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Google Blurring Distinction Between Ads and Organic Search Results
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."
They've been on the slippery slope for a while now. Not exactly evil, but not forthcoming either.
Error reading device 'Signature'. (A)bort, (R)etry, (F)ail?
Being a non profit non evil organisation does not mean that they can't have a few ad's here n there ..
If they start poisoning search with for-profit results Google will be quickly reminded that they are not the only search engine in town.
I don't know what they are thinking, but there is no brand loyalty for any web service. There is only usability and convenience. Sure, Google is convenient, but if they take a dump on usability #2 search engine will laugh all the way to the bank.
Am I the only one that thinks this makes it more obvious?
That's as bullshitty a term as it is in your supermarket. There *are* no "organic" results when they're calculated based on your tracking history, ad clicks and social connections.
Friends don't let friends get tracked. Use the quack that doesn't track!
I'm in the test group.
It may be my eyes, the angle at which I use my screen, the brightness and contrast I prefer, or something else, but the background color has always been almost undetectable to me.
The new configuration, a simple yet obvious graphical element indicating "Ad" indenting the sponsored links, highlights them much more effectively for me.
+1 for this change.
This article is completely ridiculous. Google was scamming everyone with their off-white beige box with almost no border that indicated an ad. Unless you were looking directly at it at a perfectly 90 degree angle, any low to mid grade LCD monitors would turn the color back to white. They should gotten a billion dollar fine for that. I know some many people who had no idea those were ads.
Now it's a huge, bright yellow button that says "ad." Isn't this part of their settlement with somewhere in Europe about making ads more obvious? This is court-ordered. This is not making ads less obvious, it's making them more obvious. Thankfully now all I have to tell stupid people is to look for the word Ad and ignore it.
Did you even bother to look? There's no overreachtion here. I just ran the same query and saw the same thing. It's not an A/B test, and it's been this way for a while.
make the ads more discernible from the search results?
Which, as far as I can tell, is what they've done. This looks more obvious than the off-white box, to me. YMMV.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
Regardless it looks like crap. Altavista went into a downward spiral for precisely this reason. It used to be great but it stopped being great when you had to sift thought one and sometimes two pages of ads before actually getting to the result you actually wanted.
If Google doesn't deliver the results people are searching for easily we will just switch search engine again.
This is already being abused by phishing and scam sites.
How exactly are phishing/scam sites abusing a stylesheet change in google search results?
It's not increasing the number of ads, just how they are displayed.
I consider it an overreaction because the reaction is more against the change rather than to the impact of the change itself. I, for one, prefer the new mechanism. The main reason is that I found the grey boxes and light lines difficult to discern, particularly on poorly calibrated monitors (including some of my own -- I tend to prefer a high monitor temperature that mutes the contrast there).
The big yellow "Ad" symbol is much easier for me to identify. The yellow stands out. It's not garish; they could certainly make it MORE visible, but again, for me, personally, the yellow is easier to spot than the grey, and I consider it an improvement. Yes, I'd probably have preferred that they do both.
Anyway, I'm sure people will disagree, but people disagree on any change... it's not the end of the world. Ads are still labeled and people will get used to it then complain about the next change. That's why it's an overreaction.
1. Google is a data driven company. They watch user behavior very carefully. If this makes money wihile costing very few customers it will stay. If they see people leaving Google for other search engines, the change will disappear quickly. People complain all the time about what they think their preferences are, and how they think they work -- when you look at real behaviors though, there is often a disconnect from what people say they will and won't do.
Everyone says, "I never click on ads." While it is obvious that someone does, or else they would abandon the ad model and change for the service.
2. They have not increased the number of Ads, or the placement of the ads. The ads still appear on the top of oragnic search resultss, are still identified as ads and not search results. Only thing that changed is how they are displayed .
I personally think the big orange "AD" tag is more visable than the light yellow/grey background they used before. You are free to disagree, but that is a matter of taste, and only data on people's actual browsing behavior will tell the whole story.
I click on ads all the time.
When I'm trying to do commerce, I find it a better experience clicking on the ad links. If a company is paying for ads, they likely also work on UX of their site too.
Car shopping? the first link is usually the manufacturers link, that's convenient too, and local dealerships. Perhaps that's blackmail though, because the first organic result tends to be the company too.
If people are willing to pay to give me information based on my search, there's a decent chance they have what I'm looking for, that's often a great way to find worthwhile links. This is all simply for when I'm looking to do business though, most of my searches don't apply.
Wow, sent an e-mail as suggested when clicking on "use classic" banner, and got a fast response that addressed my msg