Oh Google!

I ended up on google's corporate information philosophy page. They mentioned that in order for them to make money, they have to have advertisements, but they do it in a more discrete way. I never really knew these were ads, but when you google something and on the side there are links with little descriptions about something you are actually looking for, well those are their ads. And they have found those to be much more effective then having big picture ads or pop ups, which interfere with the searching process. I still don't see very many companies following this practice, because they still have the banners on top of their webpage or on the side, but I think what they will begin to conform too, is the way google only places advertisements that are similar to your search request.

If for instance I was searching for shoes, their advertisements would be related to shoes. And I think more websites will catch on to this, because no one wants to see or cares about a insurance ad if they are looking for information about biology. Another issue their tackling are the ads which offer free gift cards or ipods, but you have to sign up with one of their sponsors and pay a fee first, google is no longer tolerating those ads, and banning them from google. Maybe people won't feel scammed if they never recieve their free item or decieved.

Google is taking preemptive strikes I believe to offer us with more options on things that we actually want or looking for. Hopefully this makes us more conscious aware of what we are shopping for and it makes us more conscientious consumers. I think a downside could be that we may buy more of what we are looking for, but hey at least we aren't buying random things that we really don't need.