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Visual ads, long absent from Google's search results, opened on the site in the form of expandable video ads today.

Google took another step away from its history as a minimalist provider of relevant search results. Along with the One Box ads atop search results, and the right sidebar of ads, Google will place another monetization component on those pages.

Details of the move appeared on the Bits Blog. Google VP Marissa Mayer described why after all of their success with text ads that they needed to take this step:

“The big insight of Google wasn’t text ads; it was that the ads should be conducive to the format,” Ms. Mayer said. “We were doing text-based search that was all textual. Visual ads don’t work in that format.”

By contrast, she said text ads are not as effective on pages with search results that include images and video. The eyes of users automatically gravitate to the images more than the text, she said. Now that Google’s main search results pages include more images, video links and other elements, it is more appropriate, she argued, to have corresponding advertising formats.

"It’s the end of what was once considered one of Google’s major strengths, and opens the doors for up-and-comers to go back to Google’ s original spartan approach to search," Mashable editor Adam Ostrow commented.

Google is in a position where they may feel a pressing need for better ad performance. Between a small slip in their Q4 2007 financials, and Microsoft ready to raise the Jolly Roger and pillage Yahoo, there's probably no small amount of The Fear wafting through the Googleplex these days.