Google said Tuesday that its DoubleClick subsidiary will begin powering video advertising within Microsoft's Silverlight 2 rich-media player, prompting some observers to question the implications for Microsoft's own online advertising strategy.
Google also announced that NBCOlympics.com will be one of the first Web sites to serve up video ads in Silverlight 2 environments via the DoubleClick In-Stream video advertising tool. That deal will provide new "inventory" for advertisers within 2,500 hours' worth of videos that will run as part of NBC's coverage of the Olympics, Google said.
In-Stream also supports video advertising in Flash and Windows Media Player and in RealMedia players, Google said. Silverlight is Microsoft's attempted answer to Adobe Systems' Flash technology.
Scott Guthrie, corporate vice president of Microsoft's .Net developer division, said in a statement that the software vendor is pleased to see the investment that DoubleClick has made to take advantage of Silverlight.
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