Google will stop displaying its controversial banner search ads, six months after testing the new format which went against the internet giant’s previous promises not to advertise on its home screen.
The ads began appearing in feeds in October and generated a backlash. From the start, Google called the banner ads a “brand image experiment” with 30 companies and did not say they would become a permanent search page fixture.
The initial move broke a promise that Google made back in 2005, when then-VP of Search Products & User Experience Marissa Mayer wrote: “There will be no banner ads on the Google homepage or web search results pages. There will not be crazy flashy, graphical doodads flying and popping up all over the Google site. Ever.”
Google Search head Amit Singhal announced yesterday at Search Marketing Expo West in San Jose, Calif., that the firm would no longer display its controversial banner ads in search results.
Their removal comes along with other visual tweaks to Google’s search engine results page.
