Google's New 'In Your Face' Ads

Perhaps a little reluctantly, Google has been slowly adding more rich content to its search engine. It's still as spartan as it gets, but there's certainly an evolution and now it's making the same changes to the ads it serves on the search results page which now feature videos, images, and even maps.

“To provide a better search ads experience, we've been developing and testing a variety of new ad formats. These formats are focused on giving you the information you need, while retaining what you love about Google advertising: that the ads are relevant and useful,” Susan Wojcicki, VP of product management at Google, wrote. “If you're looking to buy your mom a new handbag for the holidays, for instance, you might want to see pictures, prices, the addresses of boutiques in your area and a map of how to get there — all within the ad.”

Some of the new ad units have been in testing for a while now, but Google wanted to showcase them, perhaps because it's ready to introduce them on a larger scale. The company is working on several new units, but the general theme is 'bigger is better'. There's a good reason for that, bigger ads equal more clicks therefore better revenue for the company, but this only works up to a point. Part of the reason why people chose Google to do their searches is the clean interface and the fact that the ads are generally more discrete and unobtrusive.

The new ads are certainly harder to ignore and doing a better job at grabbing your attention. Still, Google says they serve a purpose and that they're better for the user as well. For example, when searching for a movie, the ad might contain the trailer for the movie in addition to the links. Local ads will also include a map of the location to make it easier to find the shop, restaurant, or whatever the user may be looking for. Product ads also got updated with prices and images of the products. These ads aren't available for most people yet, as Google is still tweaking them so we'll have to wait and see if they provide a better experience for the users or just get in the way.