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MSE News: Google warning – now many will only see ads (which look a lot like results)

Former_MSE_Nick
Former_MSE_Nick Posts: 463 Forumite
I've been Money Tipped!
edited 8 March 2016 at 6:34PM in Consumer rights
If you're searching online, beware – Google has increased the number of paid-for ads shown at the top of search results...
Read the full story:
'Google warning – now many will only see ads (which look a lot like search results)'
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Comments

  • KTF
    KTF Posts: 4,850 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    I haven't seen adverts on google search results for years. Must be something to do with the ad blocking extension I have installed ;)
  • LadyDee
    LadyDee Posts: 4,293 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Well, the ads are clearly marked, so if someone has the wit to use a computer I would hope they recognise a warning in bright yellow. There is though an awful lot of white, wasted, space on the righthand side.
  • PasturesNew
    PasturesNew Posts: 70,698 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    Google is a company, who wants to make profits.

    For years now they've been siphoning off their most lucrative topics.

    e.g. if you searched for a hotel years ago, you'd get search results, now you get a nifty map with markers and a list of links through to the websites of those hotels.

    It's not just hotels, it's all the subjects where Google felt they could find a new way to make money from companies, rather than leaving it to the abilities of SEO writers to get ranked high and Google not having such a direct line to the money trail.
  • unholyangel
    unholyangel Posts: 16,866 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Google is a company, who wants to make profits.

    For years now they've been siphoning off their most lucrative topics.

    e.g. if you searched for a hotel years ago, you'd get search results, now you get a nifty map with markers and a list of links through to the websites of those hotels.

    It's not just hotels, it's all the subjects where Google felt they could find a new way to make money from companies, rather than leaving it to the abilities of SEO writers to get ranked high and Google not having such a direct line to the money trail.

    Indeed, they say:
    "The majority of our searches happen on mobile these days, which has no right-hand-side ads... we've found users [don't] click on them as much as other ads – and when users don't click on things, we take that to mean that something wasn't what they were looking for.

    What they really mean is "they weren't clicking where we want them to click" so we're moving them into the search results to try and trick more people into clicking on them so we get paid for it rather than them clicking on the search result of the same link that we don't get paid for.

    As for it being bright yellow....not on mine. On mine its a 4mm x 3mm pale gold square thats beside the website address but under the search result - the font of which a lowercase "e" is the same size as the label declaring it an ad.
    You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means - Inigo Montoya, The Princess Bride
  • PasturesNew
    PasturesNew Posts: 70,698 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    As an SEO writer I moved away from travel/accommodation a few years back .... but now the list of what Google isn't siphoning off is becoming so small I can only write about knitting bootees for dwarf rabbits (and even that I'd have to double check before I wrote it as they've probably cornered the pets market already!)
  • unholyangel
    unholyangel Posts: 16,866 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    As an SEO writer I moved away from travel/accommodation a few years back .... but now the list of what Google isn't siphoning off is becoming so small I can only write about knitting bootees for dwarf rabbits (and even that I'd have to double check before I wrote it as they've probably cornered the pets market already!)

    Is there much of a market for dwarven rabbit boots? Should get in there before google catch wind :rotfl:
    You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means - Inigo Montoya, The Princess Bride
  • Google is your friend!

    My rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
  • PasturesNew
    PasturesNew Posts: 70,698 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    Is there much of a market for dwarven rabbit boots? Should get in there before google catch wind :rotfl:

    Looking at the stats I think it's a viable niche!
    Shhhh, don't tell anybody else!
  • boo_star
    boo_star Posts: 3,202 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts
    As an SEO writer I moved away from travel/accommodation a few years back .... but now the list of what Google isn't siphoning off is becoming so small I can only write about knitting bootees for dwarf rabbits (and even that I'd have to double check before I wrote it as they've probably cornered the pets market already!)


    So you're a spammer hoping for ad revenue because it scores higher if people search for "dwarf rabbits"?

    It's probably for the best that garbage sites like your's get sent to /dev/null.
  • bod1467
    bod1467 Posts: 15,214 Forumite
    KTF wrote: »
    I haven't seen adverts on google search results for years. Must be something to do with the ad blocking extension I have installed ;)

    Neither do I ... funny that, eh? ;)
This discussion has been closed.
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