Google moves into expandable advertising

The company is to introduce expandable adverts to its search results pages. If a user clicks on an advert then it will expand over the page, enabling different sorts of media content.

“Expandable ads are rich media ads that can expand beyond the original size of the ad unit, following a user-initiated action,” said the company in a blog posting.

“This creates more real estate for the ad, allowing for more interaction from interested users. For instance, expandable ads may stream a movie trailer, show video game clips, or display various views of an item for sale.”

The company is however anxious to avoid irritating its user base so is imposing restrictions on the adverts. Users will have to click on the advert, rather than just rolling a mouse over it, and the expanded adverts are limited to double the width or height of the text advert.

Users will also be able to shut the expanded advert at any time and can even block them altogether using Google’s Competitive Ad Filter.

Currently the adverts will only be available to advertisers in the United States but, if successful, they are likely to be expanded out to other markets.