Google is now showing ads on Google News pages that show full-text articles. These are the articles which Google itself hosts.
In case you’re unfamiliar with these Google-hosted articles, back in 2007, Google News started offering original source content from a variety of publishers like the AP, Agence France-Presse, UK Press Association, the Canadian Press, etc. This was to give special treatment to “original sources.”
“We’re always looking for ways to work with publishers to help them distribute, promote, and earn revenue from their content, whether they maintain their own destination website or not,” says Googler Josh Cohen on the Google News Blog. “We look forward to continuing to work with all of our partners as well as new ones to come.”
Putting ads on these pages is not an unexpected move as Google has been putting ads on many more of its products recently. Last month, they began showing ads on Google News search results:
Yesterday, it was discovered that Google had started showing AdWords ads on Picasa search results pages:
The company also seems to be interested in expanding the features of AdWords ads in general. As noted yesterday, Google is testing favicons in AdWords in Europe. This could provide an extra branding boost for advertisers, which could ultimately lead to higher conversion rates.
Update: By the way, Google announced that 8 news agencies, which are members of the European Press Agency, will be joining our existing Hosted News partners.
