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New banner ads push actual Google results to bottom 12% of the screen

arstechnica.com

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Re: New banner ads push actual Google results to bottom 12% of the screen

#141

Post by ChrisNorstrom »

llamataboot wrote: post #88
ChrisNorstrom wrote: post #79

I am convinced they have monkeys for designers. WHY on earth would you allow "About 30,2000,000 results (0.25 seconds)" to take up space?! Are these guys insane? That's the most useless information on the page, and it's pushing the ads and search results further down.

Don't they supposedly use 8 million A/B tests for every little design tweak?

Yes and they're really over-doing it with all the changes. By the time they're done a/b testing 40 different variations of something, they've exposed millions of users to a crappy interface just so they can collect hard evidence that it's crappy when compared to other ui variations.

And they do this because we're in a "Post Steve Jobs" era where every designer wants to be a Prima-Dona Jobs-successor Rockstar Diva who re-invisions all the company's products. You'd be surprised at the illogical changes and constant redesigns they make with YouTube and Google Analytics. I'm actually moving away from G-Analytics to Piwki because of the obnoxious "anti-middle-click" interface. With YouTube, Jesus... They change something every week. At least on my account they do.

Re: New banner ads push actual Google results to bottom 12% of the screen

#142

Post by ryanhuff »

r0h1n wrote: post #112
ryanhuff wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If they follow through with what you suggest, I wonder if it will be the straw that breaks the camels back in regards to an antitrust lawsuit by the government.

Why should that be the case? Google had defended and won most cases around the world where brands accused it of allowing competitors to show ads against their keyword searches. Why should banner ads be treated any differently by antitrust regulators?

The issue that I see (IANAL) is that these incremental changes to embedded advertising within search encroach ever-closer to a form of paid-search. When you own 60-70% of search, and you start requiring companies to pay in order to appear above the fold, we may have a problem.
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