5 ms·

Remember, Google also didn't have ads interspersed with their search results for over 1̶2̶ 2 years

kristianc 1y ago
That wasn’t out of benevolence, that’s because they hadn’t discovered the ads business model yet. The genie is well and truly out of the bottle now.
- wizzwizz4 1y ago
  They're on record as talking about how Google has better results because it doesn't have ads.
  - passwordoops 1y ago
    At that time and it's what got them the market share. Once they achieved monopoly status "Don't be Evil" was quietly replaced by "You call that an acceptable margin?!"
- schmidtleonard 1y ago
  They always knew. > The goals of the advertising business model do not always correspond to providing quality search to users. - Sergey Brin and Lawrence Page, The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine http://infolab.stanford.edu/~backrub/google.html http://infolab.stanford.edu/~backrub/google.html
jkaptur 1y ago
Google was founded in 1998 and you could buy ads on the search results page in 2000. https://googlepress.blogspot.com/2000/10/google-launches-self-service.html?m=1 https://googlepress.blogspot.com/2000/10/google-launches-sel...
- thaumasiotes 1y ago
  Ads on the page aren't the same thing as ads interspersed with the results. The ads used to be in a sidebar, or in an inset with a different background color that appeared above all results. Read your own link: > For example, entering the query "buy domain" into the search box on Google’s home page produces search results and an AdWords text advertisement that appears to the right of Google’s search results > Google’s quick-loading AdWords text ads appear to the right of the Google search results and are highlighted as sponsored links, clearly separate from the search results. Google’s premium sponsorship ads will continue to appear at the top of the search results page.
- JohnMakin 1y ago
  It’s crazy on the web when you point out that google or google products used to be much better in the past someone will come out of nowhere to tell you it’s always been that way what is this instinct? anyone that’s over the age of 25 would know
  - h2zizzle 1y ago
    Many people who post here are, were, or would like to be Googlers. Maybe not so much astroturfing ao much as a kind of corporate hasbara (though maybe both).
    - thaumasiotes 1y ago
      > Maybe not so much astroturfing as much as a kind of corporate hasbara What's the difference? In astroturfing, someone pays people to form an organization, claim to have no external support, and do some kind of activism. In hasbara, the government of Israel pays people to not form an organization, claim to have no external support, and do various kinds of pro-Israel and pro-Jew activism. This looks like astroturfing with the major vulnerability of the no-external-support claim shored up.
      - h2zizzle 1y ago
        Fair. The main difference is that people here don't like it when you call it astroturfing.
  - krisoft 1y ago
    > what is this instinct? "The rules were you guys weren't going to fact check." The instinct is about pointing out factual inaccuracies. What they wrote is either correct, or not. If it is not, and someone knows better they can and should point that out. If you, or some other commenter, have a fuzzy feeling that google is worse than it used to be you are free to write that. You are perfectly entitled to that opinion. But you can't just make up false statements and expect to be unchallenged and unchallengeable on it.
- Xss3 1y ago
  But they weren't interspersed they were in a sidebar.
Cthulhu_ 1y ago
And they were actually praised when they did start doing ads because they weren't as obtrusive as the existing heavy duty in-your-face Flash animations and they were relevant to a user. It quickly turned Google into the biggest / most valuable internet company of all time ever, and it still wasn't enough for them. I've had adblockers running for as long as I can remember so I'm blisfully unaware of how bad it is now... mostly, I don't have adblockers on my phone and some pages are unusable.
- throwaway290 1y ago
  When ads are too many blame website owners, as far as I know Google does not hijack websites to put more ads. Ads done right is the least bad way of supporting free stuff for people who don't want to pay the cost. But people with ubo punish all sites regardless of whether they do ads nicely or not. You are right now writing in a thread about upcming future where promotion is embedded in the content so that content itself is one big ad disguised as whatever. Do you really think it's a better alternative to clearly delimited and unmistakeable ads?

That wasn’t out of benevolence, that’s because they hadn’t discovered the ads business model yet. The genie is well and truly out of the bottle now.

wizzwizz4 1y ago
They're on record as talking about how Google has better results because it doesn't have ads.
- passwordoops 1y ago
  At that time and it's what got them the market share. Once they achieved monopoly status "Don't be Evil" was quietly replaced by "You call that an acceptable margin?!"
schmidtleonard 1y ago
They always knew. > The goals of the advertising business model do not always correspond to providing quality search to users. - Sergey Brin and Lawrence Page, The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine http://infolab.stanford.edu/~backrub/google.html http://infolab.stanford.edu/~backrub/google.html

jkaptur 1y ago

Google was founded in 1998 and you could buy ads on the search results page in 2000. https://googlepress.blogspot.com/2000/10/google-launches-self-service.html?m=1 https://googlepress.blogspot.com/2000/10/google-launches-sel...

thaumasiotes 1y ago
Ads on the page aren't the same thing as ads interspersed with the results. The ads used to be in a sidebar, or in an inset with a different background color that appeared above all results. Read your own link: > For example, entering the query "buy domain" into the search box on Google’s home page produces search results and an AdWords text advertisement that appears to the right of Google’s search results > Google’s quick-loading AdWords text ads appear to the right of the Google search results and are highlighted as sponsored links, clearly separate from the search results. Google’s premium sponsorship ads will continue to appear at the top of the search results page.
JohnMakin 1y ago
It’s crazy on the web when you point out that google or google products used to be much better in the past someone will come out of nowhere to tell you it’s always been that way what is this instinct? anyone that’s over the age of 25 would know
- h2zizzle 1y ago
  Many people who post here are, were, or would like to be Googlers. Maybe not so much astroturfing ao much as a kind of corporate hasbara (though maybe both).
  - thaumasiotes 1y ago
    > Maybe not so much astroturfing as much as a kind of corporate hasbara What's the difference? In astroturfing, someone pays people to form an organization, claim to have no external support, and do some kind of activism. In hasbara, the government of Israel pays people to not form an organization, claim to have no external support, and do various kinds of pro-Israel and pro-Jew activism. This looks like astroturfing with the major vulnerability of the no-external-support claim shored up.
    - h2zizzle 1y ago
      Fair. The main difference is that people here don't like it when you call it astroturfing.
- krisoft 1y ago
  > what is this instinct? "The rules were you guys weren't going to fact check." The instinct is about pointing out factual inaccuracies. What they wrote is either correct, or not. If it is not, and someone knows better they can and should point that out. If you, or some other commenter, have a fuzzy feeling that google is worse than it used to be you are free to write that. You are perfectly entitled to that opinion. But you can't just make up false statements and expect to be unchallenged and unchallengeable on it.
Xss3 1y ago
But they weren't interspersed they were in a sidebar.

Cthulhu_ 1y ago

And they were actually praised when they did start doing ads because they weren't as obtrusive as the existing heavy duty in-your-face Flash animations and they were relevant to a user. It quickly turned Google into the biggest / most valuable internet company of all time ever, and it still wasn't enough for them. I've had adblockers running for as long as I can remember so I'm blisfully unaware of how bad it is now... mostly, I don't have adblockers on my phone and some pages are unusable.

throwaway290 1y ago
When ads are too many blame website owners, as far as I know Google does not hijack websites to put more ads. Ads done right is the least bad way of supporting free stuff for people who don't want to pay the cost. But people with ubo punish all sites regardless of whether they do ads nicely or not. You are right now writing in a thread about upcming future where promotion is embedded in the content so that content itself is one big ad disguised as whatever. Do you really think it's a better alternative to clearly delimited and unmistakeable ads?