5 ms·

Lying Google advertising, or Google uses Adblock in its ads

25 points by shooper 13y ago

ColinDabritz 13y ago
I wonder how this affected the value of buying ads for the keywords used in the google campaign... Currently it appears there are 'no ads' there, but could there be if you bought keyword ads?
kissickas 13y ago
Is the image displayed just an ancient one? I forgot about that sidebar on the right, and I can't replicate that or get the black bar on the top outside of Google Translate.
ithkuil 13y ago
I've tried "oldest pub in limerick" and it gives me no ads, but it has a google map box on the right side, not sure if it counted as an ad.
- calciphus 13y ago
  The right-hand side stuff isn't available in most countries yet, so it likely wouldn't have shown up in a real-world use.
VikingCoder 13y ago
It's not like this is hard to check. Set the custom date range, and do the query yourself: https://www.google.com/search?q=oldest+sweet+shop+near+mochi+gate+lahore&tbs=cdr%3A1%2Ccd_min%3A%2Ccd_max%3A10%2F23%2F2013 https://www.google.com/search?q=oldest+sweet+shop+near+mochi... No ads shown. If you want to be sensationalist, then please start by trying to be accurate.
- powertower 13y ago
  What about the other 99.999999999995% of search queries? I think the OP's point is they are mis-representing what they are offering.
  - eli 13y ago
    "pizza" is whole different kind of query than the one shown in the ad. "Best toy store near dupont circle" has no ads. The worst you could accuse them of is picking a type of query that doesn't usually have ads. I don't think that's lying.
    - powertower 13y ago
      I'm not sure how I'm going to convince you that Google's business model revolves around monetization of search results and showing ads. But if I did, you'd see that any search query to Google is nothing more than a potential ad space. For your search query examples, it's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when.
      - VikingCoder 13y ago
        You're missing the biggest part of the whole equation: Google shows ads, because by every metric Google knows how to throw at it, people who search on Google WANT to see those ads. Google tries very hard to show only high-quality ads. That's a win-win-win. It's good for the users who find what they're looking for, it's good for the businesses who get a sale, and it's good for Google. It's like you're pissed there are ADS in the YELLOW PAGES. Yes, AT&T would list businesses with a vanilla entry, or a business could pay to show up a bit more prominently. The difference is, AT&T didn't give a crap about whether people found what they were looking for, or how high quality the ads were. It wasn't really their fault, there was no feedback loop. Google, fundamentally, is the largest feedback loop ever invented. Every human who uses it teaches Google how to help other humans find what they're looking for. A lot of the time, ads are the most relevant result.
        powertower 13y ago
        > people who search on Google WANT to see those ads. I doubt that very much. > A lot of the time, ads are the most relevant result. And there I though search results were supposed to be relavant - and that's why people started using Google. The normal CTR is now about 0.2 or 0.3 percent? That kind of contradicts what you are saying.
jmsduran 13y ago
If you take the original idea of the search shown in the ad, and reformat it to look like a rather ordinary search query, you get this: https://www.google.com/#q=biggest+candy+store+near+Austin%2C+TX https://www.google.com/#q=biggest+candy+store+near+Austin%2C... Not using ad-block, you can see some of the ads OP is referring to.

25 points by shooper 13y ago

I wonder how this affected the value of buying ads for the keywords used in the google campaign... Currently it appears there are 'no ads' there, but could there be if you bought keyword ads?

kissickas 13y ago

Is the image displayed just an ancient one? I forgot about that sidebar on the right, and I can't replicate that or get the black bar on the top outside of Google Translate.

ithkuil 13y ago

I've tried "oldest pub in limerick" and it gives me no ads, but it has a google map box on the right side, not sure if it counted as an ad.

calciphus 13y ago
The right-hand side stuff isn't available in most countries yet, so it likely wouldn't have shown up in a real-world use.

VikingCoder 13y ago

It's not like this is hard to check. Set the custom date range, and do the query yourself: https://www.google.com/search?q=oldest+sweet+shop+near+mochi+gate+lahore&tbs=cdr%3A1%2Ccd_min%3A%2Ccd_max%3A10%2F23%2F2013 https://www.google.com/search?q=oldest+sweet+shop+near+mochi... No ads shown. If you want to be sensationalist, then please start by trying to be accurate.

powertower 13y ago
What about the other 99.999999999995% of search queries? I think the OP's point is they are mis-representing what they are offering.
- eli 13y ago
  "pizza" is whole different kind of query than the one shown in the ad. "Best toy store near dupont circle" has no ads. The worst you could accuse them of is picking a type of query that doesn't usually have ads. I don't think that's lying.
  - powertower 13y ago
    I'm not sure how I'm going to convince you that Google's business model revolves around monetization of search results and showing ads. But if I did, you'd see that any search query to Google is nothing more than a potential ad space. For your search query examples, it's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when.
    - VikingCoder 13y ago
      You're missing the biggest part of the whole equation: Google shows ads, because by every metric Google knows how to throw at it, people who search on Google WANT to see those ads. Google tries very hard to show only high-quality ads. That's a win-win-win. It's good for the users who find what they're looking for, it's good for the businesses who get a sale, and it's good for Google. It's like you're pissed there are ADS in the YELLOW PAGES. Yes, AT&T would list businesses with a vanilla entry, or a business could pay to show up a bit more prominently. The difference is, AT&T didn't give a crap about whether people found what they were looking for, or how high quality the ads were. It wasn't really their fault, there was no feedback loop. Google, fundamentally, is the largest feedback loop ever invented. Every human who uses it teaches Google how to help other humans find what they're looking for. A lot of the time, ads are the most relevant result.
      - powertower 13y ago
        > people who search on Google WANT to see those ads. I doubt that very much. > A lot of the time, ads are the most relevant result. And there I though search results were supposed to be relavant - and that's why people started using Google. The normal CTR is now about 0.2 or 0.3 percent? That kind of contradicts what you are saying.

jmsduran 13y ago

If you take the original idea of the search shown in the ad, and reformat it to look like a rather ordinary search query, you get this: https://www.google.com/#q=biggest+candy+store+near+Austin%2C+TX https://www.google.com/#q=biggest+candy+store+near+Austin%2C... Not using ad-block, you can see some of the ads OP is referring to.