'Ask a Ninja' series and OK Go's music video among YouTube Awards winners

NEW YORK -- The video series "Ask a Ninja" and OK Go's treadmill-choreographed music video are among the winners in the first YouTube Video Awards.

The video-sharing site announced the seven winners from its inaugural awards Monday,.

"These individuals put the first stitches in the fabric of the YouTube community," said Jamie Byrne, head of product marketing for YouTube. "Instead of seeing a way to share videos, they saw an opportunity for worldwide visibility and through their success have changed the landscape of how a `star' is defined."

The power pop band OK Go, perhaps the most professional of the mostly amateur nominees, won most creative video for their "Here It Goes Again" music video. "Ask a Ninja," the popular comedy created by Kent Nichols and Douglas Sarine, won for best series.

Terra Naomi won for best music video for her song "Say It's Possible."

A vlogger (video blogger) known as "The Winekone" Best Commentary, A video calling for a "Free Hugs Campaign" won for most inspirational video. Australian Juan Mann's video set off an online wildfire of similar "Free Hugs" campaigns.

Anthony Padilla and Ian Hecox, also known as Smosh, won for best comedy video. Dony Permedi's animated video "Kiwi!" -- which began as a master's thesis on animation, won for most adorable video.

The winners and nominees are compiled in a gallery at www.youtube.com/YTAwards.

YouTube says it will later unveil what a YouTube Video Award will look like.

Google-owned, San Bruno, Calif.-based YouTube Inc. was founded in February 2005. Media conglomerate Viacom Inc. recently sued YouTube for $1 billion, claiming the site infringes on copyrights on a "huge scale." Several other media companies have reached agreements to supply YouTube with clips.

According to comScore Media Metrix, YouTube attracted 133.5 million visitors worldwide in January.