Tuesday, December 08, 2015

Yahoo is testing GIANT video ads in search results

Yahoo is testing giant takeover video ads in search results pages. This is how it works: the video ads, expand to take over most of the screen and autoplay on mute. The video does not collapse after ending, which means the user has to scroll down to click on the actual ad or see the other search results. The ads only appear to be running on desktop and not smartphones.

Is this the future of visual brand advertising? So far this seems to be an area that search engines haven’t been exploiting in a meaningful way, but is thought to have great potential.There is speculation that Google is prepping to roll out video in search, and Bing may be as well.

The Yahoo video is certainly interesting, however whether the execution will resonate with search users remains to be proven .To me, it has the potential to become an ultimate – annoying- way of forcing ads to the users. For instance, what happens if your connection is slow? What if you are on a meeting and just need to look something up in a rush? It looks to me that this idea is much more focused in generating revenue from the advertiser side rather than enhancing the customer experience.


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