The news that Google is to appear in its first-ever TV campaign via a tie-up with British Airways begs the question of whether the search engine might consider seriously advertising in its own right?
One of Google's many claims to fame is having built its position as the all-conquering search engine with no advertising. Just a great product and word of mouth.
Despite the clear relevance of the TV tie-up - a promotion of the spectacular Google Earth product to allow holiday-makers to scout close-up where they are going on their BA holiday - it is interesting that Google is promoting one of its myriad of spin-off services.
Admittedly, with the lions share of the search, and the search advertising market, sewn up, the main Google search service needs little promotion.
Yet Google clearly has major plans outside of search.
There is no doubt that its penchant for launching products that mimic competitors' services has been rife. Google Video against YouTube, Gmail against rival email services, and Google Base and Google Talk mimic eBay and Skype type services to name but a few.
Mark Mulligan, vice president and research director at Jupiter Research, describes its plans as attempting to reverse engineer as a full portal player.
The problem, he argues, is that Google hasn't really been that successful outside of its core search capability.
"Whatever Google do outside of search doesn't replicate the success that they have had in their core area. They are purely ad-funded and are trying to expand their business model but, by in large, they are yet to succeed in developing new business models."
Piggy-backing on BA's ads is a cheap, and smart, opportunity for Google.
But if it really wants to become a "portal" of sorts and take on MSN, Yahoo! and AOL ( while also chipping away at YouTube et al.) then is there an argument for Google to better market itself as a multi-product provider?
