Dave.TV, AdSense for Video?

Another day, and another online video start-up. This one with a name that only the founder can love: Dave.TV. Unlike a series of me-too You Tube clones, this one is at least attempting to do something different. Dave.TV CEO and founder Rex Wong says his plan is to come up with AdSense for online video. Well, I have heard that story before, but Wong had sold his previous company, Applied Semantics to Google for $102 million, and claims that it was the foundation of what we today call as AdSense. So his big idea is something like this…

imagine if a computer could identify when somebody said “shampoo” or “burger” across millions of videos, and you could insert a text ad for Prell or Wendy’s along with a clickable logo graphic next to the video when those words are spoken…We will be using the same technology used by Homeland Security to monitor [telephone] chatter. Audio keywording will allow us to contextually figure out where to sell ads and to place more than just pre- and post-roll ads.

Don’t blame me for being skeptical. Or as Techdirt writes, “Imagine trying to serve ads for an episode of Lost based on what the characters are talking about. You’d get a bunch of ads for deserted islands.”