Google Seeking Ad Firm, PR Firm Next?

Advertising Age reports that Google's considering departing from its all-in-house marketing strategy and is in talks now with a few large ad firms.  If this is true, I suppose it's not that big of a stretch to think they might be considering PR firms too.  The guys at SiliconBeat posted this excerpt from the November issue today:

"Just three months after going public, Google has been talking with a few large general advertising agencies, several industry executives have confirmed. A Google representative declined to comment on whether the company is conducting a review. Hiring a traditional ad firm would indicate a major break with Google's past methods of brand development. In lieu of advertising, the company relied on word-of-mouth brand development and the strengths of its search engine. But bringing in either a hot creative shop or a large network with global reach would likely lead to bigger media buys."

Update: John Battelle puts the rumors to bed: "I lobbed a call into some folks I know over at Google, and they confirm, this report is off base. Yes, Google talks to agencies now and again, and yes they use them for relatively minor stuff like placing B2B stuff in support of AdSense and the like, but no, there is no major review for a branding campaign."

[More via Andy Beal, Church Marketing Sucks]