Google.com Becomes a Home For House Ads

Google continues to use its homepage in a more aggressive manner to promote its own products. Today, the digital giant is using the real estate below the search box to push a 2-minute video that lauds its real-time search capabilities, reintroducing the 20-month old “Search Stories” campaign.

The video’s creative highlights how a Louisiana music school teacher won $1 million earlier this year by playing 2K Sports’ “MLB 2K12” video game. The teacher evidently didn’t know anything about baseball two weeks prior to winning the contest but quickly boned up on the sport using Google search.

According to a rep for 2K Sports, the video games brand didn’t pay anything for its inclusion. The rep told ClickZ News that Google contacted the company in recent weeks, asking for permission to use the brand in the video. 2K Sports then supplied video creative already produced that was included in the final effort.

ComScore reports that Google’s homepage received 127 million unique U.S. visitors in July. Thursday’s development marks at least the second time in as many months that Google has leveraged the traffic to promote itself. On Sept. 7, it advertised a link to its Google Offers platform in a clear effort to bear down on daily deals leaders Groupon and LivingSocial.

And in other Google Offers news today, JetBlue is running a $30-for-$300 voucher for the New York City, Boston, Austin, TX, and Washington D.C. markets.