Spotted in the Wild: Video Ads in Google Search Results

We’ve known since mid-February of Google’s plans to test video ads in its search results pages, but we haven’t seen them in action. That is until now. The below “testimonial” video ad for Intel is running today against a search for the company’s name. Google SERP video ads were spotted earlier by two blogs:Google Operating System caught the same Intel clip on a search for “laptop,” and Digital Inspiration screen-grabbed a video spot for AT&T that was placed against the keyword “phone.”

The first image here shows what looks like a typical search ad with the addition of a plus sign (+), indicating the ad can be expanded:

Clicking (+) opens and plays the video. The ad is 45 seconds long and centered completely on a film maker’s love for his computer chip. “This is the thing that lets me make movies,” he says.

Once the clip plays out, a link to Intel’s site appears over the video frame. Clicking the link takes the viewer to a product page for Intel’s Quad Core Xeon processors.