There is speculation that YouTube may post a profit for the first time this year. I think I know how they are doing it, without having to resort to any sort of analytics or research: they do it by showing a 30 second commercial in front of a 10 second video. Now, I don’t mind the idea of YouTube showing ads. What irks me is the length of the ad is frequently longer then the video I’m about to watch. Just show ads that are shorter then the video being requested – and I’d guess since most videos are longer than 30 seconds, this wouldn’t be a problem.