Gmail Users Get "Sendable Ads"

Users of Google's Gmail service in the US may already have spotted the new types of advertising that the search giant is now piloting on its email service.  Termed "sendable ads", the format has been on the boil for a while, and has finally made it to market, albeit only in the US right now.

This new type of internet marketing does not offer full-scale display advertising, but instead the format is of a small text based ad with a small image.  Many commentators were expecting some sort of group selling offer similar to Groupon or LivingSocial's daily offering, to exploit the connective nature of email and the easy forwarding of offers, but these seem to be more passive in nature.

The ads, which appear in the top right of the screen above the standard, contextual AdSense advertising, have the advertisers' name or message appearing in what is meant to look like an email subject line, next to a typical unread email icon.  Users can click on the ad, save it to their inbox or forward it to friends, or indeed eliminate it completely by clicking the "dismiss" button.  

A Google spokesperson told online news and commentary site Search Engine Watch that they were " testing a new ad format with a small number of Gmail users in the the new format allows people to interact with ads within Gmail and is the latest example of our efforts to make ads more useful and relevant."  Interestingly, they also commented that they are not keeping track of who users forward ads to; which, given the point of the experiment seems to be to measure ad forwarding behaviours, we would not be surprised to see change over time.