TallTroll - 4:32 pm on Jul 17, 2001 (gmt 0)

Wow, this thread is really kicking off, isn't it?

>>I don't think PPC, or any other form of
>>CLEARLY MARKED paid placement is a bad thing.
>I don't think anyone here will argue with you TallTroll. That is the core issue - unmarked advertisements:

With respect, I think there are people here who view paid placement as inherently a bad thing. I must admit to a large amount of sympathy with this view, because I too remember a time when everything was free

I want to stress again that I strongly disapprove of any misrepresentation, and I find it particularly upsetting to have the same SEs who set themselves up as "Guardians of the Relevant Internet" subsequently putting paid, but unmarked (or poorly marked, which given the average users tech-awareness is about the same thing) listings at the top of, or prominently displayed on their SERPs, at the expense of other sites which are being displaced for no better reason that they dont have the same marketing budget.

However, I also think from a purely pragmatic point of view, that SEs have a need to make money, even a profit. I cant pretend I like some of the ways they choose to do it, and will do what I can to "send the message". Some of the other members of the WebmasterWorld community are in a far stronger position to apply economic pressure than I suspect I ever will be, but it must be an individual choice as to whether one approves (or even cares) about what goes on out there.

I do feel that PPC and indeed any pay-for-traffic scheme has its place on-line, so long as it is transparent to the user that someone has paid to put that information in front of them. If you see an ad in a magazine, you know it was paid for, even if that isn't specifically stated in the ad. Thats because we all know about print media, and know how to interpret what we see. The same isnt true of the Internet yet.

I do think that where somone is paying for your click or whatever, you should have all the information, and hence be able to make a properly informed choice.

If you had to pay for EVERY person who visited your site, you would make very sure they found what they were after, wouldn't you? After all, it may one day turn out that the pay models deliver the highest relevance results (theres nothing like a hit in the wallet to concentrate the mind)

Ultimately, I see the Internet as a tool for people to find information, goods and services that they want, without so many restrictions, be they geographic, company size, and increasingly even by language (Babel Fish etc). Somewhere along the line, someone has to pay for that tool though. Why not the advertisers?

Even with everything said here, I still believe the Web provides smaller companies with a more level playing field than they have previously enjoyed. On-line, as everywhere else, money talks. You may not like it, I certainly dont like it, but its true. If you dont provide obvious, tranparent places for the Big Boys to spend their money, and reap the rewards, they will do it where no-one can see, and that would be a disaster.

As said before GoTo etc provides them with a place where they can flex their ecomonic muscles. If you dont like it, dont use it, but dont think you can stop it. The Internet will for ever be at least a partly commercial place now. There was a thread about whether WebmasterWorld itself ought to charge, or place ads to cover costs. I have no issues with either option, so long as I am provided with the right information to make my choices.

OK, </soapbox> whats this thread about?

Oh yeah:

>>search engines are abandoning objective formulas to determine the order of their listed results, and selling the top spots to the highest bidders without making adequate disclosures to Web surfers

Too right they are. I think its a bad thing, but I also think there's very little to be done about (but if you have some ideas, please say. I'm listening, I promise you). Thing is, its a fact of life that the Internet is a huge source of potential wealth, and any sane company wants a slice. The trick, I think, is to make it possible to tell which are the "commercial" bits, and which aren't to everyone who uses the Net, so they can make an informed choice. And if the whole world decides they want a commercial Net, who are we to argue? We are here to serve them ultimately, not uphold ideals