Google really wants you to buy a Motorola Droid, the hot new phone that just hit stores today. In fact, Google is so enamored that it’s advertising the Droid on its homepage: “The Droid is on sale now. Learn more.”

Clicking the “learn more” link leads to this “mobile partners” page that touts the Google search capabilities available on the Droid.

The two links in the upper right — the “Get” button and the “Learn more” text link below it — point to verizonwireless.com and droiddoes.com, respectively.

It’s hard to make the case that this isn’t an ad on Google’s home page, and SEO folks will surely notice that neither off-site link uses the nofollow tag. In other words, some can argue that Verizon is effectively buying a link from Google, which Google fights against.

(Postscript: The link from the home page redirects to a virtual page that is blocked by Google’s robots.txt file, so shouldn’t be passing along PageRank and would be in compliance with Google’s paid links policy. But the “Google Search on Droid by Motorola” page has no such block leading to the Verizon site).

For its part, Google will probably point out that it has run promotions on its home page before, like in October, 2008, when it promoted the T-Mobile G1 — the first Android-based phone — on its home page.

At the time, Google denied that was an ad for T-Mobile, instead calling it a promotion for a Google product.

Google has quite famously declared in the past that the Google home page would remain ad free, compared to other portals. Said Google’s Marissa Mayer in 2007:

There will be no banner ads on the Google homepage or web search results pages. There will not be crazy, flashy, graphical doodads flying and popping up all over the Google site. Ever.

But Google actually has a long history of promoting things on its home page. As Mayer also said in 2007:

The Google home page is very simple and when we put a link underneath the Google search box on the home page to advertise one of our products, we say, “Hey, try Google video, it’s new, or download the new Picassa.” Basically it’s the only other thing on the page, and while it does get a fair amount of click through, it’s nothing compared to the search, because most users don’t even see it.

Notable among these was a Da Vinci Code promotion that put a puzzle on the Google home page in 2006, as well promoting Firefox on the home page in the same year. Both were non-Google products being pushed.

What are your thoughts on today’s version of the home page? Is Google advertising Motorola and the Droid phone?

Postscript: Google’s Gabriel Stricker gave us this statement about the Droid mention on Google’s home page:

We are currently running a homepage promotion for Droid. From time to time we include a link on the Google home page that points users to exciting and important information, whether it be relief opportunities in the wake of a tsunami or hurricane, awareness about an important cause, or information about a new product. The Droid is a hardware collaboration that we’ve been very active and involved with, so it makes sense that Google has an interest in getting the word out.

Following hot on the heels of the Bing / Twitter partnership announced earlier today, Google has now also announced that it, too, has struck a deal with Twitter to include real-time tweets in Google’s search results.

“We believe that our search results and user experience will greatly benefit from the inclusion of this up-to-the-minute data, and we look forward to having a product that showcases how tweets can make search better in the coming months. That way, the next time you search for something that can be aided by a real-time observation, say, snow conditions at your favorite ski resort, you’ll find tweets from other users who are there and sharing the latest and greatest information.”

That was published minutes ago on the official Google blog by VP Marissa Mayer. Not coincidentally, she’s due to speak shortly at the Web 2.0 Summit — where Bing made its announcements earlier today. We plan to live blog her appearance just as we did earlier when Microsoft’s Qi Lu was on stage.

Google is reportedly about to launch a new music service in partnership with LaLa and iLike (MySpace).

— Update, October 28, 2009: This is now live. See our story, Google Music Search 2.0 Launches With Musical “OneBox” for more. —

According to TechCrunch, users will access the Google music service through search:

Users will be able to stream songs directly from Google via partners iLike and LaLa. Additional information around the music query will be provided to users as well (presumably any relevant results from YouTube as well as information already available in Google’s existing music search – example). One source said that Google will organize music searches in a way very similar to the way they do public company stock searches today.

