Google’s new Home Max smart speaker appeared briefly on the company’s search homepage and in the new tab page in Chrome yesterday, February 2, in an advertisement. That may not seem surprising on the surface since Google is, after all, an advertising company first and foremost. However, it is actually a bit unusual for the search giant to openly advertise its own products, or any products at all, on its homepage – let alone on the page which opens when a user selects a new tab in the Chrome browser. Rather than deliberately trying to direct consumers to itself from the outset, the company ordinarily leaves it to the consumer to discover its products via a search query related to its products or in advertisements provided by those searches. The advertisement only appeared for around a day but is no longer seen on the site, as of this writing.
The advertising itself was not exactly subtle but also didn’t appear to be too forced. Inserted below the usual branding, search box, and subsequent buttons, it was comprised of just a few words – which read “Meet Google Home Max. Now in stock.” The products name in that message consisted of a link which redirected to the official Google Store listing for Google Home Max. This is not the first time the company has chosen to use the popularity of its search engine to get the word out about a new product. So it isn’t necessarily the appearance of the advertisement itself that is noteworthy. Instead, what’s interesting is that the advertisement only appeared for a very short period of time and there’s no immediately discernable reason the search giant chose to put the advertisement up, to begin with. It has been speculated that the ad is in response to the launch of Apple’s Home competitor – namely, the Home Pod. That may have something to do with it since Google Home Max actually launched back in December. With that said, and with consideration for how short the timeframe for Google’s ad was, that may not be the best or only explanation. Unfortunately, there’s no way to know for sure.
Whatever the case, it certainly makes sense that Google would want to advertise its newest Assistant-enabled speaker as much as possible. It may not be the most affordable of such speakers. It is undoubtedly among the best available, despite some flaws, at offering premium, high-volume sound and engineered to adapt to its surroundings.
