The latest Metacafe / Frank N. Magid Associates survey concluded that short form video is crucial to garnering and keeping an online audience. The July 2009 survey concluded that the top five most popular categories of online videos were all short form: comedy, music, consumer-uploaded video, news stories and previews of movies.

YouTube, long the short-form video king, is moving from its go-it-alone stance to a partnership in The Pool – a long-term research project of VivaKi, the multiagency digital consortium devised by Publicis. The Pool’s focus is on establishing a standard ad format for online video. Along with YouTube, new partners include Denny’s, Walgreens and WalMart. What this may mean for monetization of Google-owned YouTube is hard to say, but The Pool concept might be a good one for other online publishers who need to increase traffic and audience through short form video.