Just what will it take for Google to get rid of MFAs?

... we're waiting

[frakilk]

Ok we are all sick to the back teeth of talking about the scurge of MFAs, obviously Google aren't going to get rid of them anytime soon. If they wanted to they would have done so already. MFAs are part of their business model and that's fact.

But still I find it hard to believe the MFAs can stay around indefinitely. Something's gotta give. So what will it be? :
- new/existng competitor with better advertiser quality filtering processes and higher payouts (improbable)
- mass exodus of publishers (improbable unless the above scenario occurs , so a double improbablilty then)
- news publications / public gets wind of the issue in a language or scenario they can readily digest and Google attempts to appease shareholders (probable but I can't see it happening anytime soon)
- we publishers get more functionality from the backend to filter them out ourselves (probable but again I don't see any evidence or hint that this is going to happen anytime soon)
- MFA site owners have a sudden pang of guilt and take the first flight off AdSense island (pigs will surf)

Predictions anyone?

[JoeS]

What about all these domains that are empty and running Google ads? These are MFAs too. They are basically taking over content sites that expire and just running all ads instead.

[GoldenHammer]

[...3) Advertisers who are happy with the referrals they get from MFAs and other low-quality sites would be able to continue buying traffic at rockbottom rates....]

******
You know, I am always concerning how Google elaborates "Quality" and the "Discount Rate" for SmartPricing (tm) ...

[edited by: GoldenHammer at 4:11 am (utc) on Aug. 31, 2006]

[danimal]

>>>You talked about a lack of "quality advertisers" for those long-tail searches, which was simply wrong on all counts.<<<

no, you gave the example of not seeing very many quality advertisers in your long tail searches...
efv, you didn't even know how big your potential advertiser pool was until i pointed it out! you kept posting about google searches, not the sponsored list.

>>>As for MFAs being with us as long as Google has a one-cent minimum, that's a bit of a red herring, since it implies that all or most MFAs are using minimum bids.<<<

no, it implies that most mfa bids are between $.01 and $.10, with the latter being the overture minimum bid.

there is a reason we don't see the mfa phenomenon on ypn, and it's because of the minimum bid price.

[europeforvisitors]

You'll see the same phenomenon on YPN if and when YPN becomes a real player. (Heck, YPN isn't even out of beta at this point.)

[rbacal]

there is a reason we don't see the mfa phenomenon on ypn, and it's because of the minimum bid price.

I'd imagine that's true. Obviously higher minimums is going to make certain practices economically impossible or difficult. Unfortunately, like a lot of things, raising minimums will also affect (or price out of the ad market) a lot of small legitimate companies that have valuable services and products to sell.

If you are concerned that there are not enough ads because of MFA's, and google raises it's mimimums by 1000 percent, what exactly do you think is going to happen to the ad pool available to you (and me) via adsense?)

The solution is clearly to implement a quality score type algo so contentless sites are made economically impossible, while KEEPING the lower bidding advertisers that supply volume and inventory.

So, the question is, danimal, why do you continue to use adsense if you believe it's so messed up?

[danimal]

>>>You'll see the same phenomenon on YPN if and when YPN becomes a real player. (Heck, YPN isn't even out of beta at this point.)<<<

that's not what history tells us... overture was raising the minimum bid at the same time that adwords lowered its minimum bid.

the last i saw, there were over 125,000 advertisers appearing on ypn... in my sectors, there has been an increase in new advertisers over the last 4 months, some of which used to be on adsense... ypn is not some affiliate chump change network.

this week microsoft started issuing invites for selected advertisers to use their new contentads contextual program... it would be interesting to know what the minimum bid is for that program, and when publishers can start using it.

[europeforvisitors]

OK, we'll see what happens with the Yahoo! and MSN publisher programs. But it's too early to be comparing a full-scale apple ranch with a couple of experimental orange groves.

I do think that Google may have painted Yahoo! and MSN into a corner with the AdSense network's overwhelming market share. MFA ads may inspire distaste among picky publishers and advertisers, but they make it possible for Google to have publishers and supply ad inventory for vast numbers of keywords and keyphrases. The publisher who's unhappy about cheap "buy Elbonian widgets" ads on his site about Elbonian widgets is likely to be even less happy when YPN and MSN can't supply any relevant ads for the keyphrase "Elbonian widgets."

[danimal]

efv, you don't use ypn, so you don't know what ads are available for what sectors.

i'm not impressed with an adsense "market share" that has 200,000 mfa advertisers in it, lol... that dog won't hunt.

[rbacal]

efv, you don't use ypn, so you don't know what ads are available for what sectors.

i'm not impressed with an adsense "market share" that has 200,000 mfa advertisers in it, lol... that dog won't hunt.

I'm sure, from your messages, that you probably do know what ads are available in what sectors related to your sites.

Which, I guess is why you display adsense ads exclusively on some of your sites.

It's not that the dog won't hunt. It's that the dog followed you home, and you build a doghouse for it.

Then you try to beat it with a stick for living in the doghouse you built.