Saul Hansell of the New York Times is reporting that Google has begun testing video ads on their search pages.

“The big insight of Google wasn’t text ads; it was that the ads should be conducive to the format. We were doing text-based search that was all textual. Visual ads don’t work in that format,” Marissa Mayer, Google’s vice president of search products and user experience told Saul in their interview.

“We don’t want all sorts of video and banner ads all over the site all the time,” Ms. Mayer said. “People who advertise a movie want to show a trailer. Why shouldn’t they have the same format we use for search results and have a little plus box that says watch the trailer?”

Google will be slowly introducing video ads with a small “plus sign” icon next to search results that contain video, according to Hansell’s Bits Blog. Google has been testing multiple ways to leverage video, including YouTube’s overlay graphical ads. Video units were introduced to AdSense in October. Rest assured, this won’t be the last video development for AdSense.

The New York Times & business channel CNBC have teamed up to share video and news on each other’s sites, according to a report in the Times, covered by Reuters.

According to the story, Times articles will be posted on CNBC’s Web site, while CNBC video will appear on the Times’ website. The partnership is clearly aimed at taking on Rupert Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal / Fox Business News alliance.