Forum Moderators: goodroi
[google.com...]
(A non-subtle url if there ever was one.) ;)
Cudo's Google, that is excellent. Above and beyond for an se to make such a statement. Thanks.
The statement is entirely consistent with Google's behavior. Google ads and the search results have in fact always been easy to distinguish. It seems to me they might be reacting to several of the threads here suggesting that they were letting the new ads affect their results, as well as to some clumsy reporting. Rumors can be powerful, and Google grew via word of mouth.
>>Take a screen shot and keep it. Hopefully, it will never come in handy.<<
No one can speak to what will happen after an IPO, of course... we can only hope there... but I have great faith in Google. I think we're lucky to have them. I just wish they had some competition.
It was very nicely written. concise and leaving no room for subjectivity in interpretation.
It enhances their brand, and shows considerable courage and belief in their brand to publish it. They are setting high standards and put themselves in the firing line if they maintain it. The same reasoning was behind the pop-up-ad campaign. When there is a "perception" that something below the belt is happening, expecially in this dark world where you never REALLY know who is doing what to whom this directness is refreshing.
In comparison, when MSN was criticized for serving commercially-driven resuts their reply was arrogant, failed to address the point, disrespectful to their customers and so subjective it was useless ..
"...We give the customer what they want..."
Yeh yeh..
Great stuff Google.
Google >>Every ad on Google is clearly marked as a "Sponsored Link"
"Clearly" marked using some of the least powerful fonts on the page.
Google >>and is set apart from the actual search results
They sure are ... the big ads are set apart with placement at the top of the page and in bold fonts, highlighted with a shaded background.
Mayor does have a point though - Google are fairly close to the edge and have to be careful not to go any closer. I guess their statement makes it very clear that they have not intention of doing so. Yet another feather for Google!
"Why we sell advertising, not search results."
Succinct, and very clear.
What a concept!
Erm.
It seems to me that any company that needs to attach redundant text would choose to do so in the least offensive manner. After all they could have buried a notice in their terms of service that said something like all things above the horizontal rule are ads.
I also think that advertisements on top makes good business sense. If you bought the ad space wouldn't you want to be sure that your ad were at least seen?
I saw the number as reported by google... not as staggering as you might think; 2.3 million downloads worldwide. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to have a direct connection to over 2 million searchers, but as far as total web populations go that's pretty small.
I don't have any problem telling a sponsored link from the search results. I think that it's very clear and I don't begrudge them a dime of advertising money as long as they keep the search results pure.
Well put. Ditto.
Imagine other areas of commerce abandoning their core mission. We would have food companies that sell beautiful and tantilizing items with no nutrition! (Ooops, we got that)
