News items: Google's advertising experiment...Jenkins on `Snakes'...Fast Company on DIY Digital Movies

- Google is now experimenting with putting graphical ads on the pages where users watch videos, then playing a related ad at the end of the video. This experiment makes videos that previously cost anywhere from 99 cents to $4.95, free. Here's the coverage from ZDNet, Mediaweek, and the Wall Street Journal. Mike Shields of Mediaweek writes:

Google said it is testing a program that allows advertisers to bid on individual "premium" videos to run a 15- to 30-second ad at the end of these clips. Users can watch this select content gratis via a prominently displayed "Free Today" section on the site's home page. In addition, participating advertisers are able to run a persistent icon and text link above the video screen as these clips are played—of the "this video was made possible by" variety.



As of June 23, a handful of big-name advertisers had signed on to participate in the test. Hewlett-Packard was sponsoring nearly hour-long interviews from The Charlie Rose Show, and Burger King was sponsoring seven-minute clips from the 1960s cartoon Felix the Cat. In addition, LowerMyBills.com was sponsoring a instructional video on installing a shower pan liner from AsktheBuilder.com.

- MIT prof Henry Jenkins, who focuses on fan culture, has an entry on his new blog examining the `Snakes on a Plane' phenomenon. "In this case, you had a production company which was monitoring the fan response and like a real leader, figured out where the crowd was going and ran out in front, shouting follow me," he writes.

- Fast Company has a piece about D.I.Y. digital moviemaking that mentions `Four Eyed Monsters,' `Iraq in Fragments,' `Open Water,' and `SMS Sugar Man,' the first feature shot entirely with cell phone cameras