Youtube seems to have added a very interesting feature to their off site video players. I’m really not too sure if anyone has already reported about this, but Youtube video players which are hosted off the Youtube site now have their own drop down search tool. I have added the video below so you can have a look:
This is a great idea! Now any Youtube off site video player is pretty much as useful as being on the Youtube site itself. Any video can be played in the one player. I admit because the player can be quite small at times, the search results don’t show too many results at once, so you have to be pretty specific to find the exact video you want. However this is a great addition from Youtube!
Additionally, when searching for an image to use I came across this,
When using Google image search instead of searching then finding an image then if that isn’t the right image, then you have to go back and keep doing the same process. Thus getting a little annoying. However, now you can search straight in Google image search while still looking at a page. I know, not big news but just thought someone actually might be interested in this.
OpenX has today launched its much anticipated hosted ad serving solution. OpenX Hosted is free to publishers serving up to 25 million ad impressions each month and professional and enterprise packages are available for larger publishers who need the additional services and support to manage their businesses.
OpenX Hosted version has been in beta testing since January 2008 and contains exactly the same software found in the original OpenX Ad Server. The new product allows publishers to use the software to operate all aspects of ad serving while OpenX provides all the hardware and back-end infrastructure, leaving publishers free to focus on their advertising revenues.
OpenX Hosted’s feature-set enables publishers to manage their advertising campaigns across multiple direct advertisers and ad networks, prioritize and optimize their campaigns, and use sophisticated targeting tools. Importantly, OpenX Hosted also enables publishers to maintain tight control over which advertisers are permitted to see their data and advertise to their users.
As you can see from the home page of the hosted version, there are some improvements. This home page aims to provide users with some very basic stats to make sure they aren’t going to go over the limit, as well as the community stats and news.
A few changes have also happened over at the Inventory page, in which seems to be a lot simplier in terms of design as well as some great graphics.
Overall
Overall the new OpenX hosted version is great for web publishers to control their own inventory. The limit of 25 million ad impressions per month is great for publishers, and allows OpenX to have a nice additional revenue stream. However, what I haven’t mentioned already is that OpenX are in Alpha of a new Ad Marketplace, in which I’m sure will be their main revenue stream in the near future.
