Interesting People mailing list archives
IP: We Get What They Pay For
From: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Thu, 28 Feb 2002 14:07:18 -0500
To view the entire article, go to http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A14382-2002Feb27.html We Get What They Pay For By Leslie Walker Behold the soul of a search engine. It appears to be available to the highest bidder. Ever since Internet advertising slowed, halting revenue growth at the Internet's top networks, pressure has been building on Web companies to sell advertisers prominent placement in the results their search engines generate. Once it was unthinkable that companies could buy their way to the top of the listings produced when you type in a phrase like "digital cameras." But advertisers' bargaining power has increased in proportion to the decline in the economy, helping them claim a choice piece of digital real estate. Today most Internet networks present paid listings at the top of their search result pages in a format closely resembling the regular listings below. Many even let the amount of an advertiser's bid dictate how high a listing appears. Type in "George Bush" at big Internet gateways, for instance, and the top matches are likely to be links to eBay and Amazon.com. That's because eBay and Amazon lately have been top bidders for the George Bush "keyword," offering 11 cents and 10 cents, respectively, for each click-through a search engine delivers. In return, eBay gets to present a ridiculous link that says, "You can find George W. Bush right here!" Clicking on it leads to a list of cheesy items for sale on eBay, the first being a fake $2001 bill imprinted with George W.'s face. snip For archives see: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/
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- IP: We Get What They Pay For Dave Farber (Feb 28)