Look at this advert for Google Desktop that I've just seen appear on the Google results page:

http://ruscoe.net/blog/uploads/google-desktop-ad-20060630.gif

Is that the biggest graphical advert they've ever had on there?

(For the full screenshot, view the file above but with a PNG extension.)

FYI, here are the original images for the UK:

http://www.google.co.uk/images/soccer_gdrpp_left.png
http://www.google.co.uk/intl/en_uk/images/soccer_gdrpp_right.png

Interesting how they show a different score for each country/language:

USA...
http://www.google.co.uk/intl/en_us/images/soccer_gdrpp_right.png

France...
http://www.google.co.uk/intl/fr_fr/images/soccer_gdrpp_right.png

Germany get the best outcome though...
http://www.google.co.uk/intl/de_de/images/soccer_gdrpp_right.png

:-)

As I can remember, this is the largest <graphical> ad. It's been there for a while btw.

Whats with the "get live world cup scores on your computer" ?

[Moved from "Google Desktop promotion in SERP"]

I don't really know if that's new but...

http://lh3.google.com/menjatallarins.com/RK4aTsqmABI/AAAAAAAAAKY/6vz-oGUQrmw/promoting_desktop.jpg

This is showing at the bottom of the SERP while making a search at Google in spanish (http://www.google.es/search?q=sample&hl=es&lr=lang_es&sa=X&oi=lrtip9)

They're just taking advantage of the world cup to let people know there are things beyond just google.