Google Launches Instant Previews for Ads

Last November, Instant Previews made their debut on Google’s search results pages. Today, Google is taking this concept one step further by introducing Instant Previews for Ads as well. Thanks to this new feature, you can now get a preview of the site that hides behind text ads on Google Search without having to click on the link and without leaving the search results page.

For advertisers, who generally pay Google per click on a text link, this should be a welcome new feature, as it will allow potential customers to see a preview of the site’s landing page without having to click on an ad (and hence costing the advertiser money). Advertisers won’t have to pay for clicks on the Instant Preview button.

Judging from today’s announcement, these previews will currently remain limited to ads on Google’s own search results pages and will not appear on third-party sites that use Google AdSense.

Rumors that Google was testing this feature first appeared late last week. Google is rolling this new feature out in the U.S. today and plans to make it available in the rest of the world within the next few weeks.