Online videos are slowly becoming essential components of many directory sites, Canada’s Yellow Pages Group (YPG) included.

On January 16, YPG introduced its brand-new Profile Plus multimedia service an enhanced business profile web page on yellowpages.ca that will be launched this spring. It will now include video clips, photo galleries, and other useful information about merchants. The deployment of the new service to advertisers is currently underway.

The new Profile Plus web page will include the following components:

1) A dynamic 30 to 60-second video profile of the business

2) A photo gallery where advertisers can showcase up to 10 photos

3) Business details, including location and contact information, hours of operation, products and brands, methods of payment, map and directions, etc.

With Profile Plus, companies can showcase their products and services in “live action” and/or still images, thus adding a dynamic new dimension to their message to consumers. For their part, consumers will gain access to a more complete picture of a particular company and what it has to offer through YellowPages.ca. As such, users will be able to make more enlightened purchase decisions.

“Given that more Canadians than ever are viewing online videos, we are convinced that the video service will provide advertisers with a more compelling and value-added vehicle for bringing their business offerings to more customers,” shared Jean-Pascal Lion, Vice President of Marketing, Yellow Pages Group, in a press release.

In relation to this news, Superpages.com also recently announced a vendor relationship with online video company TurnHere.com last December 3.

SuperPages.com, which lays claim to 18 million small-to-medium-sized business listings in the US, began testing a video advertising system for its clients in July 2007, a service it then made fully available three to four months later. Now, they’ve signed with TurnHere to access their videographers, who can visit businesses and create videos for them.

Aside from SuperPages and YPG, Yellow Book USA and Citysearch and have also begun offering video ads to their clients. Not surprisingly, they’ve also turned to video production houses like TurnHere to capitalize on their expertise and staff in creating such ads.