There was something a little dispiriting about Google’s announcement last week of its plans to bring video advertising to YouTube. This was only partly a result of the deadening sensation instilled by a sense of creeping commercialisation. Keeping video adverts off YouTube in its early days was only ever a temporary ploy, a way to make sure that viewers stayed and came back for more. This nettle had to be grasped sometime.

Nor was the sinking feeling entirely induced by the corporate double-speak that tends to accompany such events. Google executives made it sound as though they actually expected YouTube’s viewers to welcome these new commercial messages. In general, it is only the people who make money from advertising who believe such things.