Filed under: Launches, Consumer experience, Competitive strategy, Google (GOOG)

Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) will begin to sell ads that will run with videos on third party sites. The company wants to try to take advantage of the boom in online video using a targeting system similar to the one it has developed for text ads.

According to the FT, “Google’s video ads will take one of two forms: banner ads, which will run at the top of the video screen, and ‘overlay’ ads, which will be inserted on top of videos as they play.”

Sites with video will be able to sign up for the service the same way that they do for the Google Adsense text ad program.

The project has a lot of risk. Text ads appear off to the side of content and do not directly interfere with the user’s experience at a website. Ads that “overlay” video insert themselves directly into the user’s line of site, which could lead to people actually deciding they do not want to watch video with market messages. Viewership at some sites could then drop.

The new Google program may look good on paper, but the consequences of the project may make it unpopular with website operators.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

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Katie Holmes is clearly no longer in need of fashion advice from pal Victoria Beckham.

The actress wife of Tom Cruise appears to have made old Hollywood glamour her own as she wore as slinky gun-metal grey gown embellished with crystals, accessorised with her sleek bob, and definitely no unsightly tattoos.

See all the glamour from the awards here.

The fashion-forward Katie, 29, has spearheaded a return to old Hollywood glamour, with her sleek bob, and classic gowns, and refreshingly showcasing the minimum of flesh.

Katie, who recently asserted she wants to be known as Katie Holmes, made her glamorous appearance at the 10th Annual Costume Designers Guild Awards held at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel.

And although brief, she certainly made an impression in her gorgeous designer gown which skimmed her slimline figure.

The unforgiving satin fabric put paid to any rumours that the wife of Tom Cruise, and mother of 22 months old Suri, is pregnant.

The rumours flew after it was revealed Katie’s assistant placed an order for six organic baby blankets in “petal pink” and “ocean blue” from website robbieadrian.com.

But a source close to Holmes and Tom Cruise quickly shot down the gossip and said the actress is not pregnant, saying “hey, can’t a girl buy some baby clothes for friends?”

It is believed the gifts were for friend Jennifer Lopez who is due to give birth to twins this month.

Katie appeared to be unruffled by stories that husband Tom was caught in a clinch with another brunet

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Lindsay Lohan’s mother gives her opinion on her daughter’s recent photo shoot.

According to MSNBC, Dina Lohan does not have a problem with her daughter’s recent nude photos featured in New York Magazine.

“It was very tastefully done,” Dina told People.

The 21-year-old actress posed nude for photographer Bert Stern to recreate one of Marilyn Monroe’s famous photo shoots taken shortly before her death.

Lohan, wearing a blonde wig and not much else, was photographed in the same Bel Air Hotel were Stern had photographed Monroe in 1962.

“I didn’t have to put much thought into it. I mean, Bert Stern? Doing a Marilyn shoot? When is that ever going to come up? It’s really an honor,” Lohan said, according to the Associated Press.

Stern added that Monroe and Lohan had similar problems with alcohol, but noted that there was no alcohol at the photo shoot with Lohan, unlike his shoot with Marilyn.

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Sharukh , Priety Zinta , Ness Wadia, Vijay Mallya,  and some of the big names in the world of business,  sat together  to bid the world’s best cricketers at the Indian Premier League player auction on Wednesday.
Players from team India, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, West Indies, Pakistan, Srilanka and Zimbabwe were auctioned in Indian […]

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Filed under: Game Patches

In spite of Microsoft’s announcement of the XBL community arcade, there’s apparently no progress on making Unreal Tournament III mods available on the Xbox 360. In an interview with Joystiq, Epic Games’ VP Mark Rein noted that there’s still no set release date for the 360 version.

More interesting than that bit of news comes from what Rein has to say about the PS3 version. He acknowledged the current mod system is “less than stellar.” The cumbersome process of having to download files to a PC, properly format them on a Memory Stick, and transfer them to the PS3 is certainly an annoying one. Unfortunately, no specific details about what “improvements” will be made, or when they’ll be available, have been announced yet. Considering how broken the current system is, we’d like to think that anything is going to be an improvement.

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Filed under: Videos and Screenshots, Rumors

While this new video hiring call from Insomniac Games showcases the company’s kooky side, it also holds a lot of hidden messages pertaining to the upcoming PS3-exclusive Resistance 2. The video is basically a guided tour through Insomniac’s Burbank office, and this happens all to the tune of a campy rock ballad.

Throughout the video, employees join in on the singing, and in their merriment, they forget that they have secret information on their computer screens. We saw two such screens; one read “twelve new Chimeran enemies” and the other had “0708″. The former is quite obvious, but what does “0708″ mean? A release date is highly unlikely because we know the game is due out in Autumn. The numbers could be referring to a demo date perhaps?

Of course, our speculations could be wrong. It’s also possible that there are more Easter eggs hidden in the video, and we just happened to miss a key piece to the puzzle. Maybe you can find even more than we did, so go watch the video already.

[Thanks Platano!]

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Filed under: Videos and Screenshots, e-Distribution Games

Wow, we’ve been waiting ever so patiently for any word on WipEout HD. With Pulse (PSP) finally completed, Studio Liverpool is undoubtedly hard at work at this gorgeous HD remix of the PSP WipEout games. Check out Eurogamer for their exclusive, stunning trailer. Hopefully, it won’t be too long before we find out more about this upcoming PSN downloadable.

[Thanks, Kyril!]

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