Some interesting headlines came out of Google's investor conference call last week. From Business Week: "Google Fumbles Offline." From the San Francisco Chronicle: "Google Can't Sell All the Ads that are Fit to Print."

What they are referring to is Google's well-reported experiment to sell print advertising through the same self-service auction format that has been proven so successful with its search and contextual advertising. According to media reports, the initiative involved more than twenty high-profile publications, including the Chicago Sun-Times, Martha Stewart Living, Hachette's Car and Driver, and PC Magazine. Google bought remnant space in these publications and attempted to resell the space in an open auction on its ad-buying interface.

Apparently, it didn't work very well. In fact, during the conference call, it was singled out as Google's "single most disappointing business development over the past six months."

What happened? While there have been a lot of facts reported about it publicly, it appears that: there wasn't much bidding; the prices came in well below even a discounted rate card; and, even at heavily discounted rates, the advertisers didn't get the results that they expected. To be fair, this was Google's first attempt at something like this. The company has acknowledged that they have to do a lot of work to find successful formats, and probably no one should have expected too much.

But, it was Google--and expectations were high--so it's appropriate to ask some questions. Why didn't it work? What went wrong? Was it Google, or was it print?

I suspect that many in the industry will attribute the setback not to Google, or to its approach to auction-based, self-service advertising, but to a fundamental problem with print media and print advertising. Print media is easy to beat up on these days. There are lots of problems, not the least of which are shrinking audiences, burgeoning cost structures, and antiquated approaches to ad packaging, sales, and measurement. Maybe print just wasn't able to stand the scrutiny and accountability of auction-based pricing and lead-based tracking and accountability.

I disagree. I suspect that the failure had much more to do with Google's inappropriate approach to print advertising than it did to print advertising's inability to deliver results for its clients.

Why? Google has not created the world's greatest all-purpose advertising machine. Rather, it has created the world's greatest yellow pages directory. There is a big difference.

Search is intent-based, just like yellow pages. It is used to generate leads. It focuses on creating immediate and measurable effects. Clicks are like phone calls.

National print display advertising is media-based or audience-based. It is about creating or influencing brand and product perceptions. It focuses on creating longer-term--and harder to measure--effects. Clicks are not like creating warm, fuzzy feelings about driving a Jeep up a mountain.

There are lots of other differences.

The advertisers are different. Search is driven by small and medium-sized businesses. National print display advertising is driven by large advertisers.

The creative is different. Search uses clickable text ads. National print display ads are highly graphical and can't be clicked.

The sales process is different. Search ads are largely bought on the basis of simple, information-based selling. Its lead-based nature means that its value is more obvious and self-evident. "Selling" search is providing information and lead reports. National print display brand advertising must be sold the old-fashioned way that requires longer sales cycles, lots of face time, and lots of consultation. Its longer-term, brand-based nature means that its value is complex, more qualitative, and less intuitive.

In theory, it would be great if Google could bring the efficiency of its self-serve methodology to the offline world. However, everyone should understand that just because it works in online search, doesn't mean that it will work everywhere. It can't. Some forms of advertising are just too different. If I were Google, and I wanted to build a marketplace for print advertising, I would spend much more time looking at print yellow pages, print classified books, and free-standing inserts in newspapers. These formats operate much more like search.