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TechCrunch posted a great article a couple of days ago focused on Google’s new PPA (Pay Per Action) service. I don’t think this should come as surprise to anyone in this industry. You knew eventually Google would have to do it. If it helps smaller businesses with issues like click fraud than great. The only people who should be really concerned are the affiliate networks who might be in real trouble.
What I think is significant about this announcement is what TC discusses towards the end of their post - Google’s announcement of their new “Text Link Format”. What this means is the days of the Adsense banner sitting on the top, bottom, left or right hand sides of a web page are over. Now when a publisher users certain words in a story they post, those words will be underlined and when rolled over, a Google PPC or PPA ad will pop-up.
Why don’t we check out Google’s “Our Philosophy” page, shall we?
“From its inception, Google has focused on providing the best user experience possible.”
Really? So you’re saying that when someone is trying to read something on a web page throwing up pop-up rollovers in their face is the best user experience????
“While many companies claim to put their customers first, few are able to resist the temptation to make small sacrifices to increase shareholder value. Google has steadfastly refused to make any change that does not offer a benefit to the users who come to the site”
Huh… It sure seems like this decision has done exactly that! You sacrificed the user experience to increase shareholder value.
“Advertising on the site must offer relevant content and not be a distraction.”
Now I did not graduate from Stanford with a doctorate in everything, but Larry and Sergey can you tell me something more distracting than a fricken pop-up?!?!?!?!?!
Google tried to bury this information within a larger announcement an old trick that has been used in PR for years. In politics, they call it “taking out the trash”. They did this to try to avoid the scrutiny and discussions within the blogosphere. I am hoping that my article among many others will not allow them to sweep this issue under the rug.
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Technorati Tags: TechCrunch, Google, click fraud, affiliate networks
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Well see how this turns out, I agree this could be the start of evil things to come. Maybe this is an early April fools but i don’t think so.
I dont know how much of a popup this will be, seems much less intrusive than snap preview and does create more work for the publisher as I assume they will have to qualify the phrases.
ugh. As a user I *hate* text linked ads in the body of content.
But I think what scares me most are the following (potential) issues:
1) Lack of control on the Publisher side (can we turn the links off/on, control over look/feel, filter out domains specifically for the links)
2) Lack of control & reporting on the Advertiser side
3) How will the AdSense text linker deal with existing outbound linkage (will it overwrite my “natural” linking)?
4) Will my conversion rate drop (click quality) due to “unsuspecting” clicks (advertiser perspective)?
5) Will the poor advertiser conversions effect the amount (eCPM) I am paid out b/c of smart pricing (publisher perspective)?
While it would seem obvious that Google would give users control over these things and that quality/conversions/revenue should increase, I still remember the time when my AdWords account was slammed into contextual (at its launch), and my cost-per-conversion skyrocketed, without a way to shut it off.
Horns - I doubt very much it is an April Fools joke, but I like your wishful thinking.
Tech - Great points and I agree with you. I think my biggest issue is that I don’t bash Google for making decisions that will increase revenues for them. They are in a business to make money. But unfortunately, you cannot play both sides of the fence. Which means there are times that the greater good of a community means less money. Either they are going to stick with their “values” or let’s stop all the BSing. Google has entered several different gray areas recently and they are going to learn that they cannot have it both ways.
Thank you both for your comments!
I love google very much except google censorship to China gov that was do evil things like as Microsft and Yahoo.