Blinkx to pay web users for ad inventory

LONDON - Video search engine Blinkx is to pay individual users to allow it to embed text ads in videos they post on their blogs or web pages.

Blinkx is to pay users 50% of the click-through revenue it generates from auctioning keywords to advertisers. Its video advertising platform AdHoc automatically inserts text ads into individual videos at relevant points.

The launch of the service follows the initial launch of AdHoc to corporate clients in the summer, which was Blinkx's first effort to generate advertising revenues.

Suranga Chandratillake, founder and chief executive of Blinkx, said: "At that stage our primary focus is working with larger content companies who have large archives of video and helping them use our technology to target advertising as accurately as possible. We are now releasing a consumer application of the same technology."

Web users can join the revenue-sharing programme by visiting the AdHoc tab at , copying in the embed code of their video, registering their details and PayPal information, and pasting the AdHoc widget code into their website.

Blinkx is giving people the option of choosing whether the ads appear as semi-transparent overlays within the video frame or in a separate box just above the video frame.