I have a long standing belief that any internet company who finds it necessary to advertise on television is not worth having an ownership stake in. Maybe its time for me to make a portfolio change. - Geoff Schultz {TF}

NexusOne ad perhaps? Google is no longer a startup! heh :P - Susan Beebe

Especially this sentence; "Hell has indeed frozen over." - Özkan Altuner

Yeah, probably something Android related. Couldn't imagine them advertising anything else. Would be amusing if they did a Chromium promo though. - Geoff Schultz {TF}

Yeah, I saw that and... <scratches head> - Victor Panlilio

Battelle is reporting that Google will be running a search ad, not android/chrome: http://battellemedia.com/archive... - Adam Kazwell

It's just a sign of the times... The end times... - Paul Buchheit from iPhone

I blame the iPad - Jesse Stay

Sometimes an ad is just so good that we have a responsibility to show it even to TV viewers. ;-) - Daniel Dulitz

Why wouldn't/shouldn't goog advertise on tv. Can't understand the reaction here. - t toring from iPhone

They'll have to beat Go Daddy ;) - WarLord

There's a long history/tradition of Google not advertising its main search product, but rather making the product good enough that it sells itself via word-of-mouth. - Jim Norris

Are you faulting Google the advertising company for running ads? - Hayes Haugen

Word is that this ad from their "Search Stories" (Parisian Love) will air during the Superbowl: http://www.youtube.com/watch... - George S.

When its a high growth story company who prides itself on innovation, it just makes me think they have run out of great ideas to invest their money in. When that happens the growth story is usually over. - Geoff Schultz {TF}

excellent ad - t toring

Yeah, it was classy, I'll give it that. - Geoff Schultz {TF}

What was the music from? - WarLord

Say what you will about whether Google should be advertising or not, but didn't that ad just make you smile? Maybe it struck me because it somewhat resembled my own experience, but I thought it was beautifully simple. - Joel Webber

I thought that the ad was fantastic. In fact, I'm definitely in the camp of "it's so good that showing it to a large audience outweighs any long-standing policy of not advertising on TV." Yes, that good. Geoff, I'm surprised that you're reading that much into it. Especially since companies have been advertising since there were companies. - Chieze Okoye

It isn't so much that I think advertising is bad, or that it is a sure sign of bad things to come. It just generally gives me the impression that the company may have more money than ideas. In this case I think my general "rule of thumb" is probably dead wrong. I have been especially swayed in retrospect by how good the ad really was and how well received it was. - Geoff Schultz {TF}

Like maybe if you have enough money for a Super Bowl Ad a nice fat shareholder dividend be in order - WarLord

To be fair, if an advertisement costs $X, and produces greater than $X in additional profit (without harming the brand), and assuming a good cash position (which Google has), then it makes sense to run the ad regardless of other possible innovations, dividends, etc. (because there isn't actually a tradeoff -- you can do both) - Paul Buchheit

Yes, thank you Paul. - Chieze Okoye

As long as I will keep reminding friends and colleagues to google before they ask, I consider that Google should be advertised with even more intensity! - philos