Google Ads Pitch Making Google Your Homepage

It can seem odd that people search for “Google” on Google, but they do. And for those who do within Google News, the company has been running ads encouraging them to make Google their homepage.

I noticed this happening in the middle of last month, and you can still see it happening today:

The ad says, “Make Google Your Homepage” with the message “Access Google Conveniently By Setting It As Your Browser Homepage,” as you can see in close-up below:

I’ve seen at least one other variation, pitching “Google At Your Fingertips,” as shown below:

Clicking on the ads takes you to a special page pitching Google as a homepage option:

Using the “Get Started” button there unveils the instructions for making your browser open by default to the Google home page. The instructions were specific to Chrome or Safari, when I went to the page in each of those browsers.

Google’s run house ads promoting its various services for years, but this particular campaign — which runs only in Google News — felt new to me, especially that landing page. I did ask Google when it began and if the page was new, but the company never provided a follow-up answer.