The search giant is rumored to be acquiring dynamic, in-console-game ad network AdScape for $23 million, according to reports by CNET and Red Herring.

The move is significant in three ways.

First, it further expands Google's ability to place advertisements against all forms of digital content, mirroring the company's recent forays into email, radio and newspaper, as well as its dominant paid search platform.

Second, as Google's ongoing rivalry with Microsoft heats up, with Google releasing free, web-based word processing, email and spreadsheet applications to compete with Microsoft's core Office suite, the AdScape acquisition can be seen as a response to Microsoft's acquisition of Massive Media for somewhere north of $200 million, another in-game ad network, last year.

Finally, the acquisition reinforces the growing media significance of video games within the media mix at both a consumer and advertising level. If in the past the three screens were television, the personal computer and the mobile phone, a new use of the television screen -- via a gaming console -- is growing in significance with each passing month.

To learn more about gaming and its impact on advertising, see iMedia's coverage in our Emerging Platforms section and learn more about our upcoming Breakthrough Summit.