6 ms·

If I search for MLK, I see his picture on the side. I don't see how getting a picture of Southwest Airlines when I search for "Southwest Airlines" is that big o

If I search for MLK, I see his picture on the side. I don't see how getting a picture of Southwest Airlines when I search for "Southwest Airlines" is that big of a deal. Now, if I were to search for "airlines" and saw that huge banner up there, I'd call that an ad and I'd be right there, handing out pitchforks. This? This is just returning searching results in a (arguably) prettier way.

drhayes9 13y ago
It's a big deal because this is a false equivalence. A corporation with a marketing budget and a brand is not the same as an historical figure. I think that explains a lot of the leeriness around this move. That said, I'm leaning towards your interpretation ("search results in a prettier way"). But the money involved makes me nervous.
- chc 13y ago
  Lots of people have an irrational fear of money. But in reality, money itself is rarely a problem.
  - drhayes9 13y ago
    Sure. It's not money itself, per se, but the concurrent corruption it brings.
snowwrestler 13y ago
The difference is that Google does not charge MLK to have his info show up in knowledge graph results. As I understand it, they are charging Southwest Airlines for this big banner. If it was just a larger knowledge graph box I doubt anyone would care.
socillion 13y ago
You're saying that whether or not it's advertising depends on the context of where the paid ad appears, which is an arbitrary and baseless distinction. If a company rents a billboard that's right outside their office, isn't that advertising? Sure, you could have looked at the front of the building to see their logo, but that doesn't change the fact that the billboard is advertising.
- TheCraiggers 13y ago
  I disagree with your analogy. In your case, I would say the banner represents the giant logo over the door, just before you walk into the building. In most ad-based marketing, you're typically not just randomly throwing your brand out there. Obviously, the expected ROI goes up when you can target the right demographic (saturday morning cartoons versus world news with Tom Brokaw). This is not that. This isn't a demographic-driven ad, based on search criteria like "airline travel" or "buy tickets from DEN to DTW". The person knew exactly what they were searching for. Hell, depending on your browser, typing that exact string in your address bar will take you directly to Southwest Airlines. Google just managed to convince companies to pay them for this, while at the same time presenting a prettier and more useful direct links within that box. As an afterthought, the most-searched for term in our company web portal is "google". I would be extremely surprised if Google, themselves, don't have a ton of searches where they could simply append a ".com" to the search query and send them directly to where they wanted. I doubt my parents would even notice.

drhayes9 13y ago

It's a big deal because this is a false equivalence. A corporation with a marketing budget and a brand is not the same as an historical figure. I think that explains a lot of the leeriness around this move. That said, I'm leaning towards your interpretation ("search results in a prettier way"). But the money involved makes me nervous.

chc 13y ago
Lots of people have an irrational fear of money. But in reality, money itself is rarely a problem.
- drhayes9 13y ago
  Sure. It's not money itself, per se, but the concurrent corruption it brings.

snowwrestler 13y ago

The difference is that Google does not charge MLK to have his info show up in knowledge graph results. As I understand it, they are charging Southwest Airlines for this big banner. If it was just a larger knowledge graph box I doubt anyone would care.

socillion 13y ago

You're saying that whether or not it's advertising depends on the context of where the paid ad appears, which is an arbitrary and baseless distinction. If a company rents a billboard that's right outside their office, isn't that advertising? Sure, you could have looked at the front of the building to see their logo, but that doesn't change the fact that the billboard is advertising.

TheCraiggers 13y ago
I disagree with your analogy. In your case, I would say the banner represents the giant logo over the door, just before you walk into the building. In most ad-based marketing, you're typically not just randomly throwing your brand out there. Obviously, the expected ROI goes up when you can target the right demographic (saturday morning cartoons versus world news with Tom Brokaw). This is not that. This isn't a demographic-driven ad, based on search criteria like "airline travel" or "buy tickets from DEN to DTW". The person knew exactly what they were searching for. Hell, depending on your browser, typing that exact string in your address bar will take you directly to Southwest Airlines. Google just managed to convince companies to pay them for this, while at the same time presenting a prettier and more useful direct links within that box. As an afterthought, the most-searched for term in our company web portal is "google". I would be extremely surprised if Google, themselves, don't have a ton of searches where they could simply append a ".com" to the search query and send them directly to where they wanted. I doubt my parents would even notice.