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Google Blurring Distinction Between Ads and Organic Search Results

Posted by Soulskill on from the you-will-be-notified-which-results-are-ads-in-6-months dept.

jfruh writes "For years, paid links returned from Google search queries have been set off from 'real' search results by their placement on the page and by a colored background. But some users have begun to see a different format for these ads: a tiny yellow button that reads 'AD' at the end of the link is the only distinguishing feature. Google is notoriously close-mouthed about this sort of thing, but it may begin rolling the new format out to more users soon."

4 of 187 comments (clear)

  1. Slippery slope by geeper · · Score: 2, Informative

    They've been on the slippery slope for a while now. Not exactly evil, but not forthcoming either.

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    1. Re:Slippery slope by NIK282000 · · Score: 4, Informative

      Their business is to get people to click some links more often than they click others, there is nothing strange about this. Not to mention you have to be braindead not to notice the big yellow "Ad" button, there is nothing evil about getting free clicks out of people to dumb or lazy to read the entire link before they click it.

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    2. Re:Slippery slope by CastrTroy · · Score: 5, Informative
      Just did this with stylish. Each of the ads are all within an "li" element with the class "ads-ad". Just add a custom style sheet such as the following and all the ads are not shown. Of course, you can add different styles to make them display differently if you want, but hiding them is also a good idea.

      @-moz-document domain(www.google.com) {
      li.ads-ad{
      display: none;
      }
      }

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    3. Re:Slippery slope by MozeeToby · · Score: 5, Informative

      Did you actually click the link? If anything the paid results are more obvious in my opinion. There's a bright yellow icon marking them out explicitly as "ADS" versus a light grey border labeled euphemistically "sponsored results". This is, at most, a step to the side, not a step backwards.