4 ms·

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 alternat

by 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.

by 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.