Should Google Support Useless Sites?
Simon Dumenco writes in AdAge:
Meanwhile, everybody talks about how Google’s AdSense program is great and revolutionary because it’s given all manner of Web sites and blogs easy access to advertising dollars. But actually, I think it sucks that AdSense offers automatic, indiscriminate ad support to lots of awful, amateurish, useless sites. Forgive me, but I’m nostalgic for the days when media buyers, rather than computer algorithms, decided what advertising vehicles were actually roadworthy.
As an inevitable side-effect of the spread of democratic new media, lots of garbage has accumulated on the web. Simon poses a very important and appropriate question: should Google AdSense, Yahoo Publisher’s Network, and other big algorithm-driven Ad networks support these, without any calibration of whether their content is worthy of advertising dollars?
Sramana,
Don’t you think, if these website are publishing garbage, their traffic is going to be limited and thus their earnings ?
Sramana,
Adding to Venkatesh, the advertiser too wont suffer using a pay-per-click (cpc) model. So even if content is junk and my ad is shown its ok, if I pay only when a user clicks?
BTW, love your blog.
True, there is a self-selection built-in.
Some advertisers, however, are extremely sensitive to brand dilution, and do not at all like the idea of being exposed in the context of garbage. That’s the main issue that Simon underscores here.
Simon has a point, but the disadvantage of going into a blind ad network like Google (for the most part) is that you’re going to see a bit of dillution, but under the guise of “reach”, for whatever that’s worth. More to the point, it’s media buyers for large companies that make the decisions to get onto Google. Some recent analysis by Clive Thompson on the Technorati top 100 changes from month-to-month showed that 65 of the top 100 blogs in May 2005 are no longer in the top 100 in February 2006. To me, that says “great content can come from anywhere”, just give it a chance, and maybe, just maybe, support it with ads.
I think Simon’s great point though is about Google’s looming arrogance, which I feel will ultimately come to roost. His likening Google’s arrogance now to AOL’s arrogance of the past is spot-on. For a “web 2.0″ company where hyperlinks allegedly subvert hierarchy, I’m still seeing a lot of heirarcical behavior.