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

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

#341

Post by jamespo »

pasquinelli wrote: post #322
drfloyd51 wrote: post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I saw an add for a medicine that was new on the market and my friend who could use the meds, was unaware of its existence. Now, after a doctor’s involvement, my friend is on the new med and it treats their condition better and the quality of their life is improved.

seems like the ad was superfluous. the doctor treating your friend's condition would be aware of new drugs relevant to your friend's condition. i go to a doctor because i don't know about medicine, i don't want to be educated on medicine from snake oil salesmen.

Ah this world where doctors are perfect and know everything

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

#343

Post by cjenkins »

Perhaps far too optimistic, but if AI search gets pushed heavily and traditional search becomes less relevant, could we see SEO fade for traditional search and it become less polluted over time? Or will search engines just stop caring about traditional search and it will become an even worse cesspool over time?

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

#344

Post by cyral »

lars_von_pidor wrote: post #79

The only reason Google is pushing this AI crap is so that they can shove ads right into people's throats without them being able to use ad blockers (it's easy to block a web script but virtually impossible to block the text itself), effectively doubling their profits overnight.

Another massive reason is that ChatGPT and similar apps are eating their lunch. Asking a question to ChatGPT actually tends to be pretty convenient compared to the top X results that are just SEO optimized slop.

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

#345

Post by drfloyd51 »

pasquinelli wrote: post #322
drfloyd51 wrote: post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I saw an add for a medicine that was new on the market and my friend who could use the meds, was unaware of its existence. Now, after a doctor’s involvement, my friend is on the new med and it treats their condition better and the quality of their life is improved.

seems like the ad was superfluous. the doctor treating your friend's condition would be aware of new drugs relevant to your friend's condition. i go to a doctor because i don't know about medicine, i don't want to be educated on medicine from snake oil salesmen.

How does it seem like the ad was superfluous?

The ad triggered a series of events that helped my friend.

The doctor, for whatever reason, was not the primary motivation.

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

#346

Post by JJMcJ »

stellamariesays wrote: post #281

[flagged]

> The switching cost for search is essentially zero.

Those of us who remember when Google first appeared and revolutionized search can testify to that.

I tried Google and that was it, Yahoo, Alta Vista, etc, where just little dots in the rear view mirror.

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

#347

Post by account42 »

HWR_14 wrote: post #314
account42 wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems to work fine for product placement in other media. Apparently "clear and conspicuous disclosure" can be a footnote hidden somewhere in the credits.

Do you expect them to include a red flashing light and alarm in the middle of the scene? The credits are where I would expect to see those disclosures

I'd expect the notice to be on the same screen where the ad or ad-like content is shown if the regulation intends to actually make a difference.

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

#348

Post by fhd2 »

cjenkins wrote: post #343

Perhaps far too optimistic, but if AI search gets pushed heavily and traditional search becomes less relevant, could we see SEO fade for traditional search and it become less polluted over time? Or will search engines just stop caring about traditional search and it will become an even worse cesspool over time?

SEO is definitely a relevant component still, AI mode does a traditional search under the hood. Gaming the system to rank high on the index is still going to matter. But it'll be less about tricking people into clicking and more about tricking LLMs into considering the information relevant and authoritative. For someone using traditional search, I'd wager that would actually improve the results a bit over time.

Then again, SEO gaming got a whole lot cheaper with LLMs, spammers spam even if there's not a great return, as long as it's cheap for them.

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

#350

Post by thewebguyd »

stellamariesays wrote: post #281

[flagged]

> The real question is whether users will tolerate conversational ads

Unfortunately I think they will, as much as I'd hope for the opposite.

People already tolerate influencers, deliberate product placement, etc. Heck, most big content creator type content on YouTube/TikTok right now are basically infomercials disguised as entertainment, and people eat it up.

The problem with ads in LLM responses is now you can no longer trust (what little you could, anyway) the output. You have to constantly guess "did someone pay for this response or is it authentic?" and it goes further than just text responses with the new universal shopping cart thing and other agentic tools. When these things operate autonomously, how much influence are advertisers going to have? Could we see a malicious library pay for Gemini ads and now the coding model is adding it to coding projects?

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