Google Tests Video Ads for Search

The New York Times
Lookout, here come Google video ads--and on Google search, no less, a development that few thought would ever happen. Google on Thursday began testing not just videos ads, but also ads with images, maps and other interactive features. Marissa Mayer, Google vice president of products and user experience, said the change marks the search engine's evolution into a true aggregator and organizer of the Web's information. She adds that text ads aren't as effective on pages containing images and video, because users' eyes naturally gravitate toward those features.

This raises the interesting question of whether video and image ads will detract from the search engine's natural results, which will still be mostly text. However, videos will not automatically play, nor will maps automatically pop up. Video and interactive image ads will have a small button with a plus sign that users click to interact with it. For now, advertisers will bid on video ads just like they do for text ads at no extra charge.
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