Without making too much noise about it, Google has started to test a new type of online advertising, and we are talking about interstitial, floating and expanding ads.

What would happen if Google AdSense implemented the new feature on a large scale? Well, first of all, the sites which collaborate with this service would have at their disposal a complete package of advertising solutions, the only one not included being the IntelliTXT technology.

Secondly, rich-media oriented companies, like Fastclick and PointRoll, would have to compete against the „do no evil" giant.

As Jennifer Slegg, the Google AdSense forum moderator at Search Engine Watch, was quoted as saying by CNET's Elinor Mills: "If AdSense offered rich media to all publishers, it could really hurt competitor companies offering similar rich media ad formats because of the vast number of publishers that AdSense has. In terms of dominating the online advertising market, AdSense rich media could seal the deal to make AdSense the force to be reckoned with, by not only dominating the online text ad and graphical banner-style advertising, but in the entire online advertising market…".

It's a well-known fact that AdSense doesn't allow a second contextual ad service to run on the same site, and if this also applies to the rich media, publishers would be forced to choose Google for all of their ads and to give up other companies' services. This would put the Mountain View company in a monopoly position.

Still, considering the conflicts involving the European Union and Microsoft, will the authorities allow such a strategy? What would happen with Google if the "do no evil" concept became "do no evil in a world controlled by us?"

Google didn't get too many praises when they decided to censor the results returned on Google.cn, and if users feel that the search engine is starting to adopt Microsoft strategies, will they remain loyal to it?