Paying for YouTube Views

YouTube was an expensive acquisition for Google ($1.65 billion in stock)  - an acquisition that has been loosing the company money ever since. Not surprising Google is working hard to change that. That's why the YouTube home page is changing. 

Bigger Ads Coming to the Homepage
MySpace sells big chunks of advertising space on its home page. Google is experimenting to see if this approach will work for them as well.
I am sure that some old YouTube fans are going to complain if this becomes a routine practice. My take is that we can't realistically expect Google to keep supporting YouTube and improving the service unless the company begins to make some real money out of it.  Let Google make money off YouTube and we can all benefit. 

If the service continues to work for those of us who don't pay Google big bucks why should we complain?  As long as we can link to our videos directly with no need to start on or reference the YouTube home page why should we care?  Of course this may change if home page ads become a large revenue source for Google. When and if this happens I may change my opinion.

YouTube Payola?
Nor am I particularly disturbed by the recent speculation by the Silicon Valley Insider (YouTube Payola: Is Anyone Paying For Views?) that Google is giving its advertisers preference when it comes time to pick the 'featured or promoted videos -- those incredibly valuable, high-traffic spots on the YouTube homepage'.

According to the Silicon Valley piece 'Advertisers say that promoted videos are routinely negotiated into advertising deals on the site.'  Getting a video listed as featured item on the home page can place your video in front of millions of casual users.  Again, it not surprising that Google is trying to make some money of all those eyeballs.  If you are one those dreamers always expecting your next cute dog on a skateboard video to land on the homepage you might be miffed. Most of us realize that Google gets millions of video uploads a day and that landing on the homepage is just as likely as winning the lottery.

So far most of the videos listed in those feature slots have been fairly interesting.  That implies that Google is exerting some editorial control. When and if the average video featured on the YouTube home page starts to become as lame as a typical TV commercial, then I will become annoyed. 

What do you think?