4 ms·

>But why the fuck should any company pay for an ad when the user explicitly searched for their product? If you don't buy out the top-place for the query, someo

by sznio 5mo ago

>But why the fuck should any company pay for an ad when the user explicitly searched for their product? If you don't buy out the top-place for the query, someone else will. In a better case a competitor - imagine Facebook Marketplace being the top result for "ebay". In the worst - a phishing site. The latter happens quite often for software searches.

ThunderSizzle 5mo ago
Right, but that's because Google permits that. OP is saying Google should simply stop permitting advertising over the real answer.
- tardedmeme 5mo ago
  Why would Google give themselves less money?
  - fsflover 5mo ago
    It should be illegal to mislead the users like this. The search terms weren't generic and didn't match anything.
  - godelski 5mo ago
    Let me repeat myself >>>> When making more money requires degrading the product you know we've fucked up
    - tardedmeme 5mo ago
      That just sounds like business to me. You do whatever makes money.
      - fsflover 5mo ago
        This is called enshittification. Business behaves like with with the lack of regulations: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41277484 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41277484
      - godelski 5mo ago
        Maybe it is today, but that's not how it's always been. The idea is that competition means the best product wins. But there's a lot it ways to degrade competition, not just monopolization. We're living in a lemon economy
        tardedmeme 5mo ago
        There's never been any rule that the best product wins. Trivial example if I make RAM chips and give them away for free I'll lose.
  - ThunderSizzle 5mo ago
    There's a lot of reasons, but it's probably how Google makes most of their money - brand names end up being high value ad targets - at least 6+ years ago when I worked in that sphere of things (ecommerce, primarily). It's legit extortion. I guess that's why - because extortion is immoral. Eventually, those paying the protection fees will eventually find someone better to pay or will stop paying when the protection doesn't show up.

by sznio 5mo ago

ThunderSizzle 5mo ago

Right, but that's because Google permits that. OP is saying Google should simply stop permitting advertising over the real answer.

tardedmeme 5mo ago
Why would Google give themselves less money?
- fsflover 5mo ago
  It should be illegal to mislead the users like this. The search terms weren't generic and didn't match anything.
- godelski 5mo ago
  Let me repeat myself >>>> When making more money requires degrading the product you know we've fucked up
  - tardedmeme 5mo ago
    That just sounds like business to me. You do whatever makes money.
    - fsflover 5mo ago
      This is called enshittification. Business behaves like with with the lack of regulations: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41277484 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41277484
    - godelski 5mo ago
      Maybe it is today, but that's not how it's always been. The idea is that competition means the best product wins. But there's a lot it ways to degrade competition, not just monopolization. We're living in a lemon economy
      - tardedmeme 5mo ago
        There's never been any rule that the best product wins. Trivial example if I make RAM chips and give them away for free I'll lose.
- ThunderSizzle 5mo ago
  There's a lot of reasons, but it's probably how Google makes most of their money - brand names end up being high value ad targets - at least 6+ years ago when I worked in that sphere of things (ecommerce, primarily). It's legit extortion. I guess that's why - because extortion is immoral. Eventually, those paying the protection fees will eventually find someone better to pay or will stop paying when the protection doesn't show up.