Could Google's actions be considered a form of "shill bidding"?

[venrooy]

When there are only 1 or 2 bidders on certain keywords, and Google knows what their minimum bid is, to me it would seem like shill bidding, to force a bidder to have a minimum bid.

I really don't get the purpose of the quality score. I think that the marketplace should dertermin the quality. If I'm searching through ebay for a black widget, and I click on a black widget auction, only to find a white widget, then I don't buy the widget.

The same happens on adwords. If an advertiser doesn't have what the searcher is searching for, then the advertiser will eventually force himself out of the market.

[toomer]

I think this is part of the growing problem - it's not a matter of finding the white widget before eventually finding the black widget. It's the problem of the ads being vague, not matching up with landing pages in some cases, "8 best sites for widgets" and "All the widgets" ads which lead users to the red widget, then the pink widget, the green widget, the blue widget, the purple widget, the mauve widget, the yellow widget ... and then (if they're lucky) onto the black widget.

I think that's what Google is trying to avoid ... it seems like they want their visitors to get to the best possible destination in 1 click, whether in SERPs or in sponsored ads. That keeps users happy, and keeps them coming back, which protects their market share.

[venrooy]

If a site stays at the top of the list for certain adwords, that usually means that he can afford it. And the reason he can usually afford it is because people are buying widgets from his site. That's how the market place decides the quality. The customer is happy, the advertiser is happy, google is happy. KISS - it doesn't have to be so complicated.