Full-length movies are coming to YouTube. The online video pioneer/Google subsidiary has worked out a deal with MGM to bring “several” of their films and television shows to the service. Many within the industry give the due credit not to YouTube or Google, but to Hulu. “The studios have Hulu to thank for forcing Google to soften its approach,” writes Cnet contributor Greg Sandoval. “[Hulu] has become the top outlet for watching full-length films and TV shows on the web… If Google wanted to duplicate Hulu’s success, it needed to make nice with film studios. So it did.” Neither the slate of films nor the advertising model the films will be based around are known at this time.

In related news, AT&T is entering the world of online video … in a way. The communication giant has released VideoCrawler, a search engine designed specifically for video sites.  While the actual number of video sites are unknown at this time, many within the industry speculate that VideoCrawler scans roughly 1,600 different sites for content, including YouTube. VideoCrawler is built upon a platform developed by Divvio, a start-up that specializes in “personalized” media search tools. VideoCrawler is online now.

Elsewhere in video land, Keystream has discovered a new place to stick advertisements — within the video itself. The California-based start-up has officially released SmartAd, a software tool that places ads into the “empty spaces” on a video feed. If a person is watching a video of a shuttle launch, for example, there are spaces in the top left and right hand corner that are devoid of any movement. Thanks to SmartAd technology, those spaces can now easily be filled with a variety of advertisements. As one could expect, early reviews of the new technology have been less than kind. SmartAd is available now for both clients and perspective investors.

In other “news” (pun not intended), there’s Newsified. Newsified is a compilation site that shows you what’s hot in social news, social bookmarking and YouTube. The site is not only broken down by service, but by subject as well. This way, users who are looking for the latest on the stock market or president-elect Obama won’t be bombarded with news about Linux or the upcoming Captain America movie. While it won’t win any awards for design, Newsified is perfect for anyone who wants their daily dose of social news in a hurry.

Finally, the much anticipated Microsoft application Photosynth has finally been released. For those unaware, Photosynth is a photography application based around the idea of “synths” — three-dimensional pictures that are held together by an algorhythm. Pictures made with the software can then be connected to Live Maps, similar to the relationship between Google Maps and StreetView. Unlike the name brand Google equivalent, however, synths are made by the Photosynth userbase, not by employees. Photosynth is available now for all Windows users.