Still Point

Review: First look at Youtube Adsense Video Units

First impression: It looks… bad. The player is packed full of features, but at first glance the whole package is reminiscent of some Windows app from 1999 (”bigger is better”, fat bordered, bloated mess).

The background gradient fade reminds me of that tank game from ‘93 where you had to guess the angle and velocity of your shot to blow up your opponent.

And what’s up with the 42px of whitespace on the bottom of the player? Fixed!

And there is obviously no design standard for the for the graphic ads that are crammed on the top.

IMO, in order for Youtube Adsense Video Units to be effective, it has to be subtle — get people’s attention with a little video player. Don’t blow out half of their screen real estate. By setting the minimum dimensions to 400×415px, one must ask the question, where the hell are were we supposed to put this thing? How will it ever gracefully fit into a page of content?

Will people use it? Probably, because it’s Google, but I’ll bet there will be many revisions in the near future.

So I see this as a first step, especially with the improved content targeting, but I think it would benefit Google if they make some modifications:

• Redesign the player, get rid of the gradient background, make a hairline border with rounded edges (or at least an option for that) — in short, make it look lightweight
• Provide options for smaller players, say 200px wide (there are tons of ads that are already this size and are effective)
• Allow custom colors, and not just the themes (see below)
• Review the “graphic ad” designs, possibly invent an “color sniffer” to see what color the ad is and match it to the particular color theme
• Find a way to remove the 42px of whitespace at the bottom of the player

Technical details for the new Youtube Adsense video player

Youtube Adsense Video Unit Dimensions

• 400×415
• 500×510
• 780×560

Color themes (skin) for the Adsense Video Unit player

Light Grey
#666666 (darker)
#efefef (lighter)

Dark Grey Theme
#3a3a3a (darker)
#999999 (lighter)

Dark Blue Theme
#2b405b (darke)
#6b8ab6 (lighter)

Light Blue Theme
#006699 (darker)
#54abd6 (lighter)

Green Theme
#234900 (darker)
#4e9e00 (lighter)

Orange Theme
#e1600f (darker)
#febd01 (lighter)

Pink Theme
#cc2550 (darker)
#e87a9f (lighter)

Purple Theme
#402061 (darker)
#9461ca (lighter)

Red Theme
#5d1719 (darker)
#cd311b (lighter)

Improved Content targeting

There are two ways to target revelant content on the ad:

1. Automated content. Similar to how Adsense current works by targeting the content on your page, but you can now use “hints” (or tags) to help refine the targeting.
2. Chooose a category. You can choose your ad content by category or provider (ie, autos, comedy, music, etc).

Technical Note for Wordpress Users: If you want to place ads in Wordpress (like this post), this design company posted a solution.