Imagine if I overheard Ben talking about needing a new iPod, then interrupted and asked him if he wanted to know more about iPods. When he said, "Yes," I would then throw ads from Best Buy, Microcenter, and Circuit City at him. I imagine his response to that would be something like, "This isn't more about iPods! They're just a bunch of ads!" And he'd be correct.
Let's compare that to Google's latest ad serving in Gmail. But first, let's back up to the summer of 2001.
Back in 2001, there was a big uproar about differentiating between paid and unpaid search engine results. At the time, some search engines were basically serving pay per click ads as the top search engine results with no disclaimer to the public that they were, in fact, paid advertisements. Chris Sherman covered the controversy in a story I'm quoting here:
"Commercial Alert, a 3-year-old group founded by consumer activist Ralph Nader, has filed a complaint with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) against eight Web search engines ?¢‚Ǩ?ìfor placing ads in search engine results without clear disclosure that the ads are ads.?¢‚Ǩ¬ù Named in the complaint were AltaVista Co.; AOL Time Warner, Inc.; Direct Hit Technologies (owned by Ask Jeeves); iWon, Inc.; LookSmart, Ltd.; Microsoft Corp.; and Terra Lycos S.A. (owner of HotBot and Lycos). ?¢‚Ǩ?ìThese search engines have chosen crass commercialism over editorial integrity,?¢‚Ǩ¬ù said Gary Ruskin, executive director of Commercial Alert (http://www.commercialalert.org)."
Further on in the column, we find this paragraph mentioning Google:
"Conspicuously missing from the complaint are other major search engines, including Google and GoTo, both of which offer paid placement. These aren?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢t targeted by the complaint because Google identifies purchased links as ?¢‚Ǩ?ìsponsored links?¢‚Ǩ¬ù and GoTo?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s paid links display the cost to the advertiser for each link."
Google has always clearly differentiated between paid and organic search results.
So imagine my surprise when I looked to the right column of my Gmail account while reading an email from a friend where he mentions running into a friend of a friend from the Yukon while on a recent trip to Chile:
I have to say that the "More about..." choices where quite relevant. Google managed to latch onto two key terms within the email - Yukon and Chile - to generate links for more . . . more what, exactly? Clicking a link brought me to the page listed below that consisted of - count em - twelve ads. That's it. So, "More about..." means ads.
As you can see, the page is labeled "Sponsored Links" one I arrive, but why should I have to click on a link to view "More about...", then wait for a pop-up window, only to find out that Google has a dozen ads for me to check out? Gmail links to their help center from the "About these links" link where they explain:
"Gmail uses a completely automated process to provide useful information and relevant ads in the sidebar of your Gmail account pages."
The regular AdSense ads (the bottom of one is clipped in the first image) don't bother me, and I do find the links to addresses and "add to calendar" or "track a package" very useful. Most importantly, they're clearly labeled, so I know what to expect when I click. But in the case of this "More about..." section, Google has drifted away from what I've grown to expect from them. Basically, I feel underwhelmed by the bait and switch much like Ben feels when I throw the Sunday ads at him when he's expecting real information.
