• On TV.com: THE GIRLS NEXT DOOR photos
May 15, 2008 9:26 AM PDT

YouTube tool details video demographics

Posted by Stephen Shankland
  • Print

YouTube now lets those who have uploaded videos see details about the types of people watching them.

The company has added a demographics section to an analytics tool called Insight that YouTube released in March.

Insight now has a "demographics tab that displays view count information broken down by age group (such as ages 18-24), gender, or a combination of the two, to help you get a better understanding of the makeup of your YouTube audience," Google said in a blog posting Thursday.

The move dovetails with Google's high priority of making more money from YouTube through advertising. Chief Executive Eric Schmidt last week promised new YouTube ad possibilities, and advertisers and marketers love demographic information as well as the detailed records of media consumption the Internet can provide.

Google on Wednesday introduced a new way to buy ads at YouTube called buzz targeting, in which ads are placed around videos that are booming in popularity by word of mouth.

User privacy also is protected, Google said.

"We show you general information about your viewers in anonymous and aggregate form, based on the birth date and gender information that users share with us when they create YouTube accounts," the company said. "This means that individual users can't be personally identified."

Stephen Shankland covers Google, Yahoo, search, online advertising, portals, digital photography, and related subjects. He joined CNET News in 1998 and since then also has covered servers, supercomputing, open-source software, and science. E-mail Stephen.
Recent posts from News Blog
NASA, Google Maps track Southern California wildfires
Sprint first to offer HTC Touch Pro
Flipping out: RIM BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220 debuts
Sprint HTC Touch Diamond outed early
Woman to virtual ex: 'I won't be ignored!'
advertisement

In the news now

Apple's iPhone 2.2
hits the street

The latest software update offers several improvements to Google maps as well as wireless downloading for podcasts.



The big chill for holiday parties?

Tech companies faced with cost-cutting may not be canceling the annual festivities outright, but things are certainly being done differently this year.



About News Blog

Recent posts on technology, trends, and more.

Add this feed to your online news reader

News Blog topics

advertisement
advertisement

Inside CNET News

Scroll Left Scroll Right