FobzyWhat's going on at Google? Are your adsense earnings down this month?
March 25th 2008 22:53
Sebastian Fobbs here, aka fobzy
Rumour has it that a considerable number on Orble have noticed the plunge in their earnings via adsense this month.
So what is Google up to that affects these things.
A well known search engine, Jayde, has the following comments to make.
Some retailers are upset with Google's additional search box that allows searchers to search within a website without leaving Google. It's not the results that upsets them, but the ads for competitors that appear alongside. Is this new feature a bonus to the end-user and good use of real estate, or is it unfair to retailers?
That second box takes advantage of the useful search operator, site:. The site: operator allows the searcher to limit results to a query to ones coming from a specific domain.
Many people may not be aware that they can type something like site:example.com and focus their search results this way. Google's latest project, focused on a handful of popular sites, brings up the second search box so someone using it automatically searches within the domain in question.
It isn't being as warmly received as Google may have anticipated. The New York Times discussed the feature, and a couple of retailers complained about Google doing in its search results what Google does best: stick text ads next to them.
The publishers and retailers who Google tapped as worthy of a dedicated search box within their sites apparently became horrified to see ads for competitors popping up alongside the site: operator results.
Though Amazon.com had been one of the initial sites gifted with the second search box, it's since been removed. The Times suggested Amazon.com requested this. Jewelry retailer Ice.com isn't part of the program, but they already told the Times they want no part of it.
The issue demonstrates the strength, and the vulnerability, of Google's first big revenue stream. They allow advertisers to buy competitor keywords. Though Google's AdWords policies restrict the display of competitor keywords, a highly placed ad could be enough to take people away from the site they searched for to a competitor with a nicer landing page and a better deal.
So although we don't know what's affecting our earnings here, there could be a flow on effect.
So, Orblers, have you noticed that your earnings are down this month, all other things being equal?
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