Los Angeles — Google has initiated testing display ads Google’s display ads, or ads with images, have been showing up in Gmail user accounts, the company confirmed Thursday.
The news came to fore light when Greg Sterling, a contributing editor at Search Engine Land, noticed something unusual this morning. “Google seems to be testing display ads in Gmail,” he wrote in a blog post. “I have not spoken to anyone at the company but discovered the following image ad in my own Gmail account this morning.”
Google commenced showing the ads alongside people’s e-mail in-boxes on Friday, January 21. “We are always trying out new ad formats and placements in Gmail, and we recently started experimenting with image ads on messages with heavy image content,” said Rob Shilkin, a Google spokesman.
Furthermore, ads in Gmail have always been connected with associated e-mail messages. For example, if Gmail users are conversing with friends about taking a vacation to Mexico, then ads for flights or hotels in Mexico might be displayed. The display ads will appear according to the same formula, Shilkin said.
Gmail ads affected some users as scary when they were first unleashed in 2004, but most Gmail users have now grown accustomed to them. Google says that all ad placement is automatic and no human reads private e-mail messages.
Google has been looking for ways to expand its display ad network, and Gmail is a logical next step as it is being part of the Google Display Network, which also includes YouTube, Google Finance, Google Books, Google Maps, Blogger, and other properties.
The Google Display Network is an advertising network set up by Google last year to broaden the search engine giant’s share of advertising money being spent on online visuals, which was described by Google VP Neal Mohan this past July as a $20 billion market.
“Display is truly at a tipping point,” Mohan said, according to AdAge. “We think it can be substantially larger than the $20 billion it is today, whether it is $40 billion, $60 billion, or $80 billion, but there are a lot of challenges that remain.”
Display ads are a growing business for Google as it expands beyond the simple text ads that appear next to search results and on other Web sites. Google can deliver ads inter-linked with keywords that appear in a user’s personal Gmail (Sterling was served an ad for organic Men’s tees after opening an e-mail from a clothing retailer), although those ads will no doubt be distracting for many Gmail users.
The ads are bundled with images and occasionally with audio and video and often promote a brand, like an airline, as opposed to suggesting a specific action, like booking a flight on the spot. Google exhibits display ads on two million Web sites, including several of Google’s own, like YouTube, Google Finance and now, Gmail.
The ads are demonstrated next to e-mail messages that contain many images, like a promotional e-mail from a department store with photos of clothing, Shilkin said.