NYT: Users of Google’s search engine will soon see something they are not used to on the notoriously spare site: advertising with logos and graphics. And the advertisers will not be limited to America Online, whose talks with Google prompted the change in policy, according to two executives close to the companies’ negotiations.
As part of their deal, which is expected to be announced this afternoon, Google is providing AOL with $300 million in advertising on Google’s Web sites, intended to use to draw Google search users to related content on AOL’s sites, the executives said. That sum is on top of the $1 billion in cash that Google is to invest to buy a 5 percent stake in AOL (provided billionaire investor, Carl Icahn, whose group has a 3.1 percent stake in Time Warner, doesn’t undo the deal).
Graphical advertisements, like the common rectangular ads known as banners, have been a feature of most commercial Internet sites for a decade. Google made a name for itself, in part, because it went without graphical ads in favor of small text advertisements linked to the topics for which users search. Google’s simple pages, quick to load and easy to read, helped the site build a following, and text advertisements proved valuable to marketers looking for people interested in their products.