[LINK] Google Ads and sponsorship (was: Google Ads on mobile phones)

[Richard Chirgwin]

Tom wrote:
>
> With the sponsored links, I noticed that when I attempted to place a 
> Google ad for a model of the Thalys European high speed train 
> <http://www.tomw.net.au/2004/europe/br.shtml>, the Google system 
> rejected it. The system said  "Thalys" was a trademark, so I could not 
> use the word in an ad unless I proved I had the rights to it.  So it 
> would seem the system has some level of checking built it.
>
> With advertisements, there would seem to be several ways to determine 
> if they are distinguished from search results:
>
> * BY ANALOGY WITH PRINT ADS: Web ads can be compared with the way 
> newspaper advertisements are made distinguishable from editorial. Text 
> only web ads are probably more easy to recognize as ads, than the 
> average newspaper "advertorial", but then that is not a very high 
> standard to meet.
>
> * USER TEST: It would not be difficult to test if people can tell ads 
> from search results in a human computer interaction (HCI) laboratory. 
> This would involve sitting people down in front of search screens and 
> asking them to pick out the ads. These test facilities are equipped 
> with cameras to record where people are looking and staff trained to 
> interpret the results. Paul Thomas (ANU) and David Hawking (CSIRO) 
> have developed a method of testing web search page designs online 
> which might be adapted to this 
> <http://cs.anu.edu.au/~Paul.Thomas/seminar-20061023.pdf>.
The user's ability to distinguish paid from neutral search content is 
somewhat in the hands of Google.

I had always considered the point at issue to be the text advertisements 
that appear above your search results, but I was startled to see a bunch 
of what looks like sponsored results appear in the middle of a search 
result:
http://www.google.com.au/search?hl=en&q=wagner&btnG=Google+Search&meta=

I can't tell whether the Wagner spray paint and electronics links are 
advertisements or not, which IMO devalues the search...

RC