I though Google didn't advertise

...and just used word of mouth

[robertskelton]

I saw a banner ad for Google Adwords at clickz.com. Is this something new, or have I just been failing to pay attention?

[Shak]

Google have aggresively been advertising for some time on a number of destinations.

468x60 and Skyscrapers come to mind.

to be honest their ads are quite good, I am actually thinking they have done TV ads aswell.

Shak

[sem4u]

I haven't seen any TV ads but the AdWords banners have been appearing on a number of SEO related sites such as searchenginewatch.

[mack]

I have been seeing quite a few skyscraper ads for the Google search appliance.

[robertclough]

That is a myth that so many writers accept as fact without actually checking to see if it is true. I can't count how many articles I've seen repeat that. I guess it makes for good copy.

Google does advertise and has advertised for a long time.

They even had an affiliate program that I believe ended some time in 2001. Here is a snapshot of their log in page from the Internet Archive from June 2000:

[web.archive.org...]

Affiliates placed a Google search box on their sites and Google paid for each search performed. I think it was in the area of $0.02 or $0.03 per search.

[mack]

They still do have an affilite program of sorts with their sponsored links promotion.

Slightly out of the reach of most webmasters though "For sites with more than 5 million searches per month"