The platform, which enables YouTube partners to include click-to-buy links on videos in English, seems to be working well for both YouTube and its partners. The YouTube blog touts that, "when Monty Python launched their channel in November, not only did their YouTube videos shoot to the top of the most viewed lists, but their DVDs also quickly climbed to No. 2 on Amazon's Movies & TV bestsellers list, with increased sales of 23,000 percent."
So today YouTube is announcing that they will be expanding the functionality to support links to the iTunes store for German, Spain, and Netherlands users, which they hope will result in more product sales for partners and more revenue for themselves.
The bigger news though is that all partners will now be able to leverage the controversial Content ID system (used for muting videos) to identify user content that matches partner content and display click-to-buy links as overlay ads on all related user-created videos. Basically, expect your videos to include click-to-buy links for related products.
This is great news for YouTube partners, but the YouTube user base might not enjoy more of their videos becoming an unwatchable mess. The overlays aren't that bad by themselves, but with everything else YouTube is doing to protect itself and monetize the site, we're beginning to wonder if enjoying the video viewing experience is a luxury of the past.
Additional Resources from Mashable
- 20+ Greasemonkey Scripts for Improving Your YouTube Experience