When there's a rumor swirling around the tech sphere about YouTube adding 30-second "pre-roll" advertisements to our clips, we did what any responsible person would do: checked with the company to see if the rumor was true.

First, the rumor from Gizmodo:

So much for YouTube taking the high ground and not sticking annoying bumper ads in front of their clips … that's pretty much their exact plan for making money in 2008. Hey, they've gotta make back that $1.65 billion somehow, right? The plan as of now is to slap 30-second ads in front of clips. It isn't clear if there'll be shorter ads as well, if the ads will go in front of every clip, or if the ads will be skippable. I can tell you one thing: there ain't no way I'm sitting through 30 torturous seconds of advertising for a 15 second video of a guy lighting his farts on fire. Don't blow it, Google.

And then we tracked down Shashi Seth, the YouTube Group Product Manager, to find out if the rumor was true or not. Fortunately, it's not:

"We are constantly testing ad formats in order to better understand what works for our community -- and what doesn't. Our tests have shown that pre-rolls are not a positive experience for users. Our goal is to offer only advertising that engages our audience and gives them new ways to interact with their favorite content."

I almost had a heart-attack. Let's hope Gizmodo updates their post.