Google announced that it is putting all of its non-search display advertising offerings together into one network called the Google Display Network.

Neal Mohan, Vice President of Product Management explains the reasoning behin this on the Inside AdWords blog: "Over the past year, we’ve been focused on investing in display advertising, and we’ve seen great momentum from the increasing number of you running display campaigns with Google. We’ve rolled out new features and targeting options and more precise measurement tools. To provide more places for you to run display ads, we’ve added more publisher sites (through Google AdSense and DoubleClick Ad Exchange) to our ad network of over one million sites. Meanwhile, many of you have continued to run ads on YouTube and our own properties."

"The Google Display Network will comprise all of the sites (apart from search sites), where you can buy ads through Google, including YouTube, Google properties such as Google Finance, Gmail, Google Maps, Blogger as well as over one million Web, video, gaming, and mobile display partners (our display partners include all of our AdSense and DoubleClick Ad Exchange partner sites that allow text and/or display ads)," he continues. "The Google Display Network offers all ad formats –  text, image, rich media, and video ads – enabling you to unleash your creativity and engage potential customers across the Web."

Nothing has changed about the way advertisers run ads. AdWords bidding and reservations for YouTube and Google Finance, for example, will be the same.

Google says that in the coming weeks, you’ll see a change in the AdWords interface that reflects the new Google Display Network brand.

More details about the Google Display Network can be found here.

Do you think it was a good idea to consolidate Google’s display ad offerings? Share your thoughts.