A select few Google users may notice a something new: a large banner-like advertisement at the top of the search results page.
Synrgy, a digital marketing startup, spotted a "sponsored" photo of Southwest Airlines at the top of the page after searching for "Southwest Airlines."
Google testing sponsored cover photos in SERPs cc: @rustybrick @douglaskwong pic.twitter.com/xN7Z8GHZPa— Synrgy (@SynrgyHQ) October 23, 2013
Ordinarily, when searching for "Southwest Airlines," one might see a basic search ad promoting the airline's website, followed by regular search results:
Google confirmed to Mashable that it has been experimenting with these visual search ads among a select group of desktop users in the United States. "This is a very limited test in the U.S.; one of many we run," a rep wrote in a statement.
However, a person familiar with the situation denied that these qualify as banner ads. Instead, Google appears to be billing this as part of its efforts to continue expanding its search ad products to make them more visual. For example, Google started letting marketers add image extensions to search ad listings earlier this year.
[Via SearchEngineLand]