Google Dumps Controversial Banner Ads Experiment

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Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG)’s chief of the search business Amit Singhal said that the company has cancelled its controversial banner ad experiments. Speaking at the Search Marketing Expo West, Singhal said the company is always testing new things, and evaluating the data. If an experiment doesn’t benefit users, Google won’t implement it.

Google users hated banner ads

Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) launched the banner ad program in October 2013. The search engine giant received widespread criticism because it had promised in 2005 to never display banner ads in search results. But the company broke its promise, and went ahead with the so-called “brand image experiment.” Under the experiment, Google was testing banner ads with 30 different companies, and showed them in about 5% of search results. The big banner ads appeared atop the search result page (below is an example).

Google Banner Ads

However, many experts said that these shouldn’t be considered banner ads at all because they don’t look like a typical banner ad. Amit Singhal’s announcement comes amid multiple changes in Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG)’s search results, including larger type and the removal of underlines. The new design blends ads more in search results because the ads no longer appear in shaded boxes., though they carry the “Ad” label.

Google will continue to experiment with new things

Dumping the banner ads doesn’t mean you won’t see images in search ads. Product Listing Ads show prices and images of relevant products on the right side of the search page. Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) continues to experiment with search and search ads. So, it’s highly likely that something like this will pop up again.

Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG)’s Knowledge Graph has information about more than 700 million places, topics, people and concepts. It wants to become the primary source of information rather than directing users to other websites. The Knowledge Graph will help the company understand users’ queries and display exact answers they are looking for.

Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) shares rose 0.22% to $1,210 in pre-market trading Thursday.

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