While advertising by Google may practically appear to be a "not required" kind of thing - considering the fact that for Internet users the two words 'Google' and 'search' are essentially synonyms - the search engine biggie has still embarked upon a rare marketing campaign!

The new commercial crusade by Google is largely aimed at businesses, giving them a glimpse of the company's online suite of office applications - particularly the collaboration enterprise applications - which the company's claims are better alternatives than the on-premise software from either Microsoft or IBM.

The recent Google move to promote its cloud computing platform, apparently results from the moves of its competitors - while Microsoft is working on its Office Web suite to counter Google Apps, IBM has also shown its keenness to venture into the cloud computing arena with IBM Lotus Live.

Google's lately-launched aggressive marketing efforts come despite the fact that the company has been selling its "apps" package for over two years. The Google advertising campaign basically comprises the leasing of billboards by the company, all along the main highways in New York, San Francisco, Chicago and Boston this month.

In order to promote its pack of business applications, which is sold for $50 per worker per year, Google will have a different message displayed each weekday for the month of August, beginning from Monday, August 3!