Graphics Coming to Google Ads

Firmafest writes "New York Times reports that "Users of Google's search engine will soon see something they are not used to on the notoriously spare site: advertising with logos and graphics. And the advertisers will not be limited to America Online, whose talks with Google prompted the change in policy, according to two executives close to the companies' negotiations." The Financial Times has more on the partnership" CT: Sorry folks. My email is broken this morning and i'm not getting error reports.

Comments

code

[uberjoe]

What ever happened to 'Don't be Evil' ?

Re:code

[AKAImBatman]

The real question is: What makes this new? Google has had image ads for its adsense program for at least 6 months. Probably longer.

The good news is that the ads generally quite good, and try not to annoy you. As an adsense partner, you can also chose whether you have the ads on or off.

Google vs. Yahoo, the gap slims

[mister_llah]

Not too much of a surprise, but considering the lack of 'tacky' advertising was what seemed to have led a lot of people to Google (as opposed to staying with Yahoo) ... I have to wonder if it is really the best move.

Financially, it's a good move. They get a lot of traffic, it's good money.

Socially, perhaps not such a wise choice. ... but we'll all take it in stride, since we have no other choice, I guess...

Also... [AOL + Google]

[mister_llah]

It should also be added that any policy change that comes from meeting with America Online... well, God only knows what other horrors have been unleashed.

I'd say it's downright Lovecraftian, but that might be a little melodramatic.

Can they do it?

[ReformedExCon]

Google has been quite adept at keeping themselves distanced from obvious corporate sponsorship. Their advertising model has been refreshing, with ad space sold very democratically. In addition, their decision to keep advertising to simple text has made using their search engine, even with advertisements, pleasurable to use.

I do not understand the need to partner with AOL, except that AOL perhaps brings in quite a bit of advertising revenue. The downside, though, is obvious. Google has lost their independence and is slowly succumbing to AOL's wishes. First is image advertisements.

I wonder what the general consensus at Google is about this latest deal. Perhaps they don't expect to lose users when the new ads arrive, or maybe they are strapped for cash and AOL's money is bailing them out. I don't know, but I do know that I don't like AOL, and I don't like image advertisements. It's why I have Adblock installed and why I don't frequent certain other sites anymore.

This is a big mistake, I think. In a long-term business sense, I simply don't see what could possibly be so attractive. Then again, I haven't seen the check that AOL used to buy Google's soul. It may have been worth it.

Brilliant!

[Jerry Coffin]

Now that's brilliant business:
Google: widely respected and quite profitable.
AOL: being bought out, and gets exactly the respect it deserves.

[closed captioning for the humor impaired: sarcasm to follow]
Obviously Google should be taking AOL's advice about how to finally achieve some real success, right?
[end sarcasm]

Jumped the Shark

[barik]

Honestly, it looks to me that Google has jumped the shark. Google now reminds me of just about every other company during the DotCom bubble burst.

Don't get me wrong -- I'm glad Google is around. They're providing some much needed competition in the web area, but I fear that things are going to get much worse before they get better.

Google has a lot of great technologies, but all of their income comes from advertising. So if they want to expand, and maintain free services, their only option is basically to ramp up their advertising. Whether they can do that without annoying their users remains to be seen.

Re:google?

[sconeu]

Are they evil now?