Some say that Google's near monopoly in search ads puts it in a position to decide which business models it will tolerate and which ones it won't.
(From The New York Times)
The story "Stuck in Google's doghouse" published September 13, 2008 at 12:22 PM is no longer available on CNET News.
Can you guys try to get your facts on Googlers a bit more right? All of the employees mentioned in this article are like 27 or 28 years old, they are not execs.
I can only hope that you are right. At one point in 2007 we were spending over $10,000/mth in advertising in the adwords program. We were also using an analytics program on our site from another company just to make sure we were not being denied a fair shake when we were able to see problems arise.
One day we had someone from one IP address click on our ad over 100 times in one hour repeatedly. We submited a ticket and uploaded a copy of the evidence from the other service. This evidently didn't sit well with them because they stated there was no evidence they could find that anyone had done anything wrong. They asked why we were using another analytics service, that their service provided everything we needed. I responded that they were correct, except from one thing. Verification of what what happening from an impartial third party.
They refused to reimburse over $500 in what should have been click fraud charges Do no evil, I think not. From that point on we switched to Yahoo and MSN. Yes our traffic went down and again had a similiar problem later on Yahoo, however this time the end result was much different. We promply received a credit without any hesitation.
I learned a valuable lesson with pay per click systems. Ensure you are using another service to verify every click is legit, you may be sorry if you don't!
Arbitrage is such a new "industry" nobody really know how this will play out in the next 10 years. I mean, people buy Google AdWord to direct traffic to their web site, then place higher paying Google AdSense to make money. This really has nothing to do whether Google is a monopoly or not. To me, this is more like gambling. Google or anybody else could choose to change their term of service agreement or change the system.
As a web designer and content writer, I understand fully why Google sandboxed this fellow. His web site is nothing but a link farm. Link farms are of little use to anyone and are often havens for links to seedy websites that infect the user's machine with malware.<br>
I applaud the fact that Google caught on to this abuse of the adsense/adwords system. This guy is kind of like the characters that run wall street. Money goes in and out, but nothing really gets done.<br>
Link farms are the Spencer's Gifts of the internet. Lots of useless crap.
Ok, I just checked out this website, and I have to say that the links there are not all crap. Maybe you think that Google gives you better links, but Google doesn't always give you anything you want.
To be honest with you, I think you're full of crap.
Err, why would anyone in their right mind have their entire profit center rely on the whims and will of a single vendor?
I mean, seriously... nobody has the right to make a profit off of another company (formal contracts excepted, of course). It's like an eBayer whining about not making so much money anymore because eBay changed a policy or something...
"Google's conduct is plainly consistent with acts of monopolization and attempted monopolization," Savage's lawyer wrote in his letter to the Justice Department. He added that "Google has achieved and maintained its market share through anticompetitive exclusionary conduct." "
BINGO! Precisley why both the DOJ and the EU should stop this attempt by Google to co-opt and neutralize Yahoo. If Google is being a vicious monopolistic bully even right now, just imagine what the arrogant, evil Google will do if they are allowed to get away with rendering Yahoo an ineffective competitor? And if Google is putting their hopes in these elections to save them from anti-trust, they'd beter forget it. It don't matter much if John McCain or Obama win in November, both of them will be even tougher on anti-trust.
Running AdWords to AdSense is arbitrage. In fact, it was even called out by Google as something they were trying to stop. What is the consumer benefit if you have to go to an interstitial site before ending up at your destination?
There are many ways to fix quality score. A quick search for landing page quality case study or quality score factors: <a class="jive-link-external" href="http://www.google.com/search?q=landing+page+quality+score+case+study" target="_newWindow">http://www.google.com/search?q=landing+page+quality+score+case+study</a> <a class="jive-link-external" href="http://www.google.com/search?q=quality+score+factors&btnG=Search" target="_newWindow">http://www.google.com/search?q=quality+score+factors&btnG=Search</a>
bring up many results, most of which are quite accurate.
