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Did the phone company provide the service for free or did you have to pay the phone bill? Congratulations on discovering how advertising works.

• harry8 3y ago
  The condescension is unnecessary and against the guidelines around here. Did the phone company put your calls through to your competitor if you paid them to do that or would they be in big trouble for doing so. It's not "advertising" it's getting between you and your customers and tolling the infrastructure to the highest bidder. The phone company was regulated very heavily as a utility just like google isn't.
  • bagacrap 3y ago
    Google isn't redirecting DNS lookups. Google is much closer to the yellow pages, which if you hadn't noticed is full of both paid and unpaid content.
    • harry8 3y ago
      Yellow pages is regulated and static - the same for everyone. Perhaps this is the answer for how to treat google? Regulate them heavily and ensure they show the same thing to everyone? Interesting suggestion you're making.
      • milemi 3y ago
        How are yellow pages regulated?
        • harry8 3y ago
          Ever tried to put in an ad for your competitor with your phone number? Its telecoms, it's regulated.
          • milemi 3y ago
            Government regulates some parts of telecom business, a lot of it it doesn’t. I couldn’t find any regulations pertaining to yellow pages, that’s why I was asking. I doubt there are any. Please provide some evidence of Google systematically violating its policy here https://support.google.com/adspolicy/answer/6020955?hl=en https://support.google.com/adspolicy/answer/6020955?hl=en
            • harry8 3y ago
              I could literally not care less about google's policy, as enforced by google. It is of zero relevance nor significance to anything at all. Google have deliberately made ads much harder to distinguish from results. They have done so for money and it has been successful. No policy of theirs changes this, excuses this nor makes it go away nor makes it less relevant. I care as much about google's "policy" on google's clear misbehaviour as I do about mafia citing their "code" in a criminal trial. You should try assuming people lie for money when there are no consequences until shown to be otherwise. Try all the standard, accepted and common google ad techniques on yellow pages ads and see how far you get. I'm betting on that being nowhere and usually because it is illegal.
              • milemi 3y ago
                So… no evidence? Putting ads at the top of the page is nothing like your original claim that Google lets advertisers impersonate other businesses. I didn’t ask if you care about Google’s policy on impersonation, but whether you have an example where I type business name X and Google shows me an ad that says it will take me to X but it takes me somewhere else. What can or can’t be done in yellow pages is irrelevant. I also can’t click on things in yellow pages, does that mean presenting links should be illegal?
                • harry8 3y ago
                  They don't care about impersonation at all but yes it happens as is evidenced in this very thread. What they want is for the majority of punters using google to search for the url for xyz corp to click the ad for that url rather than that same url the search result. This is why they changed the ads to look like search result and put them above. It's incredibly lucrative. It's exactly what MBA types talk about monetisation of the infrastructure to "toll the way." And the rest of us refer to as "protection money." That was and remains the claim. It's pretty solid. But good on you for sticking up for google so hard, it's unfashionable to take the side of the gazillion dollar behmoth with all the market power and it needs to be respected that you're trying.
  • milemi 3y ago
    Brave edgelords exposing Google mafia for what it is can’t take a little condescension. Heroes just aren’t what they used to be. Despite my best efforts I can’t follow your overstretched analogy. How does Google redirect anything by putting ads on top of search results?
    • harry8 3y ago
      Best of luck to you in your quest for understanding.