Is Google Advertising Evil?
“Google is telling publishers to place advertisements right in the middle of pages, blended with content. This would imply that Google is being evil because they seem to be asking publishers to violate user expectations. Magically, they dodge this bullet. They aren’t being evil, publishers are happy, users are happy, and Google makes gobs and gobs of money.” (Source: Apogee Usability, Author: John S. Rhodes)
They do it by improving the user experience.
You’ll really want to take a look at the two main graphics in this article. The first graphic shows where people expect advertising (which users ignore) and the second graphic shows where Google tells publishers to place advertising (smack in the middle of the page). This should bug users since it violates their expectations and it disrupts the flow of the page. But it doesn’t! You’ll have to read the article to understand why this works for publishers, readers and Google. ;-)
p.s. Did you miss my first Apogee article? How Product Teams Benefit from Usability
April 2nd, 2006 at 5:27 am
Actually, Google’s tactics could be considered illegal (in many countries) if the products weren’t free.
The problem is that they initially offer a free, ad-free version. This generates an enormous amount of “word-of-mouth marketing” (or word-of-blog). This is turn generates a lot of “users”.
Then Google usually wait for several months. This has one unique effect. The users become accustomed to the service, competing services looses ground. People start using Google as a habit.
Then, when they have a ton of user, and everyone has agreed that it is a great product - then they add ads (or other revenue based things). At this point Google has the power of change on their side. People are unwilling to change, especially if they already have agreed that a product is good (even told other people that it is great).
My point is that none of Google’s services would be as successful as they are if they included ads (or other revenue generating additions) from the beginning. People would not welcome it to the same extend as they are when it is included later.
This is a deceptive marketing strategy, not suitable for an ethical company who tries to “not to be evil”.
July 21st, 2007 at 10:06 pm
[…] WebWord » Blog Archive » Is Google Advertising Evil? … publishers are happy, users are happy, and Google makes gobs and gobs of money … One Response to “Is Google Advertising Evil?” Thomas Baekdal … in many countries) if the products weren’t free. … http://www.webword.com/wp/2006/04/01/is-google-advertising-evil/ […]