Live data from Hacker News

We're testing new ad formats in Search and expanding our Direct Offers pilot

blog.google

21–30 of 603 posts

Re: We're testing new ad formats in Search and expanding our Direct Offers pilot

#21
post #9

Does nobody talk abot the elephant in the room? Will the answers the AI gives also be influenced by Googles customers?

That's the real question and it's not hypothetical. Google already adjusts organic rankings based on advertiser relationships in ways that aren't documented. With AI Mode the surface area for that kind of influence is much larger and much less visible. A search result you can inspect. A synthesized answer you can't.

Don't they already to this with maps routing? I thought this was the norm.

Re: We're testing new ad formats in Search and expanding our Direct Offers pilot

#23
post #15

> We’re introducing more helpful ads in AI Mode I always chuckle when ad companies say that. I have never seen a helpful ad in google search, but well I have been using adblockers forever so I would not know.I am honestly curious though, for those who don't use adblockers - what percentage of ads that you see are actually helpful?

I never have on Google Search (I also block them to be fair), but I've booked a lot of shows through Instagram ads actually. Shows I learnt about only through those ads and I would have been disappointed to miss.

But yeah that's literally the only platform where I've ever had useful ads. Even other meta products only have absolute garbage ads.

Re: We're testing new ad formats in Search and expanding our Direct Offers pilot

#24

Does nobody talk abot the elephant in the room? Will the answers the AI gives also be influenced by Googles customers?

That will be fun because it's illegal to accept money to promote a product without indication that you have done so. The FTC requires "clear and conspicuous disclosure" for such endorsements.

Re: We're testing new ad formats in Search and expanding our Direct Offers pilot

#27
post #15

> We’re introducing more helpful ads in AI Mode I always chuckle when ad companies say that. I have never seen a helpful ad in google search, but well I have been using adblockers forever so I would not know.I am honestly curious though, for those who don't use adblockers - what percentage of ads that you see are actually helpful?

I don't have an ad blocker on my laptop. The ads I get are pretty much entirely generic and irrelevant to me, I don't remember ever consciously clicking on an ad.

Re: We're testing new ad formats in Search and expanding our Direct Offers pilot

#28
post #12

Does nobody talk abot the elephant in the room? Will the answers the AI gives also be influenced by Googles customers?

I won't be able to use their AI results if they are, personally. If I ask the question "what is the best tool for doing x" and I can't trust that the answer is going to be the truth according to all available information, then the AI is useless or worse, misleading. If google is unbiased, and only highlights paid advertiser mentions, no one will pay. I'd only accept this if it was a clear separation of LLM response a…

Let me let you in on a little industry "secret"

You can't trust those results no matter what

The pages that they pull in to source that data all contain affiliate links and companies contact websites to get their tools to the tops of those lists by paying money often monthly. I know this because I do this...

It's basically standard SEO but it also manipulates AI like ChatGPT very very easily

Post reply on HN