AOL Coaxes Google to Try Busier Ads

" Users of Google's search engine will soon see something they are not used to on the notoriously spare site: advertising with logos and graphics. And the advertisers will not be limited to America Online, whose talks with Google prompted the change in policy, according to two executives close to the companies' negotiations.

As part of their deal, which is expected to be announced this afternoon, Google is providing AOL with $300 million in advertising on Google's Web sites, intended to use to draw Google search users to related content on AOL's sites, the executives said. That sum is on top of the $1 billion in cash that Google is to invest to buy a 5 percent stake in AOL.

Representatives of Google and AOL said their companies would not comment on any aspect of the negotiations. Google, which has been providing search technology and placing search-based advertising on AOL since 2002, emerged Friday with a tentative deal to renew and expand that relationship, fending off a challenge from Microsoft ..."

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/20/technology/20google.html