mediajunk

In Ireland, we have a saying that if you get a reputation as an early riser, you can sleep in as long as you like.

Google clearly wanted to establish a reputation as being morally and ethically incorruptible when it launched its "Don't be Evil" manifesto (which allegedly was created by Paul Buchheit, who has since left the company).

But Google's revenue model is entirely predicated on advertising. Of course, advertising isn't inherently evil (a point I've been making on my Advertising the Future web-book).

But Google doesn't state clearly that some links on its SERPs are adverts; instead it calls them "Sponsored Links". If you know that Sponsored Links are ads, fine. If you don't, are you being deceived? In my experience of giving talks and seminars about Search Engine Marketing, many people do not know that Sponsored Links are advertisements.

This point is made by Falsus.com, in a blog post about a lawsuit against Google for "misleading and deceptive" practices:

As of earlier this year, 62% of searchers were still unaware of the distinction between sponsored and organic results. It's not a stretch to say that Google is trying to take advantage of that. Why else would Google be doing things like giving the top three sponsored links real estate at the top of the page when it used to be the top two? More ads appear above the fold. Present day Google is built on the advertising dollars generated by Adwords, and those ads were carefully integrated into SERPs after Google spent years branding itself as the source for relevant results. One might say Google's entire existence is built on deceiving its users into clicking on those ads (interestingly, the sort of behavior they frown upon with their Adsense publishers).

Meanwhile, John S. Rhodes asks in Apogee.com whether Google Advertising is Evil. His point is that Google encourages Adsense publishers to try to blend ads into websites, making them less distinguishable from content:

Google actively encourages content providers to place advertising in the middle of the page where users normally expect to see content. At the same time, they actively discourage publishers from putting advertising in the right column where users expect advertising.

Personally, I like and admire Google's philosophy. I trust Google. Then again, as any good used car salesman will tell you, the oldest sales trick in the book is to get the customer to like and trust you...

Tags: advertising, adwords, google