• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, September 1, 2005

Google, the little engine that could disrupt the world of online marketing, has set its sites on print. On Wednesday, the company confirmed it has begun placing ads from paid search marketers into print magazines on a trial basis.

A Google spokesman described the move as a "limited test," but given the company's rapid expansion beyond its core base of traditional search engine marketing, the move should send signals to the entire media world that search is no longer simply about online key words and phrases.

In fact, the move is a logical progression for a company whose mission statement reads: "to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful." Importantly, its manifesto doesn't say anything about being relegated to online media.

It's another surprise move for a company that has become a favorite of Wall Street investors, and has raised billions in capital to expand virtually anywhere it chooses.

In fact, Google began this year by putting a stake in the TV ground, introducing Google Video, a new service enabling users to search the content of television programs from leading TV content providers including PBS, the NBA, Fox News, and C-SPAN. The move sent the TV world into a frenzy, calculating the possibilities of Google's designs on the medium, and increasing the likelihood that Google might one day become the new TV navigation guide, replacing the role of Gemstar TV Guide and a host of proprietary electronic programming guides that the TV industry has developed.

"What Google did for the Web, Google Video aims to do for television," acknowledged co-Founder Larry Page upon its launch. "This preview release demonstrates how searching television can work today. Users can search the content of TV programs for anything, see relevant thumbnails, and discover where and when to watch matching television programs. We are working with content owners to improve this service by providing additional enhancements such as playback."

While it remains unclear exactly how Google plans to extend into other media, its foray into the world of print also has a bit of controversy associated with it. To gain entry into print, Google has been buying ad space in a handful of technology magazine and effectively re-selling the ad space to its online marketers in an effort to extend their reach offline. The buys included such magazines as the Sept. 6 edition of PC, which runs the third-party ad placement under the banner: "Ads by Google," which is ironically reminiscent of the way sponsored search listing might look on Google's or other search engine's pages.

While it isn't necessarily controversial that Google would buy ad space in print media, the notion that it is re-selling the inventory - and presumably marking it up as some sort of added value media buy - is controversial. While the practice, which is known as media brokering, isn't necessarily unethical or illegal, but Madison Avenue and major media outlets generally look askance at it. And though it is practiced from time to time, it is generally not announced publicly the way Google has. In fact, the concept of media brokering has led to some notorious scandals, such as the infamous Marie Luisi scandal that brought down the head of J. Walter Thompson's TV syndication unit in the 1980s, when it was found that the department was billing clients for syndication buys in the agency's time bank that hadn't actually run. Similar problems in France led to the downfall of Carat Espace, a French-based media buying agency - that is the precursor to Aegis Group's modern day Carat - when it ran afoul of French law.

For now, Google is calling its entry into the off-line media brokering world a test, but it is one the company implies will enhance, not denigrate its relationship with Madison Avenue.

"This limited test is part of Google's continuing effort to develop new ways to provide effective and useful advertising to advertisers, publishers and users," said the company in a statement. -- Wendy Davis and Wayne Friedman contributed to this story.