Forum Moderators: martinibuster
I for one do not like that as people may click on that rather than the ad.
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In fact I have now just seen one add that had no ads but just a whole bunch of links for related searches.
whatever you call it, it's hardly not unexpected yes? We always knew that the agreement meant that Google could do whatever they wanted. And signed up with that knowledge. Most people were expecting a "bait and switch", reduced CPC's or whatever they want to call it.
How many publishers really seriously read the TOS before inserting the code. Even a quick read should have suggested this was highly risky territory.
Its juts business. I dont have any problems with it at all. If at one time in the future the disadvanatges of adsense outweight their benefits, in comparison with other revenue options, we would just drop it, like any business.
I certainly dont see any breach of trust by google.
But, I think everyone who has tried AdSense has been hugely impressed with the ease of use/amount of money/speed of payment, no? We can't start moaning because everything is not as we would like - Google's primary concern is to get searchers to use their product, so they can a) licence it and b) sell advertising. The related searches is just an extension of that.
If you feel this will hurt your site more than not having the ads, take them off. But if you only feel it will hurt your google revenue - well, it looks like they've found a good way to kill the spammers who were looking for the highest paying words so they could throw up crappy sites and watch the money roll in!
One last thing, we all thought that they were watching for big changes in CTRs for 'suspicious behaviour' - with the ad colour changes + related searches will that even be possible now?
[edited by: seaboy at 3:02 am (utc) on Aug. 7, 2003]
I posted my thoughts about it on the other "related searches" thread on this board: [webmasterworld.com...]
Basically, I've completely removed google adsense from my sites.
Major problems are:
- Related searches links look like content on your site, rather than ads by google.
- Related searches seem to have the tendency to list similar content as that on your site, giving users a link OUT from your site to others of similar content. This would be fine if you got paid for it, but uh.... I don't remember ever having feelings of wanting to become a charity for Google.
- No revenue generated by clicks.
Yes, but not an empty box of a different color from the background! If it were transparent then fine. But a big colored box? Gimme a break.
11. What are related searches?
"As part of the AdSense program, Google may suggest up to two relevant search queries below the AdWords ads on your website. These queries are labeled as 'Related searches.' If we do not yet have relevant ad inventory or have not yet crawled your web pages for content, related searches may appear in place of ads."
They go on to say it's not possible to opt out of related searches.
Up to two relevant search queries? That's not what they're doing! ... On some of my pages I'm seeing four related searches -- unpaid, unwelcome exit points -- even though the tower has a full complement of targeted ads.
The related searches feature is intended solely to enhance the user experience and serve as a valuable information resource. Neither Google nor AdSense publishers earn any revenue from clicks on related searches.
We believe related searches are an integral and valuable part of the AdSense program. Therefore, we don't have an opt-out feature this time.
