Do you see something strange in this screenshot of Google’s homepage today? No, not Bert and Ernie (it’s Sesame Street’s 40th birthday). It’s that ad for the Verizon Droid right there under the search box (today is also Droid Day). Although, the juxtaposition does make it seem like Bert and Ernie are trying to get you to buy a Droid.
Google’s homepage is normally an ad-free zone. No more than 28 words are allowed on it, and Google is always trying to find ways to make it even sparer.
But the company does make exceptions now and then to promote a partner’s product, such as it did with Firefox back in the day, and with the launches of Chrome and the very first Android phone from T-Mobile a year ago. And at least this Droid ad does not break the 28-word rule. The page weighs in at 27 words.
The ad goes to this Google landing page, which then links to Verizon’s Droid page. I guess they want to lose some folks along the way. Still, I’d love to see the clickthrough rates on that promotion.
I could only imagine…what that kind of promotion would do for a company…:/
bro, its a no brainer – To see google advertising on a potential “one of the most successful” android-powered smartphone. You gotta love BIG G when “he” is on your side ayt?
Juicy Collation about droid release today in USA: http://bit.ly/d...uered-USA-today
Trivia: Who’s the one who pioneered the development of Android O.S. Hint: Its the website who ranks #1 in alexa
I hope Verizon isn’t paying for that, I can’t even imagine how much an ad like that would cost. Weren’t superbowl ads a few million per 30 seconds?
Better than being Oprah’d! Droid is now a winner
I hate red text on black background, but if I was up for a renewal I’d definitely try it out.
We recently had the same kind of ad and landing page in France when SFR launched the HTC Magic.
Seems to be gone.
I can still see it.
The Verizon landing page looks so contrasting to the Google pages that I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of people thought it was some kind of dodgey redirect. Bad move, they should have made the Verizon page look almost like a google page.
no worse than Google promoting Chrome in giant boxes on their homepage when you’re surfing with Internet Explorer.
Yeah, why does Droid get the special treatment? Google needs to draw the line here, it’s one thing with them promoting Android, promoting brand name devices is just not fair, just my thought.
It’s more about promoting Android 2.0 than anything else.
Android and Droid are synonymous at the moment. Google needs to pickup the momentum quickly to compete if any against Apple in mobile space. Right now, momentum is shifting towards Google, with great reviews on Google navigation, Google voicemail , some cool Droid’s features coupled with Apple’s arrogance towards app developers et cetra.
That is Google’s nuke button.
No small thing.
Is there any information on what percentage of Google users actually visit the homepage rather than just typing their query into a browser, ie Chrome, Firefox, etc.?
Typing from my new Droid and this thing feels awesome! The way a true mobile should feel with real multitasking. I can seriously say that iPhones are for babies.
please don’t start that crap. nobody mentioned the iWord yet, and you did it like a 6th grader with a glandular problem.
I’m happy you like your Droid. I hope they sell millions of them, and Android OS gets better and better.
How is it getting playlists on the Droid? What about news podcasts or video? What do you do if gMail goes down again? What happens to your data if Google has a Danger-style meltdown? Is there local backup available? I’m not trying to be a douche here, these are serious questions I’d like to know. No one has really said anything about this yet because they are too busy comparing it to that iThing…
Cut him some slack. The Droid marketing itself compares it to iPhone.
“How is it getting playlists on the Droid?” – As easy as drag&drop. Or you can use any media player and sync with it.
“What about news podcasts or video?” – Google Listen for audio, tPodcast for video.
“What do you do if gMail goes down again?” – Use the web /IMAP version, depending on which one is still up and running.
“What happens to your data if Google has a Danger-style meltdown? Is there local backup available?” – You’re not forced to use Google’s services. You can keep your data locally.
Funny, on the Verizon page for the droid it has a Lucasfilm trademark note, same as on the google page.
“DROID is a trademark of Lucasfilm Ltd. and its related companies. Used under license.”
I wonder how much Verizon/Google are paying to use the word, and if it is actually worth it…
Get both, I have a Touch and its time for me to upgrade my smartphone. Droid it is.
Is this really the iphone killer that we ‘ve been waiting for?
Will Android displace Symbian as the top smartphone OS?
Eric? You haven’t been on Google whole day didn’t you?
I saw it like 7hrs ago hahah… Oh that’s right you are Bing’er now aren’t you? 
Looks like Google plays for keeps. On a side note, it doesn’t appear to be one Google.ca, at least right now.
As another poster said, they did this on the homepage of the French version of Google a couple of months back.
http://www.flic...329424/sizes/o/
May be they were testing the reaction of the blogosphere to see if they could get away with it on their .com
I’ve seen the little flash advertisement on yahoo today on the main page (the one with the red light that says “Compromise Deactivated”). With seeing the ad I wonder if anyone else has thought of the H.A.L 9000?
Google is displayed almost as much as Verizon in the Verizon store I visited this morning.
I don’t recall seeing AT&T anywhere last time I went to an Apple store… then again that was almost a year ago.
How much Verizon have you seen at the Google store?
Don’t compare an Apple to an Orange (or a Droid)
Plenty… Google advertises Droid. Verizon sells the Droid. Now you can get back to jobsing for Apples.
“the juxtaposition does make it seem like Bert and Ernie are trying to get you to buy a Droid”
um…no it doesn’t.
Damn with Bert and Ernie looking at me like that I’d never notice that little ad.
Also happy to see no one is calling google sell outs or something over a line of text, the internet has defied my expectations hehe
This is bad! clearly the GOOG got 2much power.
.
Google CEO: “We Won’t Repeat Microsoft’s Mistakes 5 November 2009″
.
Yes you will.
Apple deserves all the rudeness in the world. They are too egoistic and arrogant.
Well I did tell them the other day to start promoting their various hidden products on their homepage.
Google will take all internet services in his hand.
Big G is the best .
Yes i agree
What a whee little ad…
a whee little ad seen by millions of people!
Surprising move from Google; however, competition is competition, isn’t it? The more the promote the Droid, the less hype about the iPhone.
The Droid is powered by Google, wouldn’t Google have a vested interest in the success of the product?
I’d be curious to know whether those few words of text resulted in the “Oprah Effect” for the phone. An ad that received hundreds of millions of impressions…
actually the ads are geotargetted and not all people manage to see it especially in ASIA and some parts of europe, anyway its normal to see advertising droid for they are the pioneer of Android Mobile OS!
see how the Droid unveils today on US: http://bit.ly/d...uered-USA-today
“not so phenomenal ei?”