In its first significant expansion beyond the internet, Google has bought advertising in a handful of technology-industry magazines and resold chunks of the space to merchants already participating in its booming internet marketing network.
The company confirmed the test, but provided few other details in a statement.
Spokesman Michael Mayzel declined to say whether the experiment will include general-circulation magazines or newspapers.
Some of the first print ads arranged by Google (GOOG) appeared in the Sept. 6 issue of PC magazine. Ads from five different companies appear on a full page punctuated with the tag line, "Ads by Google."
Despite all its technological prowess, Google remains highly dependent on online advertising. Internet ads, mostly text-based links that appear alongside search results and other related web content, accounted for virtually all of Google's $712 million profit through the first half of this year.
Ironically, Google doesn't advertise to promote its own brand and services.
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Close the gap: Already mired in a sales slump, The Gap has closed its two most popular internet stores so the clothing retailer can upgrade its online operations before the pivotal holiday shopping season.
Both Gap.com and OldNavy.com have been closed for the past week, driving frustrated shoppers to other Web sites to buy clothes.
Banana Republic, another chain owned by The Gap (GPS), also closed its site two days last week before reopening Aug. 26.
Hoping to minimize the customer inconvenience, The Gap waited until after most back-to-school shopping had been finished before launching a "soup-to-nuts" overhaul of its major e-commerce sites, said company spokeswoman Kris Marubio. She said the changes were too complex to let the site continue running.
The San Francisco-based company isn't saying when the sites will reopen. Instead, visitors are being asked to leave their e-mail addresses so they can be informed when the sites are selling clothes again.
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DVD delays: Toshiba may delay the year-end launch of its next-generation HD DVD players, potentially undermining its advantage as the first supplier to put such machines on the market.
The company added, however, any change in the launch schedule would be intended to maximize potential demand for the new products and that Toshiba remains committed to the HD DVD format as the next-generation DVD technology.
Toshiba and Sony (SNE), leading rival camps, have waged a three-year battle to have their different standards adopted for the new DVDs, which promise much greater capacity for high-definition movies.
Toshiba planned to launch HD DVD players in the fourth quarter of 2005 in Japan and the United States, while Sony plans to put a Blu-ray disc drive in its new PlayStation game console next year.
There is also a possibility that the products' launch in Japan may not come until after December.
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Fingered by text: In a high-tech hunt for soccer hooligans, Dutch police sent 17,000 text messages to the mobile phones of fans who attended a match marred by rioting.
Supporters rioted before, during and after the April 17 match in Rotterdam. Two train cars were vandalized beyond repair, 43 fans were arrested and 47 police officers and an unknown number of fans were injured.
Phone companies voluntarily handed over the mobile numbers of people who were in or around the stadium that day. The companies did not give individual names to police, and police sent a standard message asking people to come forward if they had information.
But some suspects apparently thought they had been fingered. Four suspects contacted police, and a fifth turned himself in directly.
Rotterdam police also filmed the clashes and have posted images of suspects on their website, drawing complaints from privacy groups. Posting the images contributed to 100 additional arrests in the months after the game.
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Compiled by Keith Axline. AP and Reuters contributed to this report.
