It looks like Google’s getting into the want-ads business adding to their already lucrative online advertising line. Google pays for just about everything through advertising so it stands to reason they’d look for ways to expand.
CNet reported Google’s starting to run classified ads in tech magazines like PC Magazine and Maximum PC by purchasing pages and reselling them, cut into quarters or fifth, to AdWords customers.
“We were approached by Google two and a half months ago, telling us that they were starting this print advertising campaign,” Michael Keen, president of Inksite, one of the five advertisers in PC Magazine, told CNet on Monday. “Because we had been one of their AdWords advertisers, they thought we would be a good candidate to try their new advertising” effort.
This is just one more step into the display advertising industry and it appears Google is attempting to rewrite the model on advertising, building themselves up as massive middle man of sorts. Where this goes one might wonder but it has there has to be some speculation.
It would be easy enough to create customized billboard based on the electronic paper by Fujistu. Then have Android (a wholly owned Google subsidiary) build a control module for the whole thing. It would be easy to then to customize billboards to change easily and even customize them down to the street or zip code. Other types of signage like political yard signs would be easy enough to do as well. Combine all this with the wireless service people are speculating Google is planning and you’ve got national or international advertising.
It’s easy enough to speculate about Google moving into print advertising and some weird hybrid between electronic and print advertising. In the end, though the big question is will Google be able to support it’s vision strictly with advertising?
John Stith is a staff writer for murdok covering technology and business.