This is a manner of understanding the subtle ways that Google's ad program works.
Talking of business models, it is interesting that smart people are turnng this problem into businesses advising others about how to improve landing page quality.
Kwasi - your shilling for MSFT (live.com in this case) has taken you outside the bounds of reason and logic. Yahoo set up the deal. Yahoo wanted this. Yahoo is bragging on obtaining it.
Still beating that dead horse huh? For the umpteenth time, it's irrelevant if Yahoo wanted or didn't "want this'. What counts is what market share the Google/Yahoo control if this deal is allowed to go through(it won't). The DOJ can no more allow Google to efectively take over Yahoo (which is what this "deal" is really about), than allow Coca Cola to take over Pepsi, even if Pepsi "wanted it".
This article really nailed what I think is the biggest problem people have with google, namely the fact that they wont talk to you. If something goes wrong, you might as well be out in the Pacific Ocean yelling at the waves for all the good it does. Savage's treatment was far better than mine. At least he got SOME response from google. They never even bothered to return my emails.
I've been an AdSense publisher for years. I've never dealt with anywhere near that kind of money through their program, but it does pay my hosting bills. Their tools have helped me optimize ad placement to gain more visibility, and their changes over the years have done nothing but increase my revenue. Sure, they're a bit impersonal, but they're good at what they do.
"he believed, Google didn't like his Web directory because it was a search engine itself--though much more narrowly focused than Google's search engine--and Google found it a competitive threat."
Guess what? I know of a site which has been rejected from Google's ad program because of the exact reason stated above. This was made obvious when Google gave an indirect and non-specific answer as its reasoning for exclusion. If you offer a specific program and exclude applicants from it, you should be required to give a specific reason as to why you are playing "GOD".
If nothing else, transparency makes good business sense and is more likely to be viewed as being the antithesis of evil.
@Kwasi: Coca-Cola/Pepsi are irrelevant examples because you pay for those products. How much do you pay to visit Google/Yahoo/live.com?
Also, Please show me where Google and/or Yahoo is preventing advertisers from patronizing one of literally thousands of other ad centers. You can't because they aren't. MSFT is still right there, willing to take money. The individual websites are still right there, willing to do the same directly. The very nature of the Internet and its lack of barriers (or the means to erect any) is what makes your argument, well... stupid.
Right now, eBay has a monopoly on online auction sites. The sensible reply to that is... so what? It doesn't matter that they've alienated their sellers, and it doesn't matter that their policies are capricious and/or subjective, and it doesn't matter that they demand you use PayPal instead of some other money broker (because eBay owns PayPal). Notice that the DoJ hasn't fallen all over themselves to prosecute eBay? Wanna know why? Because it's as simple as selling your wares more directly through craigslist, or in the local online edition of the paper, etc.
IOW - so what? If Google p!sses you off, use someone else. There are plenty of sources and way to do it. Even a non-marketer like myself knows this... so unless your marketing exec is a moron or an incompetent, saying "Google/Yahoo is the only way we can do this" is a dumb statement.
Google (or Yahoo, or Microsoft) does not owe you a living. Get over it.
Web giant is spending $120 million to beef up its Mountain View, Calif., headquarters, according to filings with the city reviewed by the San Jose Mercury News.
The Samsung Galaxy Mini 2 S6500 could make its debut at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona later this month, according to a leaked promotional image.
MIT creates a simulation to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Spacewar. A relic of the early days of minicomputers, it was one of the first computer video games and set the stage for many others, including Asteroids.
Get back to me when you can actually make some sense will ya?
One day we had someone from one IP address click on our ad over 100 times in one hour repeatedly. We submited a ticket and uploaded a copy of the evidence from the other service. This evidently didn't sit well with them because they stated there was no evidence they could find that anyone had done anything wrong. They asked why we were using another analytics service, that their service provided everything we needed. I responded that they were correct, except from one thing. Verification of what what happening from an impartial third party.
