Another eMarketer study in October found that video spending grew 47.2% in 2007, more than either pictorialdisplay ads or the text ads that appear next to search results.
By giving away its site's traffic in exchange for more video views, Google is likely betting on the future of "in-stream" advertising--video ad clips or pictorial ads overlaid on videos--rather than the display ads or text ads that typically appear on Google's sites.