Tech Shout!

Google plans to announce it will stream for free some premium videos on Google Video–which are normally fee-based and accompany them with a banner-like ad and a video ad.

Google will launch a public test to show display and video ads on Google Video. This is yet another step in the search giant’s exploration of graphical ads on its own services. The banner-like ad will be displayed for the duration of the video on the Google Video player interface, while the video ad will be shown after the clip ends, sources said.

Google stated: “By placing these user-initiated ads at the end of the videos… we are able to offer select premium content free of charge to all users. This is currently a limited test only, with a small number of advertisers and [video content providers] participating. User-generated video content will continue to be free of charge and ad-free.”

The ads and the videos will not be matched at random. Instead, advertisers will choose the videos they want to sponsor. Thus, advertisers will avoid having their brand associated with a video they find objectionable.

The Google Video test may be short, running for only a week, and the ads will be attached to about 2,000 videos from about eight providers. The videos will only be from professionals and not amateurs. The test involves about five advertisers who are paying to participate. After the test, Google is likely to continue revising and refining how it plans to display graphical and video ads on Google Video, sources said.

Guzman financial analyst Philip Remek, who is unfamiliar with the Google Video test, wasn’t surprised to hear about the plans.”They’re really trying to take on Yahoo here with a multiple-platform approach to online advertising, especially for big ad clients with brand names to promote,” Remek said. “I expect them to make a push to [graphical] advertising. It’s part of their strategy.”

Google has been wise to keep graphical ads out of its main Google.com search result pages, where the contextually-generated text ads are the most appropriate format, Remek said. However, the company’s Web portal-like services, such as Google Video, Google Finance, Gmail and Google News, could be good places to run graphical ads, he said.