Google flails with paper ads

Business Week's Burt Helm describes Google's multi-billion-dollar strategy thusly: "Provide a relevant search result for just about any esoteric, tiny piece of information. Problem is, according to SVP of product management, Jonathan Rosenberg: it hasn't worked so well offline.

The company ventured into print ads late last year, with a novel approach similar to the extremely popular AdSense program. Google Publication Ads gave advertisers the opportunity to bid on one of several small ads placed on one page in a magazine, with the hope that it would be at a discount to traditional print ad rates. Advertisers complained of poor results, however, or failed to bid on placement at all.

Helm argues that Google has trouble with all kinds of traditional media, from its attempt to index TV shows to its widely criticized Google Books project. Detlev Johnson of Search Engine Watch points out that the faithful shouldn't worry; "Eric Schmidt commented that it took several years for the successful model to crystalize online, and he is not detered from further development of offline print ad experimenting."

Can Google hack it in an offline world? Maybe they'll have to wait until Steve Ballmer's vision is realized and paper is eliminated.