Bob Dylan Shows Off Google Instant — Google's Second Commercial, Perhaps? [Video]

Mg Siegler

MG Siegler is a general partner at Google Ventures and a columnist for TechCrunch, where he has been writing since 2009. Previously, MG was a general partner at CrunchFund. And before TechCrunch, MG covered various technology beats for VentureBeat. Originally from Ohio, MG attended the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, MI. He’s previously lived in Los Angeles where he worked... → Learn More

Wednesday, September 8th, 2010

During their Search event today, Google’s Marissa Mayer highlighted the fact that the search giant ran their first real commercial this year during the Super Bowl. If they choose to run a second, I think they have it.

Later in the event, Mayer introduced a clip they put together using Bob Dylan’s “Subterranean Homesick Blues” music video. It’s a smart idea because in the video Dylan uses flash cards to show what he’s saying as he sings it — sorta like how you now see results as you type with Google Instant.

The video cuts between shots of Dylan’s video with someone doing a Google Instant query based on what he’s singing and the results showing up as they type. It’s a nice, fun way to show off the power of Google Instant. And at 45 seconds, it’s almost the perfect length to run as a TV spot.

Google has traditionally shied away from advertising, but their chief rival Bing (Microsoft) is doing plenty of it all over television — and they appear to be gaining market share. It may be time for Google to counter in a real way with ads like this.

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