Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Google breaks 2005 promise never to show banner ads on search results

theguardian.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 211 posts

Re: Google breaks 2005 promise never to show banner ads on search results

#71

Post by rmxt »

golergka wrote: post #60
null_ptr wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What exactly would you call it then, if not a banner ad? It's a large, colorful, rectangular 5:1 panel that advertises a company. Cut the doublespeak.

It's not an ad because it's an organic search result, which is directly relevant to what I'm searching. It's essentially the same as Google Image search result, only better suited for this particular page and request.

Care to elaborate on how its better suited? Why return what you are calling image results on a page that historically has been text only, especially when there exists a perfectly functional Image Search already?

Plus, why insert an image at all if not to convert people that would otherwise miss (or not be looking for) the text result?

Re: Google breaks 2005 promise never to show banner ads on search results

#72

Post by ajiang »

Are we putting that much significance from a quote in 2005 by a Google executive who has since left Google?

While some see it as a social utility, Google is a $350B public company that generates its revenues from advertisements. 8 years ago, the world of advertising (and the world in general), was a different place. Holding Google accountable for something so far in the past by someone who is no longer there is a seemingly unfair standard.

Re: Google breaks 2005 promise never to show banner ads on search results

#73

Post by JohnTHaller »

If you take the full quote, this isn't an open and shut case as it certainly isn't a 'banner ad' in terms of what everyone understood to be banner ads in 2005. The full quote is:

"There will be no banner ads on the Google homepage or web search results pages. There will not be crazy, flashy, graphical doodads flying and popping up all over the Google site. Ever."

That Southwest Airlines screenshot doesn't look like a banner ad as described by Marissa Mayer. It doesn't seem to be flashing or flying around or popping up.

And, arguably, Google has been doing things that flash and fly around with the Google Doodles on the homepage for years. And no one freaked out about that.

Re: Google breaks 2005 promise never to show banner ads on search results

#74

Post by mathattack »

ajiang wrote: post #72

Are we putting that much significance from a quote in 2005 by a Google executive who has since left Google? While some see it as a social utility, Google is a $350B public company that generates its revenues from advertisements. 8 years ago, the world of advertising (and the world in general), was a different place. Holding Google accountable for something so far in the past by someone who is no longer there is a see…

Indeed - 8 years is a long long time. And who is actually harmed?

Would it be less evil if Google had to put banner ads up to make payroll?

Re: Google breaks 2005 promise never to show banner ads on search results

#75

Post by anon1385 »

alan_cx wrote: post #45
TomGullen wrote: post #7

Corporate promises aren't worth a dime as history has shown repeatedly. In fact, corporations (especially large ones) can't ever be trusted for pretty much anything and anything they say or do you should always react sceptically by default. They just don't care, and this lack of caring is an inevitability for growing corporations. Granted some might consider this to be a minor breach of a promise, some might not. The…

No, no, no. You can absolutely trust them if they are say "we are doing this to maximize profits for our share holders / owners". Then, what is this expectation that one should be able to trust them to do anything else at all? Surely the mere existence of consumer law should tell us something.

>You can absolutely trust them if they are say "we are doing this to maximize profits for our share holders / owners".

Eh, not necessarily. Enron executive said what they were doing was to maximise share holder value, but really it was to maximise their own wealth.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Control_fraud

Re: Google breaks 2005 promise never to show banner ads on search results

#77

Post by raldi »

pmelendez wrote: post #18
jeffclark wrote: post #14

In related news: I am no longer with my college girlfriend, despite the fact that 8 years ago I told her I would never leave her.

And... Did you leave her? or just break up as a common agreement? In legalese language, I am pretty sure that a promise is synonym of contract, and contracts might be dissolved if both sides of the contract agreed. This being an open promise is not a contract but a reaffirmation of a goal, since people change is regrettable but OK to break promises to ourselves sometimes when the interest of the goal had changed.

> In legalese language, I am pretty sure that a promise is synonym of contract

You are 100% wrong.

Re: Google breaks 2005 promise never to show banner ads on search results

#78

Post by plorkyeran »

peejaybee wrote: post #52
T-hawk wrote: post #35

It's arguable that queries like [southwest airlines] are even a search. The vast majority of instances are probably URL-illiterate users merely trying to get to Southwest Airlines' web site. (And Google must know rather precisely just how many.) For these users, search is really operating as a natural-language alternative to DNS so such a clickable banner will help them get there. More than just advertising, this rep…

I would say that even URL-literate users use it this way, because the business-to-URL mapping is not always clear, and the naive guess is sometimes the worst possible one (e.g. Dick's Sporting Goods.)

This is where I'm Feeling Lucky search is really useful. l sends me directly to the correct site very close to 100% of the time, even if I misspell the name of the company.

Re: Google breaks 2005 promise never to show banner ads on search results

#79

Post by buffportion »

T-hawk wrote: post #35

It's arguable that queries like [southwest airlines] are even a search. The vast majority of instances are probably URL-illiterate users merely trying to get to Southwest Airlines' web site. (And Google must know rather precisely just how many.) For these users, search is really operating as a natural-language alternative to DNS so such a clickable banner will help them get there. More than just advertising, this rep…

“Oh my god, Jerry, when you check your email you go to Altavista and type, ‘Please go to yahoo.com?’"

Re: Google breaks 2005 promise never to show banner ads on search results

#80

Post by peterwwillis »

Brakenshire wrote: post #59
peterwwillis wrote: post #51

I love how people continue to attach emotional investment to an arbitrary thing like a corporation. Apologists, fanboys, and people with a child-like innocence. Do you really expect a for-profit company will stick to a promise like it means something? The entire point behind a capitalist corporation is to make more profit, year after year. That is the entire idea behind the stock market. To think that they'd evade ev…

This is in turn naive, as if corporations operate within a mathematical model, not the real world. Corporations rely very heavily on the trust of their customers, whether those are consumers, or other businesses. Google's entire business model rests on the willingness of its consumers to hand over their data, the value of their word is fundamental to future profitability. Although admittedly this particular issue is…

Google's business model rests on the advertisement and marketing industries. It does not work based on trust. It convinces people to use its product. The only "trust" it has is in its ability to do so.
Post reply on HN