Google Chrome Gets the TV Treatment

When it comes to advertising, Google believes in eating its own dogfood–it uses its own ad platform to promote some of its own services, but it’s rare to see Google self-promotion off the Web. But not unheard of: There used to be billboards in San Francisco touting the GOOG-411 information service, for instance. And Google blogged today it’s going to try advertising its Chrome browser on TV, starting this weekend.

Here’s the ad, which was produced in Japan, originally for online use:

It’s fun to watch for sure. But although I’m a Chrome fan, in part because of its uncluttered feel, I must confess that I didn’t get the point of the ad until I read Google’s post. It’s saying that Chrome is simpler and more streamlined than other browsers. Wonder what percentage of couch potatoes will figure that out–or even understand that Chrome is a Web browser?

I was going to say that this may be the first time a browser has been advertised on the boob tube. But then I found this Internet Explorer 7 ad–also a rather oblique sell, and apparently from A Country That Isn’t The U.S.:

And the Firefox community produced scads of user-generated, TV-style ads for Mozilla’s Firefox Flicks contest a few years ago, although I’m not sure if any wound up on TV:

Any guesses as to whether browser market share will perceptibly change based on Chrome’s exposure on TV? (Side note: Around seven percent of Technologizer visitors use it.)