Youtube, the online video Web site, will be posting video installations in the atrium of the Guggenheim Museum in New York. The pieces, which may feature anthropomorphic sneakers, avatars from the virtual world Second Life and a woman turning into an animated crow, is slated to open in October.

The exhibition will include submissions from about 20 finalists of a contest for graphic artists called Youtube Play. The entries would be scrutinized by a celebrity jury that includes Japanese pop artist Takashi Murakami and the director of The Wrestler, Darren Aronofsky. The panel will choose from a field of about 200 videos. The number was narrowed down from thousands of submissions for the competition.

Google hopes that the competition would help attract top advertisers and a wider variety of users to the world's largest video site. Google bought Youtube in 2006 for $US1.6 billion.

''Having content associated with the Guggenheim draws in a different kind of demographic [from] kids crashing their skateboards... It also produces a halo effect for them with decision makers at agencies and advertisers,'' says Bill Niemeyer, a senior analyst with the Diffusion Group, a digital media analysis firm.

''They are trying to fit into the culture of where premium advertisers live,'' said Tracey Scheppach, a senior vice-president and video innovations director at Starcom MediaVest Group, a media buying and communications company.

Google is currently working with Kevin Macdonald on a documentary that makes use of clips shot by users on a single day. Macdonald is an Oscar-winning film director whose work include The Last King of Scotland. The Youtube documentary is called Life in a Day and is set to premiere in January at the Sundance Film Festival.