In a significant move, Internet giant, Google has decided to close down its Print Ads service.

While commenting on this major move, Google Print Ads director Spencer Spinnell said, “The company would stop selling print ads from 28 February and all previously purchased campaigns would cease by the end of March.”

Spinnell further added that the product did not deliver the kind of results as the company was looking for.

“The product has not created the impact that we or our partners wanted,” pointed Spinnell.

In 2005, Google, world’s most popular Internet search engine, started selling small ads in magazines. Next year, i.e. 2006, the company shifted its focus to newspapers with the launch of Google Print Ads. Starting with 50 partners, Google, further expanded its business to more than 800.

In lawsuits and in public statements, various News organizations have accused Google of making money off their work. Last week, the Minneapolis Star Tribune filed for bankruptcy, joining Tribune Co, which sought protection from creditors on December 8. Some of the biggest US newspaper publishers such as New York Times Co, Washington Post Co, Gannett Co and Tribune Co are Google's print ad customers.

Recently, Google has also made it clear that it would end the development of Google Notebook, which lets users post content from various sources to one site.