Recently, some Google users have been surprised to see video ads appearing on the search result pages. Google did previously announce that this was something that they were looking at and hoping to trial.

Google uses plusboxes to show that there is a video advert that would complement the search text. The ad begins after the user clicks the message. The video ads are ordinarily quite short, usually around 30 seconds, and are shown using Google Video Player in a 160×140 space. The videos end by displaying a clickable URL directed to th relevant landing page.

Google’s Marissa Mayer told the New York Times that the main search page will include more images and videos as she believes that users eyes: “automatically gravitate to the images more than the text.” The only downside to these ads could be that advertisers will have to pay when a user clicks to view the ad even if they choose not to click through to the site. This opposes text ads where users are automatically linked to the site upon clicking the ad.

Source: blogoscoped.com