• by Wendy Davis , Staff Writer @wendyndavis, March 12, 2007

Search giant Google has quietly started selling TV ads, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Google last year began testing TV ads to Concord, Calif. customers of cable company Astound Broadband, according to the Journal. Additionally, Venture Beat reports that Google is about to forge a deal with satellite TV company Dish Network.

It's been clear for a long time that Google's ambitions extend beyond paid search ads, or even other types of Web ads. The company has gone on record as saying it can make advertising in traditional media more efficient -- though exactly how it plans to do so remains unknown.

The Journal speculates that Google might target TV ads based on viewers' neighborhoods -- though it's not clear why Google would be in a better position to power that kind of demographic targeting than other companies.

Meanwhile, Google's forays into newspaper and radio ads appear to be forging ahead. The initial test of newspaper ads surpassed expectations -- so much so that Google late last year announced plans to extend the beta test. That news came shortly after James Conaghan, the Newspaper Association of America vice president for business analysis and research, said at an industry conference that Google had sold three months' allotment of inventory in just three weeks.

Google's efforts at radio ad sales, on the other hand, don't appear to be running as smoothly. Chad and Ryan Steelberg, the founders of automated radio ad placement company dMarc -- purchased by Google last year -- recently exited amid reports of tension. Additionally, Google's efforts to sell radio ads appear stymied by the company's failure to obtain sufficient quality inventory.