A Google goof?

Google’s attempt to transport its online advertising model (high bidder wins the ad space) to the dead-tree industry isn’t going so well.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle:

Google’s print initiative includes more than two dozen publications such as the Chicago Sun-Times, Car and Driver, and PC Magazine. As part of the program, Google buys unsold ad space and then resells it in an auction.

Bidders are asked to submit the size of the ad they want and the maximum price they are willing to pay. The highest bidders get the ad space.

The model largely mimics how Google sells online ads and then displays them alongside search results on its Web site and on partner Web sites. However, the print experiment’s results fall far short of the company’s wild success online.

The story also points out that analysts complain that Google has become excessively secretive after going public in 2004.

Apparently, all that Googles is not gold.

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