Ads by Google

Ads by Google

To the lower left you will see the new commercial dimension of this site: Google ads.

Like all things, I am doing it to learn. Never mind the hundreds or thousands of dollars available for the proper exploitation of this scheme. Never mind it! (The most valuable ads on Google are for buying things. Google searches lead to buying only sometimes. You don't always search with the intent to $pend. Indeed, sometimes you browse with the intent to spend. It recently came to my attention that cosmetics or other long-term usage products are like this. Women read fashion magazines to see what the stars are using, what the "women just like them are using", and they talk with each other or post online to find out what real women "just like them" are using. Men do it too, I'm sure -- I'd never search for "good car" and then actually click a link to buy one! I'd be looking for advice. Well, advice is content and content is somethign Google doesn't have much of, though I encourage you to read the newsgroups on Google Groups sometime because they are pretty useful. The web seems to be where content comes from. Now, when you are getting some advice about X, Y, Z -- well, that is the time that we need a relevant and appropriate ad. Just as I say "I recommend Bindi skin care products", voila! There is a Bindi ad on the left of the page. You get me?)

Money-making aside, however, there is the charm of thinking how Google is developing. But let's leave that aside too. (Google started with search driven by relevance, and built a 100k advertiser network from it. Now what to do with the network? Find new places to send their ads.)

The really interesting question is about who precisely is going to read and click on these ads. You may be under the impression, dear reader, that Google and I are partnering to capture your clicks and sell you things. But I ask you, who is the #1 reader of this site? Not you. It's Amol Sarva, that's who. And if you consider the next question, you will be further shocked. If Google's ads are custom designed to match the content and topics discussed here, well those ads will be very interesting to people reading this blog. Indeed, they will be very interesting to the schmuck writing this blog. I am quite certain I'll be reading this bloody thing a few dozen times more than anyone else -- and that I'll be clicking like mad too.

A kind of circularity follows. I will collect a small commission every time I click on one of these ads and it will be mostly me who does the clicking. Insane, really.