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Google adds ads to Google News searches

Search giant begins delivering text ads on the right side of news search results pages, just as it has long done with normal Web search results.

Steven Musil Night Editor / News
Steven Musil is the night news editor at CNET News. He's been hooked on tech since learning BASIC in the late '70s. When not cleaning up after his daughter and son, Steven can be found pedaling around the San Francisco Bay Area. Before joining CNET in 2000, Steven spent 10 years at various Bay Area newspapers.
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Steven Musil

Google has extended its AdWords program to Google News searches, delivering text ads on the right side of the search results page, just as Google has long done with regular Web search results.

Josh Cohen, a business product manager at Google, announced the move Wednesday in a company blog:

In recent months we've been experimenting with a variety of different formats, like overlay ads on embedded videos from partners like the AP. We've always said that we'd unveil these changes when we could offer a good experience for our users, publishers and advertisers alike, and we'll continue to look at ways to deliver ads that are relevant for users and good for publishers, too.

The ads are intended to be tailored to news search terms, but the two aren't always on the same page, so to speak. While the news search understood that "spring training" was related to baseball, for example, only one of the top three ads presented made that connection, as the example below illustrates.

Faced with a much tougher economy, Google is working harder to make money off more of its properties. In recent months, it's begun showing ads in Google Earth and Google Finance as well.

Google has begun placing text ads beside Google News searches. Screenshot by Steven Musil/CNET News