• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, January 6, 2010

Google began running a one-line blurb on google.com Wednesday to promote the Nexus One mobile phone that the Mountain View, Calif. search engine unveiled the day before. The link goes directly to the Web site set up to sell the phone.

Gene Munster, research analyst at Piper Jaffray, pegs the value of the home page takeover at between $15 and $20 CPMs, or $4 million to $5 million for a buyout per day. It's not the first time Google has run a one-line tag on google.com to promote products. Munster says they did it for the Motorola Droid phone and the Chrome Browser.

In November, Google search in the United States had 147.7 million unique visitors and 452.6 million average daily page views, according to comScore Media Metrix.

Google, which takes pride in keeping the home page uncluttered and clean, ran a Droid ad for about 18 hours when the phone launched in November, estimates Trip Chowdhry, managing director at Global Equities Research. He calls the ad "priceless, worth about a trillion dollars," because no one else has the "privilege" of running an ad on that page.

Has Google changed its stance on using the home page as a promotional platform? Adam Hartung, an analyst with Spark Partners, refers to Google's home page as a "sacred cow." The company has something that almost seems like a religious idol. This ad demonstrates that Google is willing to change that and "attack a sacred cow to step the company forward," he says. "And that's a very good sign for investors."

If successful, Google always has the option of moving the one-line ad to YouTube, according to Aaron Kessler, senior research analyst at Kaufman Bros., San Francisco, Calif. "Google is obviously putting all their weight behind mobile, which is one of their top three initiatives," he says. "They have had failures in other areas, but they are dedicated to making sure mobile thrives. Radio and TV advertising didn't turn out too well for them."