3 ms·

One simple and effective policy change could be to forbid bidding on keywords which are names of a competitors company or brand. A lot of marketing expenses are

by jcfrei 7y ago

One simple and effective policy change could be to forbid bidding on keywords which are names of a competitors company or brand. A lot of marketing expenses are wasted on these types of keywords and only benefit Google but neither the user nor the advertiser.

quotemstr 7y ago
Why is that a waste? If you make Foo brand razors and I, making Bar brand razors, think I have a better product, why shouldn't I be able to bid on "Foo" do that I can educate the public about my product? Whence this idea that product or company names deserve special protection from competitors? Competition makes the world go round.
- idoh 7y ago
  It's an anti-user practice. As a user, if I google for "x", I'm looking for "x", and it is annoying that someone gets to pay to "educate" me about some alternative that I never said I wanted.
  - quotemstr 7y ago
    The whole point of advertising is to show people things they wouldn't otherwise see. Yes, some people are against advertising generally. That's a naive perspective. But if you're okay with ads generally, you should be okay with brand keyword ads.
    - idoh 7y ago
      Hey, I'm OK with ads generally. But being OK with a thing generally doesn't mean being OK with every specific instance of that general class. Google is a tool, the user is trying to do something specific with the tool, and Google is deciding to not honor the intention of the user. It's clearly not something good for the user (whereas other uses of ads arguable are). Google can get away with it because they are a monopoly and, shrug, what are you going to do? Google is free to run their business as they please, but let's not pretend that this practice is somehow enriching the user's experience.
  - saalweachter 7y ago
    Why not go to x.com? It is a direct handle for what you want, a one-to-one, a uniform resource locator.
    - idoh 7y ago
      I'm OK to go to x.com. Some surprisingly large amount of people will type the domain name into google, and go there. Sometimes, I don't remember the exact domain name, like I want to go to pocket, but it is getpocket.com. Anyway, I'm totally not against ads. I worked in ads. Ads are important because it lets companies reach new markets and grow. But ads are not all the same, and there is a certain time and place for them. When you have a tool, like google does, and it is clear that the user has a very specific thing in mind for the tool, and you circumvent that, then that seems like the wrong time / place for an ad.
- jcfrei 7y ago
  How often does that happen though? You search for a specific brand of razors and then you see an ad for Bar razors and you just change your mind? Most of the people will click the first link in the results expecting it to be a link to the Foo razor shop. It really doubt these ads are educating customers - Google is just in a position where their interface is the shortcut to a lot of online sales and if you want to keep these online distribution channels working you have to spend the money to be in the first spot. Which is fine in my opinion as long as you don't bid up the prices for your competitors.
  - quotemstr 7y ago
    > You search for a specific brand of razors and then you see an ad for Bar razors and you just change your mind? If the ads don't work, companies will stop buying them.
thedance 7y ago
How large is this problem? I just googled the trade name of everything I own from cars down to pencils and did not see anybody taking out ads on competitors' trademarks. What's an example?

by jcfrei 7y ago

quotemstr 7y ago

Why is that a waste? If you make Foo brand razors and I, making Bar brand razors, think I have a better product, why shouldn't I be able to bid on "Foo" do that I can educate the public about my product? Whence this idea that product or company names deserve special protection from competitors? Competition makes the world go round.

idoh 7y ago
It's an anti-user practice. As a user, if I google for "x", I'm looking for "x", and it is annoying that someone gets to pay to "educate" me about some alternative that I never said I wanted.
- quotemstr 7y ago
  The whole point of advertising is to show people things they wouldn't otherwise see. Yes, some people are against advertising generally. That's a naive perspective. But if you're okay with ads generally, you should be okay with brand keyword ads.
  - idoh 7y ago
    Hey, I'm OK with ads generally. But being OK with a thing generally doesn't mean being OK with every specific instance of that general class. Google is a tool, the user is trying to do something specific with the tool, and Google is deciding to not honor the intention of the user. It's clearly not something good for the user (whereas other uses of ads arguable are). Google can get away with it because they are a monopoly and, shrug, what are you going to do? Google is free to run their business as they please, but let's not pretend that this practice is somehow enriching the user's experience.
- saalweachter 7y ago
  Why not go to x.com? It is a direct handle for what you want, a one-to-one, a uniform resource locator.
  - idoh 7y ago
    I'm OK to go to x.com. Some surprisingly large amount of people will type the domain name into google, and go there. Sometimes, I don't remember the exact domain name, like I want to go to pocket, but it is getpocket.com. Anyway, I'm totally not against ads. I worked in ads. Ads are important because it lets companies reach new markets and grow. But ads are not all the same, and there is a certain time and place for them. When you have a tool, like google does, and it is clear that the user has a very specific thing in mind for the tool, and you circumvent that, then that seems like the wrong time / place for an ad.
jcfrei 7y ago
How often does that happen though? You search for a specific brand of razors and then you see an ad for Bar razors and you just change your mind? Most of the people will click the first link in the results expecting it to be a link to the Foo razor shop. It really doubt these ads are educating customers - Google is just in a position where their interface is the shortcut to a lot of online sales and if you want to keep these online distribution channels working you have to spend the money to be in the first spot. Which is fine in my opinion as long as you don't bid up the prices for your competitors.
- quotemstr 7y ago
  > You search for a specific brand of razors and then you see an ad for Bar razors and you just change your mind? If the ads don't work, companies will stop buying them.

thedance 7y ago

How large is this problem? I just googled the trade name of everything I own from cars down to pencils and did not see anybody taking out ads on competitors' trademarks. What's an example?