Google execs admitted that that its traditional media efforts are moving more slowly than expected, writes BusinessWeek. During a May 31 investor conference call, Jonathan Rosenberg, Google's SVP of product management, described the Google Publication Ads program, for example, as disappointing. Print advertising "hasn't taken off as fast as we would like," he said. Google has also struggled in its efforts to, essentially, index and search traditional forms of media - including TV shows and books. In both cases, it has met with obstacles, with traditional media owners, unlike online publishers, demanding that Google stop because it has no rights to manipulate their content.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt, CFO George Reyes, and Rosenberg answered questions during the call on a range of topics, from a recent deal with Dell to the need to partner for any future municipal Wi-Fi projects, and they said a Google web browser would not be in the cards any time soon.

Google execs said the company would continue to push into traditional advertising: "People forget, even inside our company, that the model that is working so very well for us today [online] took a couple of years to get really right," Schmidt said. "My guess is that for each of these new major media initiatives, we'll have a few cycles of trying to find the right combination that really takes off."