Google Expands AdSense Advertising to Print and Radio

In the late 90’s Google lacked an effective business model, it was receiving plenty of web traffic but very little for revenue. Besides a few dollars here and there from the sales of enterprise search devices, not much was coming in. Investors and pundits questioned whether Google would ever make a profit, but then Google did something dramatic, and launched Google AdSense.

Google AdSense was much of a diversion than traditional online advertising companies, because AdSense targeted advertising based on the keywords in the page advertisements were being displayed on. Google’s advertisers initially were displayed only on Google’s own site in its search results, but later it allowed websites outside of Google to display advertisements from Google AdSense and share in on the revenue. Users can now earn additional AdSense revenue by directing searches toward Google and inserting AdSense ads in RSS and Atom feeds.

Google currently makes 99% of its revenue from internet advertisements, which puts it in a precarious position if advertisers begin to believe that internet advertisements do not offer as much benefit as previously thought. This caused Google to seek ways to create advertising revenue through more traditional medias.

In late August, it was reported that Google began an experimental print advertising campaign. The company began purchasing advertising pages in magazines, such as Maximum PC and PC Magazine. They would take the whole ad-pages and partition them off into smaller ad spaces. Google took these spaces and offered them to advertisers who are already advertising through its AdWords programs. This business model is by no means new, AdAuction.com has been brokering print advertisements for some time. One of Google’s advertisers, Inksite, paid approximately $1000 for a quarter page advertisements in an issue of PC Magazine, according to News.com.