Google recently announced it was experimenting with its AdSense program to boost ad relevance, but now it’s using the contextual ad service in a bold new way -- to distribute cartoons.

The search giant has struck a deal with Seth MacFarlane, the creator of the "Family Guy" TV series, for 50 two-minute episodes of an original animated series called "Seth MacFarlane's Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy," The New York Times reports.

While an online series hardly sounds original, the big innovation is in how Google will distribute "Cavalcade." Instead of setting up a website or promoting the series through ads, Google will syndicate the series using AdSense, putting the actual animated videos on thousands of websites that already attract MacFarlane's fan base. Google is calling the distribution service the Google Content Network.

Advertisers will have a number of options for being incorporated into the series, including pre-roll and in-video banners. MacFarlane, who will receive a percentage of the ad revenue, is also working with advertisers to animate original ads to accompany the "Cavalcade" episodes, which he described as "animated versions of the one-frame cartoons you might see in The New Yorker, only edgier."

The series reportedly has a multimillion-dollar budget, leading to high expectations among the involved parties.

"We believe the revenue could be formidable," said Karl Austen, a lawyer who participated in the negotiations. "What is exciting is that this is a way to monetize the internet immediately. Instead of creating a web site and hoping Seth's fans find it, we are going to push the content to where people are already at."