Google.com promoting Nexus 7 tablet

Nexus-7-tabletTaking the promotion of its &199-priced Nexus 7 tablet - which hit the markets two months back - to a new level on Tuesday, Internet search giant Google has used its typically sparse ‘google. com’ home page to post an advertisement for the device.

The Nexus 7 ad, which Google posted on the home page on August 28, essentially had a click on the Google search page popping up the tablet from the page’s bottom, along with the following tag line under Google Search and I'm Feeling Lucky buttons: “The playground is open. The new $199 tablet from Google.”

The protocol-breaking move from Google came as somewhat of a surprise because the company has thus far refrained from resorting to the use of its distinctive ‘home page advantage’ for product promotions.

With the Nexus 7 promotion on the Google home page clearly underscoring that Google is pushing its tablet more than before, Ezra Gottheil - senior analyst with Technology Business Research – said that the move, rather than being a dig at Apple, was apparently undertaken to “enhance the Android brand that has been somewhat tarnished by the Samsung judgment.”

Noting that the new Nexus 7 promotional move has come close on the heels of the verdict of the Samsung-Apple patent-infringement lawsuit, Gottheil said that the ruling has seemingly caused a confusion among consumers about “the status and future of Android”; and added that “promoting Nexus is more a defensive measure than an offensive one.”