https://www.google.com/about/honestresults/ It's a little confusing to read now, so for context: at the time Google published this, it only put ads in the sidebar to the right of search results. This post was written to criticize the practice of putting ads atop search results, which competitors sometimes formatted almost indistinguishably from organic search results.
Oh my god, that page is going to disappear soon now.
Every Google result now looks like an ad
251–260 of 1001 posts
Re: Every Google result now looks like an ad
#252It's funny, because if you run AdSense on your website, Google has very strict guidelines about not misleading users and making a clear distinction between advertisements and your content. However, when Google shows ads on their site, they don't need to follow those rules, they blend them in as closely as possible.
Also, what's the deal with showing an advertisement for the same result that's number one? See the below screenshot.
https://i.imgur.com/f0Kolfv.png
Doesn't this seem wrong? For a lot of people, Google has become a site to not only search the internet, but to simply navigate it. It's normal for someone wanting to visit Expedia to search "expedia.com" or "expedia". They are trying to navigate to that website, Expedia is the first organic result, and yet Expedia is pressured into paying for an advertisement to prevent one of their competitors from appearing first. Even when a competitor hasn't advertised, they're still stuck paying like the above screenshot. To me, this feels inappropriate. Google is getting a hefty payday by simply redirecting someone searching for "expedia.com" to the Expedia website.
Re: Every Google result now looks like an ad
#253Funny thing is, this probably did not happen because some PM decided that ads should look like regular results. It is probably an organic result of A/B testing over time, coupled with revenue being an important metric. Small changes that increase revenue get prioritized and over time, it just evolves into this eventually.
Re: Every Google result now looks like an ad
#254I've been in this A/B test for a couple of months now, so I've had time to adjust, and I still hate it. I've just become so used to seeing the complete URL in green. The complete URL! If you hover over the results, you'll see that they like to take bits like numeric components or the query string out. This is part of Google's attempt to de-prioritise the URL. Their destructive AMP service confusingly shows you Google…
AMP obscuring the URL is a side effect of the current technical implementation, not a goal – and they are working to fix it: https://searchengineland.com/google-announces-signed-exchang...
The parent mentioned that: "as they can't fix [the URL appearance] without losing out on tracking, they're trying to change what the URL means."
Re: Every Google result now looks like an ad
#255With each AdWords display change, Google's been adding billions of dollars to their revenue by confusing and fooling their users and blurring the line between the content and ads. A visual guide: "A (mostly comprehensive history of Google's ad shading and labeling" https://i.imgur.com/0RxdzBE.png
For branded keywords, it's not just shady, it's racketeering. You wouldn't want your competitor to show up first when someone searches for your brand, would you? Then pay up. E.g. https://i.imgur.com/SfomkdQ.png ; the second result is a competitor's ad, the third result is the organic result.
The difference being that you pay magnitudes less for your branded keywords than the competition, through the quality score. Allowing companies to advertise against their peers is actually creating more competition on the marketplace (which is a good thing).
Edit: Disclosure - I work at Google but this is my own opinion on multi-sided markets
Re: Every Google result now looks like an ad
#256Earlier quoted context omitted.
Their only selling point is privacy, so I feel like they have an incentive to keep their only lifeline going. If they break their promise it’s essentially the end of their business as they don’t have anything else compelling. Most other companies can get away with violating your privacy because they have something nobody else has (either because their product is so good or because of network effects) so you have no c…
This only incentivizes them to maintain this image until they hit critical mass, hurt competitors (Google), or come up with compelling reasons to use them. After all, half the discussion below is how Google used to not be evil but now is; what is stopping DDG from changing their tune later?
Not saying they can’t turn evil later on down the line when they do get big, but at the moment it’s (IMO) a non issue. They would lose their entire business (whatever little they have) immediately if they did so and presumable make less money out of the attempt than they make right now by respecting user privacy and only offering content-targeted ads. For now I’m happy to trust them - this can of course change in the future.
Re: Every Google result now looks like an ad
#257Google is now a spam search engine
Re: Every Google result now looks like an ad
#258Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm flagging your comment for abuse. I've been developing on the web for over 15 years.
This makes the parent's point, as "for over 15 years" means you've started around 2005 -- well into the Google era. You never known the web without Google, which is why you can say "Google built the web" and other such nonsense.
> You never known the web without Google
Of course I have. I used Ask Jeeves before Google even existed, and navigated via those awful web directory services before that.
I never claimed that Google "built the web", but that they've contributed to it. You're putting words in my mouth.
Re: Every Google result now looks like an ad
#259I've been in this A/B test for a couple of months now, so I've had time to adjust, and I still hate it. I've just become so used to seeing the complete URL in green. The complete URL! If you hover over the results, you'll see that they like to take bits like numeric components or the query string out. This is part of Google's attempt to de-prioritise the URL. Their destructive AMP service confusingly shows you Google…
AMP obscuring the URL is a side effect of the current technical implementation, not a goal – and they are working to fix it: https://searchengineland.com/google-announces-signed-exchang...
Yes, and that fix is worse than the original problem.
Re: Every Google result now looks like an ad
#260I've been using duckduckgo and bing for a while now. Google is just a fallback.