the new money will inevitably be, ad agencies might just think about creating work that makes Google's pages a little more inviting, a little more, dare one say it, exciting.

How strange it might be, in some optimistic future, if advertising created by outsiders actually helped Google with its business as well as advertisers with theirs.

The advent of Bing has shown that just a little aesthetic sense might, in fact, help to attract real people out there, those scouring the Web for anything that might brighten their day.

Just imagine if Google's and YouTube's pages were adorned with ads that offered wit, charm, and design sense as opposed to little blue words offering last minute vacations or little yellow words promising erectile function.

Might that be good for business? Might it even encourage YouTube, in particular, into a redesign?

Chris Matyszczyk is an award-winning creative director who advises major corporations on content creation and marketing. He brings an irreverent, sarcastic, and sometimes ironic voice to the tech world. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET.
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by bud73 October 21, 2009 6:17 PM PDT
I like google and youtube because they don't go crazy with display ads. It's quiet, simple and doesn't distract from the search results or content. But there's plenty of room on the web for everyone's taste and if they abuse their users with crazy display ads, like minded people will just go elsewhere.
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by jessiethe3rd October 21, 2009 6:30 PM PDT
The ads are getting more irritating as Google searches for more revenue streams from their flunky YouTube. Quite honestly, make the service paid and see what happens or at least offer a paid service offering and a free offering. Google needs to try and make some money with more than just search.
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by cvaldes1831 October 21, 2009 7:56 PM PDT
Ads are scary. Very dangerous in today's Internet climate.

You really don't know what sort of privacy or security compromises you are making when you view an ad online. Tracking cookie? No thanks.

Since the Internet lacks effective, easy-to-use tools (i.e., something that Grandma could operate) to validate the safety of any and all online advertisements, it is far better to just block them all.

I start at the router. That helps block ads that sneak through on non-browser based software (e.g., iPhone/iPod touch apps).
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by tektaktyks October 21, 2009 8:50 PM PDT
annoy me with and i will find a better tool
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by Jamie_Foster October 22, 2009 1:43 PM PDT
All I can say is install Firefox then install the adblockplus addon.
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by t8 October 22, 2009 2:06 PM PDT
I knew the Adblock-freeloader boys would appear sooner or later.
To be honest guys, nobody cares about you. You offer no value to anyone.
by Some_Crazy_Guy October 26, 2009 1:57 AM PDT
Firefox's Adblock Plus + Element Hiding Helper is nice, now browsers like Opera need to improve their ad blocking effectiveness and the internet will be a nice place.

I just feel sorry for Rick Petnel http://adblockplus.org/blog/sad-news , the guy that passed away who helped in Adblock's filter list. RIP, you made the internet a better place for many people.

And Google's search results have enough ads, Youtube's got one on the main page and the occasional annoying few in videos..... yeah I'm kinda sick of ads. If I like a product enough I'll go look it up and buy it, the computer realm is pretty much the only place I have a say in if I want to see ads or not, they're stuffed in my face pretty much everywhere else...

"I knew the Adblock-freeloader boys would appear sooner or later.
To be honest guys, nobody cares about you. You offer no value to anyone."

To be honest I care about faster loading pages that don't have annoying giant Flash ads. Those ad-free pages might be of better value than the one that are add filled.
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by VoiceOfLogic October 26, 2009 5:39 AM PDT
You mean those LYING ads, the ones that state (no matter which town you're in), that some single mom invented the one and only tooth whitening crap that you need to buy from HER? Or, was it the ad that says "Obama commands people to go back to school".. he did? Or was it the ad that says that they know the SECRET to a flat stomach? Aside from eating out every night and drinking beers - I dont know what else it could be. The bottom line is that when GOOGLE stops accepting money from these lying and cheating advertisers - that will be the day I have some respect for Google.
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by Some_Crazy_Guy October 26, 2009 3:27 PM PDT
Oh yeah those ads are always nice too. Always useful to see ads to things I could never even want to buy in the first place. Ones like those just scream scam.

"The bottom line is that when GOOGLE stops accepting money from these lying and cheating advertisers - that will be the day I have some respect for Google."

Hate to break it to you, but I think you'll have to wait a long time for that to happen. Ah well, at least Google's ads are less annoying than other sites...
by amolkolhe--2008 November 2, 2009 4:34 PM PST
The biggest problem with online ads is that Annoying Ads seem like Spam. I thought for the longest period of time that Acai Berry is a Scam because its everywhere, until I found out that its a genuine company (I'm still unsure, I think it is real). Thats just one of many examples of really really bad advertising.
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by hoaithudesign2011 November 28, 2009 6:42 AM PST
website mua bán, gian hàng, rao v?t, hàng hóa cho ng??i vi?t nam, business leads, trade leads, sell offers, buy offers.
??ng tin vip qu?ng cáo,rao v?t mua nhanh bán g?n ,trao ??i hàng hóa,s?n ph?m, ??ng tin vip qu?ng cáo,rao v?t mua nhanh ...
m?i chi ti?t xin xem t?i
http://traovat.com/
http://raomuaraoban.com/
email: info@traovat.com _ traovat.com@gmail.com
VP Vi?t nam: Cty CP M? Vi?t
103 Nguy?n C?u ?àm, P. TSN, Q. Tân Phú
xin l?i v́ th? này ?ă làm phi?n t?i b?n
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About Technically Incorrect

Chris Matyszczyk brings a fresh and irreverent perspective to the tech world in his CNET blog, Technically Incorrect. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET.

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