There was a time when Google said it would never sully its beautiful white homepage with ads, and today we get a very big one for its new tablet, the Nexus 7.  This is not the first time Google has advertised its own products on that very valuable page, but it's the most prominent, with the ad taking up about as much space as the logo and search bar on the page. Clicking, of course, leads to the Play store, where you can purchase the gadget.  

Back in 2009, the search engine gave its Chrome browser some play. In 2010 it put a little line beneath the search box for the Nexus One phone. Now, six Nexus products later, we get another, bigger Web advertisement. The debut comes just as Google has expanded sales overseas, to France, Germany and Spain. What better way to reach an international audience than through a globally accessible website? That, along with its (generally) well received television campaign should ensure that almost one billion people know that Google has its own tablet sale. Last year, the Google.com homepage drew 1 billion visitors. 

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