Net_Wizard - 3:45 am on Sep 10, 2003 (gmt 0)

Huh?

All over on the web, if people refer to a book, they usually have a link to Amazon. This happens whether they are an affiliate or not, and has been going on for some time.

I think you are too nice to link to Amazon without making an extra buck because everybody I know who link to Amazon is an affiliate.

Secondly, your theory of an Amazon page ranking higher 'because' of the affiliates links is pure bs. Look at the url of those pages in Google...it is not the same URL structure for affiliates...in fact it is too clean for an Amazon product page. Some of the Amazon URL are even 'inner' pages.

If you are remotely aware of the Amazon affiliate program, 'nobody' links to inner pages simply because it changes your commission structure.

Any more theory of why an Amazon product page would rank higher?

They have many more links from likes of cnn etc. with the "search this site or google" boxes.

Are you aware that Google also sell their search services? CNN 'is' paying Google for that service therefore on the part of CNN this is truly an added service 'for their visitors'. CNN does not display any of the adwords. There is no back scratching with CNN. Have you tried doing a search on Google box at CNN? If so, do you see any adwords on the result? It's Overture what CNN promotes.

Any othe major site you care to point that have a google search box prominently?