Comments on: Prepping For Competition

By: Mike

Mike — Sun, 21 Jan 2007 09:35:07 +0000

Here are my two cents:

1) There have already been dozens of posts from people who've lost their Urchin analytics, because they've tried comparing them to ClickTracks and Omniture simultaneously -- these complaints date as far back as nearly three years ago. Based on this, is Google scanning through your code to ensure you're ONLY using its service? My guess is a definite yes, because...

2) If Google can already dump your page and/or PageRank if you "write white on a white background (go ahead and google that!)," for example, it will most likely monitor all your attempted advertisements to ensure their top dollars, as well.

Overall, Google is headed in a very ugly direction if they keep pushing their services this way. This is not what I anticipated from the two geeks who seemed so innocent and un-corporate-like when they first founded the company. And it's sad, really. The titans have already received credit for reinventing the online advertising structure, among other things. Why push for something this hard? Why not invite the competition to a challenge? After all, isn't that how services and products are improved?

By: casey

casey — Sun, 21 Jan 2007 06:12:44 +0000

It ain't about the blue, green, and black on white approach. If you read the Google AdSense optimization tips, GOOG recommends "using colors for your ad text and links that already exist on your site" so that the ads blend in with the content.

https://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/answer.py?answer=17957

In essense, if GOOG is paying you the most, then the #1 color palette optimization is used for AdSense ads. And, if you want to run YPN or something else, you have to use a less optimized palette.

To recap:

1) Google Ads should not appear different from the content.
2) Other ads should not appear like Google Ads.
3) Other ads must appear different from content.

Got it?

By: msn nickleri

msn nickleri — Sat, 20 Jan 2007 23:19:43 +0000

Forever google adsense..

By: Stephen Larson

Stephen Larson — Sat, 20 Jan 2007 22:54:58 +0000

"Game over? Hardly" - hope you are right. AdSense started out strong for us but petered out over a couple of years (more supply as their network of publishers grew I assume). YPN jumped above the AdSense low for a short period but ended up close to the same as AdSense - too low.

Every service I've checked out beyond those two were far worse. For us selling our own ads appears the only real option, thank heaven we're having success at that. Looks to me like third party ads won't be a part of our future at all, unless something drastically changes.

By: Daniel Aleksandersen

Daniel Aleksandersen — Sat, 20 Jan 2007 14:44:24 +0000

How about Ask! Sponsored Listings? Ask! where the search engine with the fastest growing market share for search in 2006, I think.

By: C. Enrique Ortiz

C. Enrique Ortiz — Sat, 20 Jan 2007 06:23:57 +0000

"Yahoo's YPN - so far anyway - has proven feeble"

Many moons ago (more than a year), I applied to YPN, they responded "thanks for your interest, we will get back to you". They never did. With Google, the registration went thru immediately. I have not looked back and haven't tried YPN again; why should I? They didn't want my business back then...

YPN == feeble Google == everywhere
YPN == dumb Google == smart

ceo