San Bruno, Calif. - Google's (NASD: GOOG) YouTube has announced plans to begin selling ads on YouTube search results pages, in an effort to harness the traffic to a site that boasts the third-largest number of search queries behind Google.com and Yahoo.com, based on comScore data. Anyone who posts videos to the site, from average users to corporations, may now bid on keywords that will be associated with links to their videos that will pop up when users are searching for videos to watch on YouTube.

Placements will be priced on a cost-per-click basis.

The YouTube Sponsored Videos section is being billed as a solution for "a start-up band trying to break out with a new single, a film studio seeking to promote an exciting movie trailer, or even a first-time uploader trying to quickly buil a following on the site."

Google paid $1.65 billion to acquire YouTube two years ago, and since then has been experimenting with various strategies to generate advertising revenue from the popular video site.

Related Links:
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/11/promote-your-video-with-youtube.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/13/technology/internet/13youtube.html

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122652457431821901.html