Google could expand to print

• Clearly they have a desire to offer more to advertisers than just a text link," said Tim Hanlon, senior vice president of emerging contacts at ad agency Publicis Groupe.
• The print ads also expand Google's efforts to become a middleman for advertisers and publishers.
• "Google has shown that big media companies don't have to be part of the mix at all," Hanlon said.
• Inksite, which sells printer ink and toner, paid about $1,000 for a one-quarter page ad in the Sept. 6 issue of PC Magazine, Keen said.
• By comparison, a text ad in search results for "printer toner" might cost as much as $2.25 per click.
• The issue has a full page of Google-facilitated ads with the URL of an online version of the page at the top.
• Fine text also appears at the top saying "Ads by Google," and "Google advertisers offer these products and services" at the bottom.
• Over the last four years, Google has established itself as the kingpin of online advertising, largely through its sales of tiny search-related ads.
• Google's "cost per click" system was built on selling keyword ads to the highest bidder and letting marketers pay only when Web surfers click on tiny text links.
• Two years later, in an effort to find new sales and avoid an eventual slowdown in the booming search ads business, Google started selling display ads.
• "I would be surprised and somewhat disappointed if they were to spend a lot of money and resources on a print advertising unit," said Safa Rashtchy, senior Internet analyst at Piper Jaffray.
• Other industry watchers saw an upside in the move, given that search ad sales could eventually peak.
• Despite mixed reactions from Google watchers, some online marketers said they are excited about the potential.