Today, we're launching our own experiment: a tool to provide our readers with a snapshot of what's working (and not working) now on the channels at adage.com/youtube. The default view ranks channels popularity of all new videos posted that week (as well as the top video). The second view ranks the channels on all-time views, a measure of what's working long-term.

It's a beta release, designed to be useful but also clickable and entertaining, a mix of TV Guide and Nielsen for the YouTube content community, fans, agencies and advertisers. Think of it as an evolution of the Viral Video Chart, which has tracked branded videos for the past three years. Over time we'd like to add new third-party data sources that reveal who's watching what, as well as the ability to take the chart with you by embedding it where you like. We expect the chart to make news. We'll cover its happenings the way we do programming changes in prime-time TV.

For Ad Age , it's about re-imagining what a business media company can be and how we cover news. We're all used to the story, blog post or video as a unit of journalism. But can it also be a tool, an app, or something useful? With your help, we'll find out.

Check it out at adage.com/youtube. Please let us know what you think and how we can make the "Tracker" more useful to you.