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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

#441

Post by pavlus »

stellamariesays wrote: post #281

[flagged]

I'd add: since the AI is now referring the product "as if" it's an honest advice from a secondary source, they would be exempt from the usual advertisement rules.

Effectively, if you were to search "the best oatmeal without asbestos", it could suggest you "AsBestOats", and "AsBestOats" would only advertise asbestos in its content on the box for the human to see, but advertise to crawlers it's "the best oats without asbestos". It's not a false advertisement, because they didn't show it to a human, and machines can't sue.

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

#442

Post by ghostly_s »

gbro3n wrote: post #12
karlkloss wrote: post #8

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…

> "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, You think AI has some way of assessing the truthiness of "all available information?"

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

#443

Post by furyofantares »

pavlus wrote: post #441
stellamariesays wrote: post #281

[flagged]

I'd add: since the AI is now referring the product "as if" it's an honest advice from a secondary source, they would be exempt from the usual advertisement rules. Effectively, if you were to search "the best oatmeal without asbestos", it could suggest you "AsBestOats", and "AsBestOats" would only advertise asbestos in its content on the box for the human to see, but advertise to crawlers it's "the best oats without a…

Gonna guess you are not a lawyer and this is all theorycrafted on a whim.

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

#444

Post by XCSme »

johneth wrote: post #382
XCSme wrote: post #315

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You won't be able to tell if it's an ad, if it's just biased (and the ad is not discolsed). They could always sell ads like "recommend my tool more when user asks for cupcakes in London". And then, the output would be: "My top 3 recomendations are X, Y, Z". And maybe only X is the one that paid and Y and Z are organic.

That's almost certainly illegal in many jurisdictions, and they'd definitely not be able to hide that they're doing it indefinitely. A sure way to be massively sued.

Well, won't it be hard to test?

The customers could be paying for "increased visibility" in LLM results, but nothing specific.

Also, the ad platform could simply hint towards a customer, instead of directly mentioning, thus not being a true direct ad.

(NB: customer = the one buying the increased LLM visibility)

For example, a user could ask for "prebuild computers", and the ad platform could state: "the best ones for your use-case are those with AMD CPU, NVidia GPU, 2TB of RAM and a Z960X motherboard", and when you search for it, surprise-surprise, there is only one company in your location selling this specific setup. Or maybe, instead of linking directly to the company, it links to keywords/ideas that link to that company.

You get the gist, by using dynamically generated plain text and having more control over the user journey, you could actually steer the user into a specific direction without ever mentioning it.

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

#445

Post by pavlus »

jodrellblank wrote: post #377
adrian_b wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do not think that I have ever seen on the Internet a helpful ad. When I want to buy something, I search what I want or I go directly to online shops that I have used before or to price comparison sites. Nonetheless, mostly before the appearance of the Internet, when I was reading various technical journals, especially during the seventies and the eighties of the past century, e.g. magazines or journals of electroni…

> " The most stupid thing is the fact that after I have searched for something to buy, I am bombarded for a long time with related ads, but that is exactly when with certainty I am no longer interested in that kind of ads " Please see this comment exchange from 3 years ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37218627 > "the correlation between $just_bought_thing and $will_buy_another is very, very high ... Showing…

> the correlation between $just_bought_thing and $will_buy_another is very, very high

This looks like an argument against advertising the same thing. Why would you advertise something, they were already going to buy?

But showing an ad before their next purchase definitely would improve the numbers on the "our conversion rate chart" _advertised_ to ad buyers. A con played by ad companies to sell more ads.

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

#446

Post by BurningFrog »

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?

The targeted ads in Google Search were hugely helpful, at least in the beginning.

Suddenly, you could search for something obscure and get ads about that exact topic. This enabled a huge number of small niche businesses to exist and prosper.

We now live in the world Google Ads created, and we take for granted the there will be someone selling Bulgarian accordion cleaning kits out there that I can easily find. But targeted ads made this world possible!

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

#447

Post by worik »

JJMcJ wrote: post #346
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.

Ditto me with Duckduckgo a long time ago

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

#449

Post by worik »

lelanthran wrote: post #136
sedawkgrep wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since when have we considered ads something helpful? Their purpose isn’t to be helpful. They're there to sell you something, and nothing more. Any semblance of helpfulness is misinterpretation and merely coincidental.

> 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…

Yes. Good points

Ads are useful, but to whom? Not often the consumer!

The benefits ads have to the consumer can be obtained other ways, like a well functioning search engine.

Imagine if Google used AI to improve search results rather than maximize the revenue from, and irritation by, ads

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

#450

Post by worik »

jodrellblank wrote: post #374
pasquinelli wrote: post #322

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Conspicuously absent from your scenario is the way the doctor becomes aware of the new drug. How does that happen?

There are other ways of making information available

The role of search

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