ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS:
There are literally 25 to 30 different types of online video ads

Online video needs a scalable third-party ad-serving solution

Standards won't emerge without field trials of ads and ad formats

Attend a digital media conference these days and you're bound to hear the S-word. Not the one that's verboten on television, but the dreaded "standards."

It has become both a buzzword and a focal point in the online video business as media and advertising executives bang the drum about the need for both standards and scale for the business to thrive.

Sure, online video should corral $699 million in ad dollars this year, a number projected to rise to $1 billion by 2011, media agency Magna predicts. But that's a shot glass compared to the keg full of overall internet and TV ad dollars. eMarketer, for example, says U.S. online ad spending will hit $24.5 billion this year. While online video is growing faster than any other ad medium, with most estimates pegging growth at about 40 percent each year, the medium has a long ways to go.

For web video to take off as a marketing vehicle, the medium needs standards when it comes to ad formats, views, video players, and metrics.

That's a lot, for sure. But the good news is agencies, research firms, technology vendors, and web publishers are working on various initiatives to make the buying and selling of ads in web video much easier.

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What online video player do you like best?  to watch?  to post on?