CNET reports the following:

The initiative is coming out of Google Search and is designed to organize everything a music fan may need when searching online for a favorite artist, the sources said.

The way One Box will work is that a person who keys in the names U2 or Coldplay, for example, will find a thumbnail photo of the artists, background information, as well as a listing of the music that they can preview, according to the sources.

There was rumor and speculation about Google launching a music-download service as far back as early 2006. And Google has offered fairly extensive music search since that time (though it’s buried):

An angle I haven’t yet seen discussed is the Android angle. Currently Android users can get music on their phones through a deal with Amazon’s music store. However this is a significant weakness of Android vs. the iPhone, which much more seamlessly integrates music and ringtone downloads into the mobile experience. Delivering music to mobile devices may become part of any such Google service, assuming TechCrunch has it right. We’ll see.

This is another potential way in which Google becomes even more of a direct competitor of Apple.

There’s more discussion on Techmeme.

Postscript: We just received our own ticket/invitation to the launch event:

Reportedly the service will provide e-commerce links to Amazon and the iTunes music store, solving the mystery of the download question.

Google and Verizon have announced a sweeping deal to cooperate around the development of services and devices that use the Android mobile OS (maybe Chrome too) on the Verizon network. What this actually turns out to mean in practice remains to be seen — sweeping and “groundbreaking” deals with limited outcomes have been announced before — but it certainly means that in the US Verizon will be selling Android handsets. What’s striking about this announcement is that Google and Verizon at one time were trading relatively bitter accusations about the openness of mobile networks in the US, and Google bid against Verizon for 700MHz wireless spectrum.

Google also unsuccessfully competed against Microsoft for the Verizon wireless “default” search business. In addition to being motivated by revenue guarantees offered by Microsoft, Verizon’s rejection of Google as mobile search and ads provider was seen as part of the lingering animus between the companies. Microsoft’s win at Verizon was and is a big deal for Bing and adCenter. Yet on the day of the launch of Microsoft’s Windows Mobile 6.5 upgrade and a new push to regain momentum in an intensely competitive US smartphone market, Google has encroached on Microsoft’s relationship with the largest US mobile operator.

I won’t call it a “love triangle,” but Verizon seems to be playing the two companies against each other to a degree. Beyond the Android handset announcement (though no specific handsets have been announced) there’s this vague statement of  intent:

Integral to this agreement is a commitment by the companies to devote substantial resources to accelerate delivery of leading-edge innovation that will put unique applications in the hands of consumers quickly. The two industry leaders will create, market and distribute products and services, with Verizon Wireless also contributing the breadth of its nationwide distribution channels. Consumers will be able to purchase products resulting from the collaboration in Verizon Wireless retail and online stores.

So this could be tablets or netbooks using Android (or Chrome) beyond smartphones. But Android on Verizon both raises its profile and puts pressure on BlackBerry’s touch-screen Storm (or Storm 2) and Windows Mobile phones. The iPhone remains in its own category, but Windows Mobile and Android phones will be going head to head at the largest carriers for consumer attention and it will be a tough fight for Microsoft to win with 6.5.

Most interesting will be to see how Verizon’s search and ads deal with Microsoft plays out on Android handsets. The absence of a “carrier deck” on the Android handsets may allow Verizon to wiggle out of its obligation (as I understand it) to pre-install a Bing search box on all Verizon handsets. I’m guessing at that however.

The Rimm-Kaufman Group reports eBay has quietly dropped Yahoo in place of Google to power the paid search ads on eBay.

Mark explained that over the past several months, eBay has been testing Google ads on about 1% of the ads shown on eBay. On August 26th, he said, eBay “flipped the switch” and began showing Google ads as the bulk of the ads displayed on eBay. About 90% of the ads are now Google powered, whereas the remainder are now Yahoo.

I have not seen this reported elsewhere, and to many, this may come as a surprise. Why? Well, eBay and Google have an interesting relationship, to say the least.

