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Google Allows Sponsored Rankings...In Ads
A number of written that the sky is fallen because Google is allowing sponsored rankings. Of course, if you read the article it's the sponsored links on the right side of the page - where the ads have always been.
For crying out loud people, here's the link
I think that they are referring to the sponsored link boxes. It depends on what you search for, but here is an example.. The only change that I can see is that they moved the advertising box from the side of the screen towards the top. It's a bit more intrusive now, but still much better than blinking banner ads.
I've never noticed the ads before. I had to go back and look for them after reading this.
I agree with others who say this isn't newsworthy, but to comment, the excite article does say explicitly that the sponsored links are "on the section of Google's site that's devoted to sponsored links" - ie... the side.. in really small writing.
why didn't anybody kick up a stink when yahoo started putting on pop-up windows? or when groups.yahoo started making you click thru an ad randomly when reading message?
google has to make money from somewhere.. may as well be little tiny ads that nobody notices.
The reason girls and Windows users don't understand UNIX is because all the documentation is in Man files.
ah such bad form, replying to my own post, but here:
i just found this google faq about ad positioning, too.
My view is that you should read the article more carefully. The "paid ranking" is only for ads, which are separate from search results, and are clearly marked as "sponsored links". If you're doing academic research, simply ignore anything that doesn't have a white background.
This wasn't written by Excite. It has been pulled of the 'wire' from AP.
Nothing sinister from Excite. My guess you can find this news article on a bunch of sites, and will be in the computer section of tommorow's paper.
Go out and get sailing!
It's an AP story dummy, it has nothing to do with excite or yahoo or any of the other numerous web sites that have AP articles.
The story was not written by Excite. This is not some devious "make google look bad plot." It's an AP article. Read it here if you prefer, or here. Do some basic research first next time, ok? Additionally, these "ridiculous Overture people" are a real boon to small businesses because they charge per-click rather than per-impression, so you only pay for actual results. CPM sucks, CPC is better. Commission (such as linkshare) is really the best way from a client point-of-view.
rooooar
Google, like a lot of the .coms that are still alive, don't make their money directly off of the consumers/users. A good majority of their revenue is from licensing deals with other companies. Yahoo is one of the biggest client of googles. They leverage google's search engine for yahoo's web searches. This alone could bring in a couple million a year. In addition, a couple weeks ago, there was a posting on /. about Google's search/document caching system that they are selling to companies for 20k.
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"I'm not Conceited...I'm just a realist..."
I really don't know why people would want to get rid of google advertisements. Google is the only site on the net whose ads I pay any attention to. The ads are obvious, targeted, and (get ready for this one) they are NOT annoying. I think anyone out there who strips google ads is an idiot, because it hurts our favorite FREE search engine, and you will miss ads that are actually USEFUL.