Google has confirmed that they are testing incredibly large banner ads for specific branded queries.

@SynrgyHQ posted an image on Twitter showing for the query [southwest airlines a huge “sponsored” ad at the top of the search results.

A Google spokesperson confirmed this is a “small experiment” running currently in the U.S. market.

The ad seems to take up the majority of the screen real estate. I assume since it is a very branded query, Google finds this ad to be relevant and they are testing to see the click-through on this ad.

The No Banner Ads Ever Promise

In 2005, Google promised that banner ads would never come to web search, saying:

There will be no banner ads on the Google homepage or web search results pages. There will not be crazy, flashy, graphical doodads flying and popping up all over the Google site. Ever.

Eight years later, it seems Google may be ready to break that promise.

Update: The team at Synrgy has learned from a source at Google that the “brand image experiment” is live with about 30 advertisers, including Crate & Barrel and Virgin America. The test is showing for less than 5 percent of search queries.

Synrgy also provided access to the HTML page. Despite the gray box surrounding both the banner and the text listing, the ad is comprised of the banner only. The Southwest Airlines text listing and sitelinks below the image are standard organic results. We’ve asked Google for clarification on why the gray box surrounds both paid and organic units as well as cost structure and will update here when we learn more.

Postscript: See our follow-up story, FAQ: All About The Banner Ad Test In Google’s Search Results.

Our sister site Marketing Land is collecting examples of these brand banner ads spotted in the wild. See which brands we’ve been able to spot in search results below: