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Report: Google losing aversion to advertising itself

The Internet company is getting more serious about promoting its brand in a variety of ways, including plain old ads, according to <i>The Wall Street Journal</i>.

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Stephen Shankland has been a reporter at CNET since 1998 and writes about processors, digital photography, AI, quantum computing, computer science, materials science, supercomputers, drones, browsers, 3D printing, USB, and new computing technology in general. He has a soft spot in his heart for standards groups and I/O interfaces. His first big scoop was about radioactive cat poop.
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Stephen Shankland

It looks like the word-of-mouth promotional ethos that has prevailed at Google for its first 10 years will be getting some new company: Google advertisements.

Google has advertised in Russia and China, where its search engine is less widely used than Yandex and Baidu, respectively, but on Friday, The Wall Street Journal reported the company has held talks with ad agencies about other options.

Google has held discussions with firms including Wieden + Kennedy and Taxi New York about promotional efforts, according to the report, and hired Andy Berndt, a former executive at WPP Group's Ogilvy & Mather, to work on its branding strategy.

Though the branding strategy has included regular ads, including some self-promotion during the Olympics that co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin supposedly overruled, it also involves more unusual efforts such as the Chrome Web browser comic book and the $10 million Project 10 to the 100th to generate ideas to help people.

And during a meeting with reporters Wednesday, Chief Executive Eric Schmidt said one of the advantages of Google's plan to eliminate oil and coal energy in the U.S. by 2030 was that it's good for Google's brand.