Google's App Streaming lets you try out games inside ads

Last month Google revealed a rather intriguing new technology to its mobile search. App Streaming basically embedded a portion of an app's experience right inside Google's search results, giving users a foretaste and teaser of what the full app offers. Now Google is bringing that feature to its mobile ads as well. Now users will be able to take games for a Trial Run right inside the game's ad. And ad makers can also make use of customized and highly interactive ads to rope in more users to their apps.

App Streaming is almost like an evolution of App Indexing, a feature that Google rolled out into Search last year. With App Indexing, you get links to relevant content stored inside apps right from the search results. App Streaming, on the other hand, works when the app isn't even installed on the device yet. This gives users a sort of preview of the app to see if it's relevant to their purpose.

That idea is a perfect match for games, which are a bit more subjective than apps. To some extent, Trial Run, as it is formally named, is a time-limited demo version of a game, embedded right inside the ad for the game. In the example below, users have a full minute to check if the game really plays out as promised.

Trial Run isn't the only new type of ad that Google is cooking up. Interactive Interstitial ads lets app makers use HTML5 to create a more dynamic and interactive advertisement beyond the usual image or animation sequence. It's not app streaming because you won't get a preview of the app. Instead, users will be able to, for example, scroll through the latest items in a shopping app or discover a discount offer, all before they even install the app.

Google has been increasing its efforts to tie its Android mobile ecosystem with its core Search business. Some are even saying this is how Google plans to dominate or even kill apps. That said, the new interactive ads aren't going to happen by magic and developers will need to make the extra effort to make it happen. The Trial Run and Interactive Interstitial ads, however, are still currently in beta and is therefore limited in availability.

SOURCE: Google