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Google shares hit $1,000 after strong earnings

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Re: Google shares hit $1,000 after strong earnings

#211
post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> On my 26" display I have almost never seen ads taking up all the space It depends what you search for. If you search for something Google can monetize, like this search for sofas http://i.imgur.com/KAZ6zuq.jpg then little room is left for "normal" results. But if you search for something non-monetizable, of course less ads will show up.

The organic results are a list of sofa vendors, each with pretty boring text descriptions like "we offer great sofas at great prices and with up to 4 years interest free credit available, there has never been a better time to buy! ‎Fabric Sofas - ‎Famous Brands - ‎Leather Sofas - ‎Carpets". Similarly on Bing and DDG. There is not much to choose between them. A page full of blah blah sofas is not very helpful if I'm l…

That's the thing I've never gotten about many of the examples of 'zomg-too-many-ads' they're mostly searches that you'd normally be looking to buy an item off of.

On a side note I don't actually get the map results most of the time anymore. Guess I'm in a separate test group.

Re: Google shares hit $1,000 after strong earnings

#212
Its interesting how $1000 is a psychological number for a lot of people, $1000 number makes the Google stock join some "prestigious" $1000 club according to CNBC. Some people now think its too expensive because of its $1000 and Facebook is in $50s.

If Google decided to split the stock early on, it wouldn't have seen this day, and all the news that comes with crossing the $1000 mark.

So much for all the financial models that assume investors are rational.

Re: Google shares hit $1,000 after strong earnings

#213
post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> On my 26" display I have almost never seen ads taking up all the space It depends what you search for. If you search for something Google can monetize, like this search for sofas http://i.imgur.com/KAZ6zuq.jpg then little room is left for "normal" results. But if you search for something non-monetizable, of course less ads will show up.

It wouldn't surprise me if most of the people who do a search for "sofas" want to browse shopping websites for sofas. The naturally monetizable searches are going to be searches that users don't mind being monetized. Google probably has teams full of people figuring out that sort of thing. The problem with maximizing revenue is it annoys people, so if you can figure out how to selectively maximize revenue when it doe…

Then why not show the best shopping websites, rather than ads for shopping websites?

Re: Google shares hit $1,000 after strong earnings

#214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google does not make ranking changes based on revenue. We don't even collect statistics about that for ranking changes. Worrying about the fate of small sites in Google's rankings is a reasonable concern, and one that we share. But whatever you think we are doing incorrectly in ranking, it has nothing to do with making more money.

We don't even collect statistics about that for ranking changes. Who's "we"? Are you Larry Page to speak with such confidence? Nope, just a lowly engineer being observed by hundreds of Stanford and ivy League MBAs as your changes impact Ad Clicks, the golden eggs.

FWIW, for most engineers the entire Search org chart, all the way up to Larry, is engineers. Larry was an engineer, Alan Eustace was a hardware engineer, Amit Singhal is an engineer. In my management chain there are two people with an M.S. in computer science (Larry is one of them), zero with MBAs, and everybody else has a Ph.D in CS.

If your mental model of Google is a bunch of MBAs who tell engineers what to do, you're quite incorrect. That's Microsoft.

Re: Google shares hit $1,000 after strong earnings

#215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Both Google and Apple have reached this stage at around the same time in my opinion - both are now milking existing users rather than looking for innovative new markets or products. Once companies grow to a certain size it seems almost inevitable.

Yeah, self driving cars, google glass, and loon are not innovative new markets at all.

[deleted]

Re: Google shares hit $1,000 after strong earnings

#216
post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On my 26" display I have almost never seen ads taking up all the space. In fact most of the time, there is one or two ads at the top and rest 80% of the space if organic search results. People cherry pick examples to show how bad ads are but in general it's not true. So, no, ranking is still critical, well and alive with good algorithms. Current revenue increase is because of YouTube's contribution that's finally hap…

> On my 26" display I have almost never seen ads taking up all the space It depends what you search for. If you search for something Google can monetize, like this search for sofas http://i.imgur.com/KAZ6zuq.jpg then little room is left for "normal" results. But if you search for something non-monetizable, of course less ads will show up.

Very strange: can't get Google to show me ads at all no matter what I type, like "sofas" or "erectile dysfunction" which should trigger a bunch of ads. Perhaps ads pushed consider geographic location?

Re: Google shares hit $1,000 after strong earnings

#217
I am always surprised at how much Google can make. I always see ads but I barely ever clicked on ads. I might click on one or two ocassionally. I might click on a few ads before Youtube content is loaded for me. But that's it. I can understand a few clicks * two billion users is a lot of clicks.

Remember those days when adsense was crazy on everyone's page. Somehow, Google's ad marketing works so well (and probably pretty expensive by now) that it just works. Plus, since everyone is moving to the Internet, ads are just a norm to do for businesses.

Re: Google shares hit $1,000 after strong earnings

#218
post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> On my 26" display I have almost never seen ads taking up all the space It depends what you search for. If you search for something Google can monetize, like this search for sofas http://i.imgur.com/KAZ6zuq.jpg then little room is left for "normal" results. But if you search for something non-monetizable, of course less ads will show up.

Very strange: can't get Google to show me ads at all no matter what I type, like "sofas" or "erectile dysfunction" which should trigger a bunch of ads. Perhaps ads pushed consider geographic location?

Are you using Adblock?

Re: Google shares hit $1,000 after strong earnings

#219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very strange: can't get Google to show me ads at all no matter what I type, like "sofas" or "erectile dysfunction" which should trigger a bunch of ads. Perhaps ads pushed consider geographic location?

Are you using Adblock?

In Chrome? I don't think so. I see no ads from Google at all, even if I try very hard. I am in the PRC market, which might have something to do with it, but even Bing will serve me ads if I switch to Bing.com.

Re: Google shares hit $1,000 after strong earnings

#220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You really took an extreme here. Those queries are so far from the mainstream that the fact that you don't see ads for those keywords doesn't invalidate your parent. Think outside of those niche queries to realize what a more traditional user sees. A query like "LA Car Rental" will give you an idea of what the parent post describes. If you want to stick closer to the tech niche, try "build iphone app". Even the query…

What should the SERP for "LA Car Rental" contain? If that's all you typed, what is Google to suppose you want? Assuming you don't actually want to rent a car in Los Angeles (or maybe if you do), you will get much more entertaining results by adding a little qualification, e.g., "LA Car Rental scams".

I do not disagree with those statements, but your comment somehow comes across as unnecessarily contradictory. I was just showing that there are ads on the pages. I did not take any stance regarding what those pages should contain.
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