Google Inc., the Internet search giant, will introduce a system for running TV-style commercials as it tries to capitalize on a fast-growing segment of online advertising.

The commercials may lessen the firm's reliance on search-related advertising and attract a new type of marketer, such as those that advertise on television, according to a report on the Los Angeles Times website.

Google made the move after online advertising soared 30 percent to 12.5 billion U.S. dollars last year as advertisers shifted strategies.

The video ads won't appear alongside Google's search results, just on the content websites of partners such as blogs and newspapers, said the report.

It said Google's system is also auction-based, similar to its method for matching targeted ads with search results, news stories or blog postings.

The commercials will appear as static Web ads, but with a small video player. Clicking the play button will start the video playing in the ad box. An advertiser won't pay for the ad unless the viewer clicks through to its website. If consumers fail to click on the ad, Google's system will replace it with another, more relevant ad.

Web publishers that use Google's AdSense service will start seeing the video ads on their sites sometime this week, said Gokul Rajaram, a Google product management director. He said he expected TV advertisers to test different cuts of a commercial through the Google system to decide which to air.

Entertainment companies such as 20th Century Fox and Paramount Classics have been testing the service with trailers for TV show DVDs and film releases.

But Google executives said they also hoped small businesses such as bed-and-breakfast inns would use video ads to attract customers on specialty websites.

Google's service debuts as big companies plan their media buys during the TV networks' annual upfront spring ad drive.

Some advertisers, including Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Hewlett- Packard Co., are championing an Internet-based auction for buying and selling TV ads.

Google has the advantage, when it comes to delivering targeted ads in search results, when a web surfer has already signaled an interest in a particular subject, but in terms of flashy ads preferred by brand-name advertisers, Google's text-based ads hold less appeal than display ads on Internet portals such as Yahoo Inc., Time Warner Inc.'s AOL and Microsoft Corp.'s MSN.

Source: Xinhua