In 2009, Google released a slew of paid search betas mostly to support retail advertisers. These betas are, where applicable, being rolled out to other verticals too. Examples include GAN Product Ads, Product Plus Box (renamed Product Extensions) and Ad Sitelinks which we wrote about late last year.
Google is heavily diversifying these days, rolling out a smorgasbord of new initiatives. Tangentially, most enhancements are related to where search is now and/or where search is going in the future. These are welcome innovations in that they focus on how paid ads are displayed to searchers. Up until last year, paid search display had been remarkably stagnant: one to four shaded sponsored listings at the top of Page 1 and the rest running stacked along the right.
Google Paid Search Display
