Google Ads More

Google doesn’t spend a dime on fancy TV ads, but the way it has designed its products represents a huge marketing cost. One example is the money it is leaving on the table by putting fewer ads on its pages than users would put up with, which helps build up its Zen-like brand.

But now, times are getting tough. Making quarterly numbers is getting harder. And Google is changing how it decides which ads to place in the yellow box above search results.

Seems like a baby step toward evil-ness. Undermining that "zen-like" brand just a hair. Those little things accumulate, though. Google has a great thing going, which is that most people are so satisfied with the Google brand that they don't even think of switching. In fact, they don't even think about thinking about switching. The thought literally does not enter the average user's head that maybe there are some serious defencies with Google, where competitors might do better. Eventually, though, the annoyances can add up enough to break through that "Google is perfection" zen-spell.

On the other hand, I continue to wonder about the limits of an adveristing-based revenue model.