7 ms·

I think you are far over-estimating the size of the set of people who know the difference between ads and organic results on Google. I would also bet the percen

I think you are far over-estimating the size of the set of people who know the difference between ads and organic results on Google. I would also bet the percentage of people who can differentiate sites by URL is is very small. If the link text says "Honda", many (most?) will believe they are going to a Honda sanctioned site. I would love to see real user research on this topic. Google showed pretty well there are a lot of people who are confused, to say the least[1]. 1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4MwTvtyrUQ&sns=em http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4MwTvtyrUQ&sns=em

chrsstrm 15y ago
Sure, 99% is probably a bit of an exaggeration, but I do think most people are pretty savvy to the difference. It seems like in this case the advertisers were going after the people who were searching for the URL rather than just typing it in, which in my opinion, is the less savvy percentage of the population. It brings to mind the blog post that took the number 1 spot in search for "facebook login" and caused outrage by people clicking through thinking they were going to log into Facebook, landed on the blog post, then complained that Facebook had changed designs - off the top of my head I don't have a citation for that case. But I do think its safe to say the majority of people know the difference between ads and results.