Google is one of the last companies you might expect to buy a billboard, and Olean, New York, is one of the last places you might expect a tech company to advertise. Nonetheless, Google’s put an ad up in Oleans, and it’s for an out-of-the-way product: GOOG-411.
No one’s really sure how or why this happened - perhaps Google’s accountants simply decided that there was too much cash floating around. Or maybe it’s a graduation present of sorts - GOOG-411 was brought out of Google Labs earlier this week.
In an article for Search Engine Land, Greg Sterling presented a more likely idea, however. “[P]eople will see this when they’re driving in their cars, which is one of the expected use cases,” he wrote. As for the billboard’s middle-of-(scenic)-nowhere location, Sterling speculated, “[P]erhaps that’s also quite intentional, to test a campaign and see if it drives traffic, so to speak.”
In any case, credit goes to Mike Blumenthal for first spotting the GOOG-411 billboard and documenting its existence. Assuming this test - if it is a test - goes well, keep an eye out for Google billboards where you live, as well.
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