Google doesn’t frequently advertise their services or products in traditional venues very often. Apparently there are plans to advertise Chrome on TV and they ran their billboards for Goog-411 in out of the way places in September of 2007. In late April, Google introduced profile results that included personal profiles as a OneBox in the main Google search results. To promote this service Google offered up 25 free business cards to the first 10,000 respondents with profiles (thanks to Steve Hatcher of AxeMedia.com). Mine came in the mail today:

Along with the free cards came a promotion from iprint to buy an additional 250 cards for $19.97. Ironically, this is an 18% premium over their current rate for full color cards that include address, phone, business name, etc. One would have to love Google an awful lot to buy a set of business cards that forces the user to the web to get critical contact information. That being said, I am glad to get the cards for free as I stopped carrying business cards about the same time as I threw away my fax machine. These 25 should last me a very long time. 

Another irony, from where I sit, is that it appears that my personal profile is more secure and less vulnerable than a business listing in Maps.