April 13, 2006

• Google Says Don't Worry, AOL Won't Change Us - But There's Wiggle Room from last December covers how Google has used its home page to promote its own products before, even using graphical units to do this.
   
• Revisiting The "No Banners On Google" Declaration also from last December is the follow-up to my article above, covering how when Google said no banners on the Google home page, it didn't rule out putting other graphic units on the Google Personalized Home Page service that many people have. And if ads were to come, they'd be more like a modular unit to match other Google Personalized Home Page units, Google said.
   
• Ad or Promo? Google Pitching CSI, NBA Video On Google Home Page from January covers how Google did a textual promotion of Google Video that also gave some partners nice play -- and nice play on the regular Google home page, not the personalized one. Some might say this was the first non-Google specific home page ad.
• NBC Scores Graphical Ads/Promos On Google is about the Google home page but worth mentioning, covering how the Google search results pages got video clips to help NBC promote its coverage of the Winter Olympics.

So what about today's news? Google's Da Vinci Code Quest from Google Blogoscoped has a nice rundown on how the promotion works. In short, it puts a little puzzle on your Google personalized home page, at least beginning on April 17. Until then, you effectively have a big ad for the movie. Marketers wanting to do the same, clearly the door is open, if you've got the right contacts at Google.