text: Google tests banner ads in search results - News - The Columbus Dispatch - Columbus, OH
  Google tests banner ads in search results
  Google's search engine was once characterized by its simplicity - both its search results and ads were blue links against a white background. No longer.
  Google�s search engine was once characterized by its simplicity � both its search results and ads were blue links against a white background. No longer.
  On Wednesday, Google confirmed that it was testing banner ads atop search results, a major departure from its earlier advertising and from its past promises to users.
  �There will be no banner ads on the Google homepage or Web search results pages,� a company blog post said in 2005. �There will not be crazy, flashy, graphical doodads flying and popping up all over the Google site. Ever.�
  The ads are part of Google�s multiyear evolution from showing text links to displaying a variety of videos, photos, company logos, maps and other visual information.
  As part of that evolution, images have slowly been making their way into ads. E-commerce ads now include images, seen in a search for �running shoes,� for example.
  As of June, other types of advertisers can show images in ads at the top of search results, a practice different from the new banner ads. Hertz, for instance, shows pictures of cars in search ads.
  More than one in six Google searches now shows visual content, according to a blog post by Awaneesh Verma, a Google product manager for ad formats, so the company is encouraging advertisers to follow suit.