The previously rumored Google news site “Flipper” is in fact launching today as “Fast Flip” in Google Labs. But maybe it should be called Google Skimmer because it permits people to move very quickly through lots of visually rich news pages from dozens of partner publications. According to the Google Blog Post:

Fast Flip is a new reading experience that combines the best elements of print and online articles. Like a print magazine, Fast Flip lets you browse sequentially through bundles of recent news, headlines and popular topics, as well as feeds from individual top publishers. As the name suggests, flipping through content is very fast, so you can quickly look through a lot of pages until you find something interesting. At the same time, we provide aggregation and search over many top newspapers and magazines, and the ability to share content with your friends and community. Fast Flip also personalizes the experience for you, by taking cues from selections you make to show you more content from sources, topics and journalists that you seem to like. In short, you get fast browsing, natural magazine-style navigation, recommendations from friends and other members of the community and a selection of content that is serendipitous and personalized.

Here are some screenshots provided by Google, which look quite similar to the originally leaked screens from the earlier “Flipper” rumors:

According to Google’s Marissa Mayer, Google co-founder Larry Page said, “Why isn’t the web like a magazine?” and wanted a way to browse it. Well, Fast Flip lets users visually browse (as well as search) news. There’s also personalization; the site makes recommendations based on your clicks, searches and other behavior.

When you click on any of the stories, you’re taken to publisher sites, which makes them happy. Speaking of which, Google’s initial publisher partners include the NY Times, Atlantic Magazine, Washington Post, Fast Company, ProPublica and Newsweek.

Google is banking that an improved user experience will mean lots of traffic and page views. Google says that revenue generated from ads on the site will be split with publishers. (This could potentially be a goldmine of display inventory for Google if it expands the content from news into a broad range of magazines.)

If it’s a hit, this probably becomes the successor to Google News. And it may be the testing ground for the potential “micropayments platform” that Google is developing for content publishers — it’s all coming together now. I’m only partly kidding with that remark.

We haven’t yet had a chance to try the site but it looks like a much richer and more interesting way to consume news than, well, Google News.

Google says there’s also a mobile version “with tactile page flipping,” for the iPhone and Android.

Those with BT broadband in the UK have noticed that the Yahoo/BT portal at bt.yahoo.com has a new search technology provider. You would guess that if Yahoo would replace their own search technology, it would be in exchange for Bing, in light of the recent news about the Bing & Yahoo deal. You would be wrong to think that because Google is now powering the search technology Yahoo/BT portal.

Here is a screen capture of the search box that now says, “Powered by Google,” taken from ConnectedInternet.co.uk, which tipped us to this:

I know the Yahoo and Microsoft deal has not been signed off on yet, but you have to admit, this is a bit comical?

The NY Times blogs about an interesting lawsuit between online mortgage lead generator LendingTree and one of its partners Mortech, Inc., which is allegedly about to help Google launch a LendingTree-like loan aggregation or mortgage lead-gen service. According to a press release issued yesterday about the litigation by LendingTree: 

Mortech, whose technology helps automate lender offer pricing, violated its contractual covenants by partnering with Google to launch an online mortgage loan aggregator service similar to LendingTree.

Despite repeated efforts, LendingTree was unsuccessful in resolving the dispute amicably and therefore took legal action. LendingTree has filed a motion for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction enjoining Mortech from assisting Google. A hearing has been scheduled for September 2.

Nobody went formally on the record with the Times to discuss the claims in the suit. Google issued one of its familiar, general statements but did confirm a mortgage-related test:

[W]e are currently working on a small ad unit test that will run against a limited number of mortgage-related search queries in the U.S.

As the Times piece points out Google is not a party to the litigation. It also cites Google “merchant search” (UK) as the potential model for this hypothetical new mortgage quote offering. Google merchant search is not live today but here’s a screenshot of what the UK test looked like:

The focus on mortgage search or quotes is a bit of a red herring I suspect. The UK test was really about developing a model to deliver leads on a CPA or pay-per-call basis. In this case many were small business advertisers (mortgage brokers). Mortgages happened to be the content or category used in this test. One of the clues here is the name of the service: the broadly applicable “merchant search,” not “mortgage search.” 

