Much has been made of Google’s willingness - and now need considering the economic downturn - to monetize Google Images search. Google has even suggested that it may mean an incremental $200 million.

But they’ve been cautious to add AdWords to Image search - perhaps because it is a difficult balance between matching user intent and relevancy….

Until today - the first day I noticed prominent ads within image search. I don’t believe that this implementation is effective - and certainly not capable of generating $200m. The trouble is that it does a poor job of matching ads with what the user is looking for: imagery. Even if the ads are interesting - my eye immediately seeks graphics… because that is my clear, stated intent.

Google has graphic inventory to leverage - from AdWords to DoubleClick to Froogle. There has to be a better solution.