Why does google say there is competion for keywords when there isn't?

nobody's advertising, yet google raises the bid to what it wants

[Beverly]

There are many keywords that I've looked up on google keywords and the minimum bid is well up from the typical 5 cents. BUT there is nobody advertising. BUT google 'says' there's lots of advertising competition. I don't get it.

[SanDiego Art]

When you use the keyword tool, do you pull the select box down to "EXACT"? The default is BROAD match, so the Competition level is usually higher than if you set it for EXACT.

[Beverly]

Wow! No, I never did.The only time I pull it down to 'exact' is when I am actually purchasing the keywords--not in my research. Thank you for letting me know about that.

[poster_boy]

Welcome to WebmasterWorld, Beverly!

There's a very helpful answer from AdwordsAdvisor in this thread on this topic:

[webmasterworld.com...]

Hope it helps.

[Beverly]

Thanks, Poster-Boy. It helped, but I still feel a little confused about the whole thing. Seems Google is just looking for ways to increase their pricing. It's a shame that people do searches and no ads come up that might have helped them in their search, but Google wants too much money to run the ads. Oh well, I'm going to do some experimenting and figure out the best way to play the game. Thanks, again.