November 9, 2009 Off topic for a mo.
Great Post from Aaron Wall, including an image that… I reckon.. pretty much says it all.
Featured Plugin - Start Your Own Powerful Membership Site
If you're thinking about starting a paid, or just private, membership site then this is truly the plugin you've been looking for. Easy to use, massively configurable and ready to go out of the box!
Find out more
Featured Plugin - Turn any WordPress page into a fully featured wiki!
To get a wiki up and running you used to need to install Mediawiki and toil away for days configuring it... not any more! This plugin gives you *all* the functionality you want from a wiki, in WordPress!!!
Find out more
Featured Plugin - Start your own Quora / StackOverflow / Yahoo Q&A site
It's now incredibly easy to start your own Q&A site using nothing more than WordPress - The Q&A plugin simply and brilliantly transforms any site, or page, into a perfect support or Q&A environment.
Find out more
Featured Plugin - Send beautiful html email newsletters, from WordPress!
Now there's no need to pay for a third party service to sign up, manage and send beautiful email newsletters to your subscriber base - this plugin has got the lot.
Find out more
Featured Plugin - WordPress + Google Maps = Perfect
Simply insert google maps into posts, sidebars and pages - show directions, streetview, provide image overlays and do it all from a simple button and comprehensive widget.
Find out more
Featured Plugin - Every great SEO tweak you need, in one snazzy bundle
Fully integrated with the SEOMoz API, complete with automatic links, sitemaps and SEO optimization of your WordPress setup - this is the only plugin you need to help you rank your site number 1 on Google - nothing else compares.
Find out more
Featured Plugin - Host sites, get paid, just like WordPress.com
If you've ever wondered how you could offer a paid site management and hosting service, then this is the plugin for you. Offer a freemium or paid service, for any niche you like, it's powered Edublogs.org to success already!
Find out more
Featured Plugin - Add bottom corner (or anywhere else) chat to your site
No javascript required, no third part chat engine, just fully featured chat right in your own database on your own WP sites - couldn't be easier.
Find out more
Featured Plugin - Easily integrate your WordPress site with Facebook
Would you like to add Facebook comments, registration, 'Like' buttons and autoposting to your WP site? Well, The Ultimate Facebook plugin has got that all covered!
Find out more
But the big question is: are they relevant in that sense that you could choose one of the ads over some of the top10 organic hits. The answer, pretty often yes.
That is why (at least for me) Google ads are not a bit irritating.
Flash banners? Irrelevant text ads? Yellow-and-red banner image? Thats a different story.
Lol, that is a good point, although relevance is increasingly determined by how much you can pay huh!
Sorry but this is bull.
The orange ads area has been expanded using a “show more” option to make it appear more intrusive and listing on Google Maps is free for any business who chooses to sign up so they shouldn’t be labelled ads.
@Otto – Agreed. If I am looking for information on something, I usually want a highly credited source. The fact of the matter is, if they are paying for adspace, they most likely fit that bill (not always, but often). Also, Google visually separates Ads from organic by either putting them in a different background color or by bumping them to the right sidebar. No problems with this whatsoever.
@mkjones – Agree with you as well. This isn’t a “Google Maps Promotion”. This is a way to find local businesses online, instead of digging through a phonebook. Just because they tie it into their de facto standard maps web app, doesn’t mean that it is terrible self-promotion. The fact of the matter is that the vast majority of these small businesses don’t have a website (and therefore won’t show up in the organic), but I can find them easily using Google Local Business section. I just found a local carpet cleaner for example using this method last week.
The bottom line is, organic search isn’t the only search anymore. People want to search more things, including premium spots, local businesses, and more. Take a look at what Bing is doing. They have all sorts of things tacked onto their search, because this is how people find things these days.
Also, this was a “baited” test. You picked a large city, and an expensive and competitive profession, and did a google search for it. I just did a Google search for “does google have too many ads”. I only got one sponsored link in the right sidebar and that was it.
Pingback: And you thought Google is not Evil! | Devils Workshop