After years of declining fortunes, Print newspaper advertising is getting a shot in the arm. The news story of the day is that Google is to start selling advertising in offline print publications like the New York Times. Once again, I happen to think this is not a positive development for Google. The company has seen such enormous diversification, all made possible by its ridiculously deep pockets, I wonder what effect this can have on its long term growth. While Google can certainly afford to test and lose in these ventures, do these distractions represent a sound direction for Google to develop, or are they an indication that Google has run out of ideas and is throwing everything against the wall in the hope that something sticks.