AT FIRST GLANCE, A HELP-WANTED ad posted on online job boards last week for a New York-based media buyer looks like thousands of others placed by Madison Avenue each year: "Requirements. 3+ years experience in media buying for a large advertiser or agency. Strong negotiation and analytical skills. Proven track record of exceeding goals." What makes it remarkable is its sponsor - Google - and its timing, coming just months into a "test" the Internet search engine has been conducting, in which it buys and re-sells advertising space in offline media. To date, Google executives say it has been just that: a test. They also say it has been confined to print media, though they are evaluating whether to expand into other media as an extension of what they've been doing online all along: using Google's technology to serve relevant, targeted ad messages on behalf of advertisers and agencies. But that doesn't explain the growing sense of angst among some of Madison Avenue's top executives when they allude mysteriously to Google's plans for muscling into the media planning and buying business, fearful that the highly capitalized company plans to muscle into Madison Avenue's turf.

"When Google takes on the print industry, which they are starting to do, it's going to be huge," Peter Gardiner, chief media officer of New York ad agency Deutsch fretted during a recent Advertising Women of New York panel discussion. "They're expanding that to every medium. When they become the search engine for everything the lines really cross over."

Asked to explain his anxiety in detail, Gardiner demurred, alluding to confidential talks Google executives have been holding directly with marketers and some agency executives, as well as some recent hires it has made of people with traditional ad agency experience.

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