To the extent that Google is planning to introduce a similar service in the US, you can be sure it’s not about a single vertical but rather about testing a distinct marketplace or CPA model — with an eye toward smaller advertisers (though not exclusively).

Postscript: Here’s the relevant language from the complaint (the complaint was sent to me by Clint Boulton at eWeek) about Google’s program:

LendingTree recently learned that Google imminently plans to launch a loan aggregation service in late August or early September of this year that would compete directly with LendingTree. LendingTree has also learned that Mortech intends to make its pricing engine services available for use with Google’s new service and will send information related to mortgage loan offers to be displayed to consumers on Google’s website.

LendingTree obtained “screen shots” of the trial version of Google’s service that further indicate that, like LendingTree’s service, Google will provide customers with conditional loan offers in addition to lenders’ contact information.

Google’s TV Ads platform is getting some help from a company called Visible World, which offers demographic and geotargeted advertising across different media types. According to an article in the Wall Street Journal this morning:

Google Inc. is teaming up with Visible World Inc., a well-known New York technology company that uses software to create multiple versions of a given ad, in its push to offer TV advertisers more targeting options.

Google will combine the technology with its Google TV Ads, an automated auction-based system for buying TV ads by choosing which shows best fit the advertised product or service. The idea of such “addressable advertising” is to send a TV ad promoting a sale on minivans to a household with children, for example, and the same basic ad with a promo for a sports sedan to a childless household.

The combination will allow agencies and brands to make different versions of the same campaign to target different audiences by income, household composition, location and so on. In offline TV, Google works with EchoStar and cable operator Astound. Google TV Ads also appear online.

The cable TV industry is working on its own “addressable TV” initiative called Project Canoe. And NBC is using a Microsoft ad platform called Admira (based on its Navic acquisition) for addressable TV. There are other companies (e.g. SpotRunner) operating in the segment as well.

The effort and objective (more precise and dynamic audience targeting) is very similar to what Yahoo has been developing with the APT platform for display advertising online.

In anticipation of a spin off/IPO for AOL, TimeWarner bought back Google’s 5 percent interest in the company for $283 million dollars. Google originally purchased the equity stake in AOL in 2005 to preserve its search relationship with its largest partner and fend of Microsoft, which was seeking a potential deal with or acquisition of AOL.

The original Google investment was $1 billion, which valued the TimeWarner AOL unit at $20 billion. The current valuation of AOL, based on the share buy back, would be roughly $5.6 billion.

Here’s what Google said, before it wrote down most of the value of its AOL investment last year, in its 10-Q filing (9/08) with the Securities and Exchange Commission:

We review our investment in AOL for impairment in accordance with FSP SFAS 115-1, The Meaning of Other-Than-Temporary Impairment and Its Application to Certain Investments (“FSP 115-1”). Based on our review, we believe our investment in AOL is impaired. After consideration of the duration of the impairment, as well as the reasons for any decline in value and the potential recovery period, we do not believe that such impairment is “other-than-temporary” at September 30, 2008 as defined under FSP 115-1. As a result, our investment in this non-marketable equity security is carried at cost on our Consolidated Balance Sheets. We will continue to review this investment for impairment on a quarterly basis. There can be no assurance that impairment charges will not be required in the future, and any such amounts could be material to our Consolidated Statements of Income.

These developments are quite far removed from the day when AOL acquired TimeWarner in an all-stock deal valued at $160 billion — then the largest merger/acquisition in US history. The combined company was supposed to marry the strengths of both businesses. That really never materialized and TimeWarner (and investors) soured on AOL to the point that it became perceived as a liability and is now being effectively unloaded by the media giant.