San Francisco: Industry statistics find approximately 200 million people play games online and their ranks are growing at a rate of 17 percent annually. To tap the growing online computer games market, search giant,Google is looking to expand its online advertising dominancy by developing AdSene for Games software, which enable website operators to weave video, text, or picture advertisements into online games.

The new software is being tested in the U.S. "AdSense for Games gives game developers a new way to monetize their games and advertisers can now reach the growing number of gamers who are engaged in online play," Google said.

According to the company statement, advertising revenue is split between Google and game developers or publishers. Google is working with games from Konami, Playfish, Zynga and Mochi Media and lists advertisers including Esurance, Sprint, and Sony Pictures.

EMarketer, a researcher finds that the U.S. ad sales for web games will more than double to $478 million by 2012. "Online games are still a bit of a Wild West, with few rules governing how advertisers should place their spots without irritating players," said Paul Verna, an analyst at EMarketer.

Earlier, Google bought Adscape Media, an in-game advertising company, to get the game-ad technology. Recently the company acquired Double click, another Internet advertising solution company, to get a foothold in the market of image ads. The company is also experimenting new strategies with its YouTube site to expand its market revenue. Moreover, YouTube has disclosed that it would offer users links to Apple�s iTunes store and Amazon.com to buy songs and video games they find on the site.

"The game ads will probably be a "drop in the bucket" compared with Google's search-ad business. If the struggling economy holds back growth in the online-advertising market, any new revenue source will still be important for the company," said Verna.