Search Trends - Search Engine Marketing

I've always thought Google's recent toe-dip into print advertising is an interesting concept that would probably not work. This BusinessWeek article talks about how Google's recent print ad auction flopped. Unless Google is somehow getting the ad space at bargain basement prices (I mean dirt cheap), it's probably not going to turn out to be profitable. I just don't see how they can possibly make this print ad thing work with the lackluster demand...unless they're doing some kind of barter deal where they give the magazines free credits for adwords. But even then, they'll lose out on real money from other advertisers in exchange for the print ad space. I don't see that working long term.

It's interesting to see that the auction prices for those print ads were so far below the list price...by creating an open marketplace, Google may have simply exposed the true market value of those types of ads.