And Now, Google Itself Runs Oil Spill Ads

We’ve covered earlier how both BP and legal firms are advertising on Google. Now Google itself is targeting oil spill related terms to drive people to its “Crisis Response” page.

A search for [gulf oil spill] returns an ad from Google that reads “Latest Oil Spill Update: Watch live video of the oil spill cleanup effort.” Here is a picture of the ad:

And here it it is in context with the search results page, the second ad in the right column:

Google often advertises its own products and services, but I believe this may be the first time they have advertised their oil spill “Crisis Response” page.

Postscript: We asked Google about the ads and the page. We were told they’re similar to things Google has done for other disasters in the past, such as here for the Haiti earthquake.

Google also has blog post up today talking about a new feature on its oil spill crisis page, where in cooperation with the White House, people can leave questions they’d like US President Barack Obama to answer during his address tonight.