approx 41% of screen real estate is adwords now

So your company did the SEO? If so... impressing!

 

I don't mind the ad's either, but if things get out of hand we could always start our own competing search engine.

 

But below those 3 paying ads. Cheaper for many to pay adwords now then to have an SEO company get them to top 10.

 

If you want to have some fun, do the same real estate caluculation of the above the fold space on your own site....

I am working on a better way.

 

Lol... dark side? They only care about money, and if by telling people they are not evil makes them money then that's what they are going to say.

If it ever stops being useful to them "not being" on the darkside they'll just use another trick.

 

I don't like sponsored listings being put above the organic listings :0

 

Sorry Shawn,

But I can easily manipulate the relevancy using adwords results.

One "off the top of my head" result I just tried was search for "Cheat Codes".

The top adword is "Rent XBox 360 PS2 Games"

So I click on it and its some type of netflix wannabe for console games.

Now this is wonderful, but i wanted CHEAT CODES.

I could easily find 30 more results if I had the time or inclination, neither of which do I.

 

good point gford. before that I would have thought along the lines that companies would only advertise for relevant terms.

but if you think about it if given a list of keywords for that company "cheat codes" would have to be on the list as this is a popular aspect of console ownership. virtually all of the television shows based on console gaming have large segments on cheat code discovery. So in a way this is a relevant result as 9 times out of 10 a console owner will be searching this term....

 

The ad gford saw (Rent XBox 360 PS2 Games) is relevant to what he searched for. Someone looking for cheat codes most likely has a video game console of some kind and would be a potential customer for a company that rents/sells games. It's advertising 101.

Besides that, there's only 1 paid ad running for the phrase "cheat codes" and all of the organic results (at least the first 1-10) are pretty much dead on what you're looking for.

The average Internet user would be happy as could be with what Google returns (paid or otherwise) for a search for "cheat codes".

 

My guess is that in the next 5 years all top 10 will be PPC. It will be done slowly.

 

I don't see them ever doing that - people trust "organic" results more imo. Google makes $ off the organic results too - Adsense.

 

They are not so much relevant as they are related. Relevant is defined as "...having a direct bearing on the matter at hand".

Related yes?

It's like saying a PBJ sandwich is related to a turkey and swiss sandwich. They are both sandwiches, but taste quite different, have different allergy groups, etc.

I want a cheat code, not to rent a game. I GOT the game and want to cheat damnit!

It was a random choice. As I said I could find another example that more clearly shows non-relevant to the exact search I am after (but related!) but honestly I don't want to spend more time then I have already on this subject.

Free yes, Paid no - thats just highest bidder *NOT* most relevant. It's deepest pocket, not best answer to my search query.

Quite a difference mon ami.

Very true. But I don't want to start the whole Google "covers a blind eye" to MFA sites.

 

The ad clearly said what was on the destination page.

Show me a form of advertising (on or offline) where every ad is 100% relevant/related.

Adwords is advertising - it's not about being the "most relevant". It's about reaching your demographic based on their search and serving up an ad that may interest them and generate a sale on the target site.

The bottom line for Google (or any other SE) is that they need to return a page after someone searches that will satisfy the searcher - they have done that in your example.

 

And the point of THIS THREAD is that google now has 41% (on a very high resolution screen, would be > 50% on a normal 800x600 screen) of the screen real estate for ADVERTISEMENTS.

While "related" to my search query, it may not be the most relevant.

It's turning into yahoo in that the highest bidder is most relevant.

That was the point of my starting this thread. Disagree? Fine. But facts are facts. 41% on a 1280x1268 resolution screen are advertisements. This fact is indisputable. Fact is >50% of screen space on a 800x600 is "related" terms to "Advertisements" that are not as "relevant" as the "search" I am after. Thanks for your time.

 

You're right - "41% on a 1280x1268 resolution screen are advertisements."
(you should add that applies primarily to commercial terms)

My point is that the results page as a whole still satisfies the majority of end users and that is what's important.

 

Anyone know what the % of real estate devoted to ads on Google was in 2004? I do recall data from 2003 saying that, at the time, 29% of clicks on Google went to paid results.

-Shorebreak

 

It's a tradeoff. In the short term, more adspace = more revenue. However, as users become more internet saavy, they will get more fed up with the ever increasing ad space.

Then they're more likely to switch to an alternative engine, even if it has just as many ads, they're still more likely to switch if dissatisfied. G has to draw the line somewhere. I don't think they'll ever integrate sponsored results with organic.

 

I don't see any problem with it ... really...

If they will make the first links looks like the normal results, than I will start to think against the search engine. Otherwise, it's ok with me.