Google announced that they will be closing down their Print Ads initiative. Google will no longer take new ads of February 28th and will close down the whole product offering on March 31st. Google said they are discontinuing this service because “the current Print Ads product is not the right solution.”

Google has been testing newspaper ads since 2006. In early 2007, Google called this service a success and soon expanded it in July of 2007.

This news is not all that surprising, being that Google has recently cut video uploads, notebook, catalog search, dodgeball and Jaiku, plus jobs and offices due to the economic slow down.

Postscript from Greg: I exchanged emails with Google about the closure. Specifically I asked whether the shuttering of PrintAds reflected bearish thinking about traditional media in general and whether Radio Ads or TV Ads were implicated in any way.

Google said “no” — those two programs will continue and are not affected by the demise of Print Ads.

Related Topics: Google: Print Ads & AdSense For Newspapers

About The Author: Barry Schwartz is Search Engine Land's News Editor and owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics. Barry's personal blog is named Cartoon Barry and he can be followed on Twitter here. For more background information on Barry, see his full bio over here. See more articles by Barry Schwartz