CALIFORNIA – Search engine giant Google has taken a bold step backwards technologically – all in the name of moving forward on the internet.Although a good 99-percent of its advertising revenue comes from internet banner and text ads, the innovative info source has decided to break out of the small screen and hit the printed page in the hopes of generating interest from more traditional companies and readers, specifically those involved with the tech industry via publications including PC Magazine, Maximum PC, and Mac Addict. The plan is to resell ad pages from print media and divide them so that small advertisers already in the company’s AdWords network can be involved.
The move appears to be part of Google’s ongoing plan to be a one-stop shopping experience for advertisers, regardless of proximity to an actual computer screen. Likewise, it expands Google’s reach so that it can become the middleman between advertisers and publishers. Full page ads in some publications include text stating that they are “Ads by Google” and “Google advertisers offer these products and services,” as well as the URL to an online version of the page. No Google logo is included.
Google previously caught the industry’s attention by offering “cost per click” ads, but some analysts believe that the popularity of that method will eventually peak, thus making an experiment in print media a worthy venture. According to Bill Adler, chief executive for security software company CybserScrub, which is one of Google’s PC Magazine advertisers, the move is a positive expansion of its pay-per-click program since that “tends to be somewhat up and down as far as effectiveness, for any number of reasons.” Adler expects that the new venue will reinforce company branding while presenting products to a new audience.
