• Searchviews, Friday, October 3, 2008 2:49 PM

They've been hinting at it for quite some time now, but Noah Mallin reports that he's actually seen display ads in Google SERPs. The banners were running alongside image search results for the "Partridge Family," as well as "John McCain." Both examples highlight the difficulty that stems from precisely targeting banner ads, as neither ad was relevant to the initial query. They also muck up the clean, simple search interface that has been Google's hallmark.

But Mallin thinks that it may have been done on purpose. "On the initial evidence it would appear that Google is testing placement more than anything else--certainly not targeting," he says. "They may also be examining the quality and nature of data that can be retrieved from an ad like this on a SERP."

Whatever the case, Big G is clearly moving forward with its display ad aspirations. After all, search may be the giant's cash cow, "but as their share of the search market edges around the 70% mark they may be looking at places to wring more bucks out and continue their stellar growth," Mallin says. "There's an awful lot of room on those SERPs--filling some of it with delicious money... er... advertising must be very tempting even as it puts one of their strengths in jeopardy."

Read the whole story at Searchviews »