Comments on: Google’s Schmidt Sees Global Decline in Ad Spending http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2008/11/googles-schmidt-sees-global-decline-in-ad-spending/ Macro Perspective on the Capital Markets, Economy, Geopolitics, Technology, and Digital Media Sat, 21 Nov 2009 19:59:24 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5 hourly 1 By: wunsacon http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2008/11/googles-schmidt-sees-global-decline-in-ad-spending/comment-page-1/#comment-125303 wunsacon Mon, 10 Nov 2008 16:49:08 +0000 http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/?p=8788#comment-125303 >> Internet advertising is basically worthless. Huh??? Hmm.... Now that you've made me think about it, I've never clicked on an ad on any search results page. Just once or twice on ads on Barry's, Mish's, or Yves' blogs and that's about it. Gee, maybe you're on to something, JB. (But, I'm still in "denial" phase.) >> Internet advertising is basically worthless.

Huh??? Hmm…. Now that you’ve made me think about it, I’ve never clicked on an ad on any search results page. Just once or twice on ads on Barry’s, Mish’s, or Yves’ blogs and that’s about it.

Gee, maybe you’re on to something, JB. (But, I’m still in “denial” phase.)

]]> By: DP http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2008/11/googles-schmidt-sees-global-decline-in-ad-spending/comment-page-1/#comment-125302 DP Mon, 10 Nov 2008 16:48:53 +0000 http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/?p=8788#comment-125302 Google's one-trick pony is losing it's edge. They've been putting the screws on payouts to web-site owners for well over a year now, choking out the domain parking side of the business (however much you hate parked pages, they were profitable) and many site owners are already removing adsense. As the internet population matures in their browsing habits, they search less, they already know and bookmark their favorite sites. Google's targetting algorithms are also garbage because they give website owners too little control over what kind of ads to serve, basing it entirely on content. If you get the RSS feed for this blog, you've already seen the garbage ads labeled "Do you hate Palin? Do you like Obama?" everytime Barry posts a political piece. Firefox is gaining market share still and the most popular Firefox add-on is the adwords blocker. They have thousands of engineers working on pet projects that will never generate a penny. Google's actual search results are increasingly less relevant because they are gamed to the extreme. Try some examples, search for 'online auction' - ebay isn't in the top 5. Try 'books' or 'online books', where's amazon? Try 'american cars' - GM, Ford or Chrysler aren't in the top 5. The search for 'online broker' doesn't have Etrade, Ameritrade or Schwab on the first page. The ads are there of course, I mean the natural search results. Then there's the infamous search for "used tampons" with an ad for shopping.yahoo.com who apparently can compare prices and get me the best deal. Garbage. Google’s one-trick pony is losing it’s edge. They’ve been putting the screws on payouts to web-site owners for well over a year now, choking out the domain parking side of the business (however much you hate parked pages, they were profitable) and many site owners are already removing adsense. As the internet population matures in their browsing habits, they search less, they already know and bookmark their favorite sites.

Google’s targetting algorithms are also garbage because they give website owners too little control over what kind of ads to serve, basing it entirely on content. If you get the RSS feed for this blog, you’ve already seen the garbage ads labeled “Do you hate Palin? Do you like Obama?” everytime Barry posts a political piece.

Firefox is gaining market share still and the most popular Firefox add-on is the adwords blocker.

They have thousands of engineers working on pet projects that will never generate a penny.

Google’s actual search results are increasingly less relevant because they are gamed to the extreme. Try some examples, search for ‘online auction’ – ebay isn’t in the top 5. Try ‘books’ or ‘online books’, where’s amazon? Try ‘american cars’ – GM, Ford or Chrysler aren’t in the top 5. The search for ‘online broker’ doesn’t have Etrade, Ameritrade or Schwab on the first page. The ads are there of course, I mean the natural search results. Then there’s the infamous search for “used tampons” with an ad for shopping.yahoo.com who apparently can compare prices and get me the best deal. Garbage.

]]> By: jmborchers http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2008/11/googles-schmidt-sees-global-decline-in-ad-spending/comment-page-1/#comment-125288 jmborchers Mon, 10 Nov 2008 15:23:50 +0000 http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/?p=8788#comment-125288 Google' advertising only worked because the text links worked well in search engines. Basically, it tricked you into clicking on an ad. I had been fooled many times by it myself, but now I know to look for the AD mark in the blue box. Internet advertising is basically worthless. Google’ advertising only worked because the text links worked well in search engines. Basically, it tricked you into clicking on an ad.

I had been fooled many times by it myself, but now I know to look for the AD mark in the blue box.

Internet advertising is basically worthless.

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