• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, August 10, 2006

YouTube, the popular online video file-sharing site, has quietly started accepting rich media banner ads from networks including AOL's Advertising.com and behavioral targeting company Tacoda.

Curt Viebranz, CEO of Tacoda, said the relationship with YouTube is very recent; the company has only served ads on the site for about one week, he said. The Advertising.com relationship also appeared to be new.

As of late Wednesday, the site displayed horizontal banner ads at the top of some view pages, and vertical ads to the right--all apparently placed by ad networks; the site also continued to display text ads by Google.

YouTube's deals with ad networks appear to signal that the video site is beefing up efforts to sell ad inventory. Until recently, the site was monetized solely via Google pay-per-click links and a few partnerships with movie studios. Disney Online recently ran rich media banner ads on every view page to promote the "Pirates of the Caribbean" sequel, marking the first time a major brand advertised on the site. Currently, the YouTube "home page" is giving an exclusive position to an ad for a new movie, "Pulse," from Dimension Films.