They refused to reimburse over $500 in what should have been click fraud charges Do no evil, I think not. From that point on we switched to Yahoo and MSN. Yes our traffic went down and again had a similiar problem later on Yahoo, however this time the end result was much different. We promply received a credit without any hesitation.
I learned a valuable lesson with pay per click systems. Ensure you are using another service to verify every click is legit, you may be sorry if you don't!
I applaud the fact that Google caught on to this abuse of the adsense/adwords system. This guy is kind of like the characters that run wall street. Money goes in and out, but nothing really gets done.<br>
Link farms are the Spencer's Gifts of the internet. Lots of useless crap.
To be honest with you, I think you're full of crap.
I mean, seriously... nobody has the right to make a profit off of another company (formal contracts excepted, of course). It's like an eBayer whining about not making so much money anymore because eBay changed a policy or something...
Geez.
/P
BINGO!
Precisley why both the DOJ and the EU should stop this attempt by Google to co-opt and neutralize Yahoo. If Google is being a vicious monopolistic bully even right now, just imagine what the arrogant, evil Google will do if they are allowed to get away with rendering Yahoo an ineffective competitor?
And if Google is putting their hopes in these elections to save them from anti-trust, they'd beter forget it. It don't matter much if John McCain or Obama win in November, both of them will be even tougher on anti-trust.
There are many ways to fix quality score. A quick search for landing page quality case study or quality score factors:
<a class="jive-link-external" href="http://www.google.com/search?q=landing+page+quality+score+case+study" target="_newWindow">http://www.google.com/search?q=landing+page+quality+score+case+study</a>
<a class="jive-link-external" href="http://www.google.com/search?q=quality+score+factors&btnG=Search" target="_newWindow">http://www.google.com/search?q=quality+score+factors&btnG=Search</a>
bring up many results, most of which are quite accurate.
This is a manner of understanding the subtle ways that Google's ad program works.
Get a grip already.
Still beating that dead horse huh?
For the umpteenth time, it's irrelevant if Yahoo wanted or didn't "want this'. What counts is what market share the Google/Yahoo control if this deal is allowed to go through(it won't).
The DOJ can no more allow Google to efectively take over Yahoo (which is what this "deal" is really about), than allow Coca Cola to take over Pepsi, even if Pepsi "wanted it".
Ken
Guess what? I know of a site which has been rejected from Google's ad program because of the exact reason stated above. This was made obvious when Google gave an indirect and non-specific answer as its reasoning for exclusion. If you offer a specific program and exclude applicants from it, you should be required to give a specific reason as to why you are playing "GOD".
If nothing else, transparency makes good business sense and is more likely to be viewed as being the antithesis of evil.
Also, Please show me where Google and/or Yahoo is preventing advertisers from patronizing one of literally thousands of other ad centers. You can't because they aren't. MSFT is still right there, willing to take money. The individual websites are still right there, willing to do the same directly. The very nature of the Internet and its lack of barriers (or the means to erect any) is what makes your argument, well... stupid.
Right now, eBay has a monopoly on online auction sites. The sensible reply to that is... so what? It doesn't matter that they've alienated their sellers, and it doesn't matter that their policies are capricious and/or subjective, and it doesn't matter that they demand you use PayPal instead of some other money broker (because eBay owns PayPal). Notice that the DoJ hasn't fallen all over themselves to prosecute eBay? Wanna know why? Because it's as simple as selling your wares more directly through craigslist, or in the local online edition of the paper, etc.
IOW - so what? If Google p!sses you off, use someone else. There are plenty of sources and way to do it. Even a non-marketer like myself knows this... so unless your marketing exec is a moron or an incompetent, saying "Google/Yahoo is the only way we can do this" is a dumb statement.
Google (or Yahoo, or Microsoft) does not owe you a living. Get over it.
/P