I feel like, after my little rant about the Bing commercials, I should weigh in quickly on Google’s first foray into TV advertising. Long story short, I liked it. Especially when I compare it against the original Bing commercials. It wasn’t obnoxious, too long, and borderline fear-mongering. It was clean and simple, exactly as we’d expect from the company with a compulsively simple home page. I liked how it focused on the features and capabilities of the search engine, something that Bing ads have more recently caught on to, and I liked that it managed to tell a short story which people can relate to without showing anything but the search pages, something that Bing ads have more recently failed at.

That said, I’m a little saddened that Google broke the tradition of no TV ads. I mean, I’m glad that it didn’t suck, and I do kind of like the one-upmanship of responding to Bing’s entire ad campaign with one Super Bowl ad. But it’s like that end of the era. Also, as was pointed out to me today, it’s a bit of an odd move to make France feature so prominently in a commercial aimed at the Super Bowl audience. Overall, though, I don’t think they’re hurting themselves with the move.