Search Engine Watch gets a spokesperson to confirm that “We are currently conducting a limited test of ads in Google Earth. We do not have any other specifics to share at this time.”
Here is what they look like. (Via Search Engine Lowdown.)
Clearly, what Google is experimenting with this time around is a kind of Adwords for Google Earth, not Adsense. Adwords are the ads that appear next to a search in Google, while Adsense is the kind of ads you get to see on a blog like this one.
If you like discussing what Google’s ad strategy might be for Google Earth, there was an interesting flurry of speculation back in November. The suggesttion then by Brian Flood was that Google Earth might someday have Adsense ads, as a way for freelance content producers to get paid for their KML.
As for whether ads in Google Earth are a good thing or a bad thing, Check out the post and comment thread on James Fee’s blog from around then.
The ads for Google Earth have been turned on regularly since at least the announcement last week that GE was out of beta. The ads almost always show up when you perform a search for a business related name (say “hotel” or “Walmart”). I rarely see them come up for other things (like city names). The ads are unobtrusive and usually highly relevant (e.g. search for hotels shows both waypoints for hotels, and usually a corresponding ad for the same hotel). Only 1 ad is seen at a time.