Google pushes into advertising with widgets
Google is seizing on the popularity of widgets small online tools that function like mini-Web sites for its latest push into advertising.
The online giant said that a Gadget Ads program would provide tools for advertisers to run widget ads in Google’s AdSense network. Marketers can use space within these display ads on Google’s network to show videos, offer chats with celebrities, play host to games or other activities.
If consumers like the widget ad, they can save it onto their desktops or on their profile pages on sites like Facebook and MySpace. The new widget ads represent a more aggressive push by Google to attract big brand advertisers who like flashy ads rather than the simple text ads commonly run in Google’s adsense network.
One big advantage of the technology is that the consumer does not have to click through to a Web site. A weather widget, for example, would constantly update the weather report in a particular area. More than 48 percent of Internet users in the United States - over 87 million people - now use widgets, according to comScore, which measures Internet use. Some of the most popular widgets on Facebook, for example, are the “Top Friends” tool, which allows people to go to their best friends’ profiles with a single click, and iLike, which lets users add music to their profiles.
Christian Oestlien, a business product manager at Google who is overseeing the new ad program said that the consumers were pulling in content from multiple sources. He said that it was what they were calling the componentization of the Web. The Web was sort of breaking apart into smaller pieces, he added.
Many widgets have been built by media outlets, like Lucky Magazine’s shopping widget, which features fashion and beauty products. And some companies, like Slide, are developing networks of widgets made by individuals that advertisers can place ads within.
Brands like Sierra Mist and Honda Civic have also been creating their own widgets as a way of providing content or tools to potential customers. Google is hoping marketers will pay to place these widgets throughout its AdSense network.
