Google ads get extra Gadgets

 

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By Reuters

Posted on 19 Sep 2007 at 10:32

Google is testing a new interactive ads service that lets advertisers measure users' responses to their content.

The new Gadget Ads can incorporate live data feeds, images, video and even miniature, websites in a single advertising unit, allowing users to choose what they want to see.

For example, an automobile advertiser can combine a video advertisement for its cars with links to Google Maps, live traffic updates and a preliminary customer sign-up form.

Google can also handle on-the-spot transactions within the ad, using Google Checkout or PayPal, for example.

Through Google, advertisers can then gather information on how much of a video ad was watched, whether it was viewed more than once, if a user fast-forwarded or rewound the video, and whether the menu or other controls were used.

Some analysts and early advertisers who have tested the ads with consumers say the capacity to measure the effectiveness of so-called rich media advertising is a technology breakthrough for the industry, which bolsters Google's push into the corporate brand market.

"Gadget Ads is very far reaching," says Andrew Frank, an online advertising analyst with market research firm Gartner. "This is the platform that Google is going to build all their cross-media advertising services upon."

The new advertising service is designed for broad adoption across Google sites, including iGoogle personalised home pages.

Preliminary testers include PepsiCo, Intel, Honda, Six Flags and Viacom Paramount Vantage.

Addressing concerns that the new roll out may create new privacy concerns for its users Google states on its Gadget Ads blog that "ads are completely anonymous. Google Gadget Ads may not create or read cookies, or use other cookie-like mechanisms, e.g. flash local storage. We view this as a crucial aspect of respecting our users' privacy."