Google Inc. Thursday began streaming commercial videos, including movies and TV shows, for free on the Web as part of a trial of advertising support for its video offerings.
Google's move is a key test of how online ads can finance consumer access to premium video content on the Web, the way TV commercials have supported broadcast television for decades. It could impact the efforts of companies such as Apple Computer Inc. to charge users fees to access popular videos from the Internet. If successful, the video advertising could eventually develop into a significant new extension of Google's ad system that generated over $6 billion in revenue last year.
Owners of the videos included in the Google trial usually charged for the thousands of videos now available for free on the Google Video site (video.google.com). Google shared in the fees they previously collected.
Videos now accessible for free include movies such as Charlie Chaplin classics that previously cost 99 cents, episodes of the Mr. Magoo cartoon series that had cost $1.99 and wrestling matches that were $4.95.
Small graphical ads for advertisers including Burger King and Netflix appear above the videos, with short video commercials for them at the end of featured video content. Google said that fewer than 10 advertisers were currently involved in the test.
Google executives had previously said they were looking into ways to provide ad-supported commercial video. Many of the premium videos available through Google Video still carry fees.
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