dclick - 4:34 am on Apr 20, 2007 (gmt 0)

I think its kinda scary myself and reeks of monopolistic power. Google is the worlds largest link seller. Their entire business model is 100% selling links.. and now they are instructing you on how you need to sell links or else?

If a giant/dominant retailer like wal-mart told all of its competiting local mom & pop stores to sell widgets the way we tell you to, or else we will cut off your supplies(ie traffic), i think there would be some serious anti-trust laws and acts being broken. I dont see much difference really.

Words like sponsored links, advertisement mean little as well, they do not verify paid link in anyway shape or form. Whats to stop competitors from putting up a bunch of non-paid links in a box with the label "Sponsored Links" ontop of it, then complaining to google YOU are a paid link buyer?

The net effect will probably be more link buying and less disclosure. If google is successful in filtering a % of paid links which really are impossible to detect unless viewing credit card statements, checks, or even monitoring bars for cash exchanges over a beer, Buyers will just buy more to offset it. Likewise if sellers feel their links are less valuable links with words like "Sponsored Links" or "Advertisement" next to them, they will just disclose less/not at all and their links will be more valuable.