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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

#321

Post by HWR_14 »

hootz wrote: post #129
pbasista wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but virtually impossible to block the text itself Why do you believe so? As long as there is a clear indication somewhere on the webpage (in the metadata or in the text itself) that a specific portion of a text is an ad, a browser extension will be able to block it. And I assume that there are laws mandating that the ads must be clearly marked in order to be distinguishable from the genuine content.

That's only doable if the ads are artificially injected. But what if they are part of the training, system prompt or the search results that are fed to the AI? What if Google Search bumps up their paying advertiser up in the internal search results for Gemini (as they are basically already doing)? The AI will be biased towards the advertisers without literally embedding an ad into the output text.

> what if they are part of the training

No way Google is going to bake the ads into training data. Their entire business is built on auctioning off each ad slot in realtime.

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

#322

Post by pasquinelli »

drfloyd51 wrote: post #246
jordigh wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An ad is never helpful because ads are designed to mislead me into buying something I didn't need or knew about before I saw the ad. If nothing else, an ad cannot impartially compare a product with the competition (and sometimes the "competition" is buying nothing at all), therefore every ad lies. If I already needed or knew about it, I didn't need the ad. If I was happy with my life without the product advertised, I…

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.

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

#325

Post by foobarian »

nelblu wrote: 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?

Tbh that is a pretty vague statement. Could be 0.01% more and it would still be technically correct. Could be doubling the number of non-helpful ads in the meantime

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

#326

Post by weird-eye-issue »

nunez wrote: post #310
weird-eye-issue wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

The cheat code for that used to be Reddit before they got growth-hacked 10+ years ago.

Actually Reddit is receiving more organic traffic than ever before and is more valuable to game than ever

But yes actually I was doing this about 15 years ago in the men's fashion subreddit for one of my companies lol

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

#327

Post by s1artibartfast »

jordigh wrote: post #226
lelanthran wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Since when have we considered ads something helpful? Depends. Ads a low-effort large-reach pathways for lead generation, mostly useful for B2C penetration. I also did sales when I ran my own company, and I can absolutely guarantee that ads can be helpful. When talking to leads you're talking to someone who a) never saw what you offered but is listening to you anyway, or b) saw what you offered and decided to contac…

An ad is never helpful because ads are designed to mislead me into buying something I didn't need or knew about before I saw the ad. If nothing else, an ad cannot impartially compare a product with the competition (and sometimes the "competition" is buying nothing at all), therefore every ad lies. If I already needed or knew about it, I didn't need the ad. If I was happy with my life without the product advertised, I…

I need a new dishwasher. I dont want to go knocking on doors until I find somewhere that sells them. Im glad they have signs, webpages, and info sheets.

Promotion and discovery are important. Advertising is the spread of information. Of course some can be bad or misleading, and that is bad.

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