So it looks like Google and YouTube are in talks to start sharing advertising revenue with people that post videos on YouTube. At this point, YouTube has about 70 million users a month.

It’s good to see that Google has noticed that people usually share videos to get a reaction — but as there is no monetary incentive at the moment to share, there’s not really any other reason to share at the moment.

YouTube has had (and is surely going to have in the future) its challenges in terms of staying open while simultaneously figuring out ways to protect copyrights and make money. Here’s YouTube founder Chad Hurley talking about how content owners are going to get their financial share of copyrighted music published in videos (credit goes to The Blogging Times for me coming across this video).

This might be a mixed blessing for content creators and YouTube alike. Certainly, part of what has made YouTube so successful is its open model (which is also a profitless model).

The current discussions about inserting a short ad at the beginning of video may prove to drive some users away, but what has ultimately made Google’s advertising model is the contextual nature of ads. If Google finds a way to target the ads shown to users, rather than just showing generic advertising, their push to monetize YouTube will surely meet with greater success.

On a somewhat related note (well, OK, it’s only related because it’s about Google), here is a very useful list of the Top 10 Google Myths Revealed. Good reading for anyone with a site who wants to understand a little more about Google and how PageRank words.