Google Unveils Flash Ads

Gailin writes "Google has announced and given some examples of their new Flash based ads. They seem to vary from average size to full screen-width Flash advertisements, with some interactive abilities. 'Gadget ads can incorporate real-time data feeds, images, video and much more in a single creative unit and can be developed using Flash, HTML or a combination of both. Designed to act more like content than a typical ad, they run on the Google(TM) content network, competing alongside text, image and video ads for placement. They support both cost-per-click and cost-per-impression pricing models, and offer a variety of contextual, site, geographic and demographic targeting options to ensure the ads reach relevant users with precision and scale.'"

Comments

Target Market

[ackthpt]

a variety of contextual, site, geographic and demographic targeting options to ensure the ads reach relevant users with precision and scale.

And all that's apparently missing is ensuring the surfer has Flash installed.

Personally I detest Flash ads and for this reason keep renaming the NPSWF32.dll file as NPSWF32.dllfsdfsd (while I don't have an instance of Firefox open, lest it track the bastid) when I have no intention of viewing Flash content. Too many pages are so whizzy with Flash I position the browser so the Flash bit is offscreen or simply don't visit the sites at all. I don't see many company/commercial sites since they apparently all now believe their best way to reach the customer is with some bloated object 500K or bigger (i'm still on dial-up) and all whizzy. So all this means is I'll see some more puzzle pieces, unless they detect no-flash and throw animated (ugh) gifs at me.

I'll just have to wrassle with The Morality of Web Advertisement Blocking for a while.

Lucky for Google, I'm the exception and shouldn't make much of a dent in their stock value.

Re:Target Market

[Anonymous Coward]

Check out Noscript and/or FlashBlock for Firefox. I use both and wouldn't surf without them. It's a lot easier than renaming the DLL.

Interactive?

[Anonymous Coward]

Does this mean I get to keep "Punching the Monkey?" I just can't find enough ways to win free ringtones.

Re:Flashblock is great

[derrida]

Adblock plus also lets you block any flash objects.

Open adblock, new filter, add *. gmodules.com....

[MikeyVB]

...and blocked.

Google, you probably have, sorry, had, one of the only set of ad servers I never blocked. Until now.

Sorry, but anything that moves without my propmpting it is a distraction and will be blocked.

Thank you, Google

[halcyon1234]

Thank you for creating flash ads-- because I was having a hard time filtering out the embedded text stuff with Adblock.

A large, clear, well-defined target is always appreciated.

Not as bad as it looks

[Xentor]

I just read over the guidelines that an above poster linked ( http://adwords.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=66136 ), and I don't think this will be as bad as everyone is saying...

First off, it looks like these will be ads on other peoples' sites, not on your search results. It can be used in addition to that "AdWords" thing, or "AdSense", whichever one it is... You decide to advertise on YOUR site, and you get banners from Google, the same way you would get embedded keyword links.

In addition, they're making some nice, strict rules. Here are some of their restrictions:

* No more than 50k in size unless the user interacts with it (Then it can load more)
* No more than 15 seconds of animation
* No popups or javascript alerts
* No cookie usage (Not even Flash's version of local storage)
* Must clearly show the company/product being advertised, not just some random crap
* No sound or fancy cursors unless the user interacts with it

(Hopefully that entails clicking on it, and not just accidentally moving your cursor over it on the way to the link you want)

I would hope they're enforcing these rules by requiring the source file instead of just the compiled SWF, or at least have some kind of checks for stuff like this... But I don't see how this is any worse than the banners we have now. Granted, I'd prefer less banners and more text ads, but if the market has determined that animated banners are necessary, then at least Google is keeping a close eye on theirs.