Are search engines such as Alta Vista, Yahoo! and Google making money off of search results? Well, of course they are! But did you know that a majority of search engines actually skew search results to reflect paid for and often unmarked/poorly labeled search ads and sponsored links?
Regardless of whether or not you feel paid search advertising is unethical or simply a necessary evil, other search engines should look to market leader, Google. Google has been leading the way with easy to identify paid placement and paid inclusion search results.
Image Provided Courtesy of Vertex Marketing
They do this by developing a unique and classified search algorithm, which is a testament to the company’s commitment to the end-user. As shown in the image above, Google also clearly labels sponsored advertisements and paid for links to Web sites by placing them in a different section of the search page and/or using a lightly shaded color to highlight the links as a separate part of the site.
To learn more about how Google PigeonRanks® its pages, click on the image below.
Image Provided Courtesy of Google
But what about Microsoft’s new search engine, Bing? Will it eventually replace Google as the #1 search engine in the world? I think not, but then again, that might just be the brand loyal in me talking.
Check it out for yourself at http://bing.com and let me know what you think by completing this poll:
Of course they’re making money! There’s a reason why the search engines create cash??? It is clear which are the sponsored ads which is why I hardly feel “duped.” Unless the search is for a brand name and the sponsered by URL is a direct link to the companies homepage, then I steer clear of the right hand column and just go with the normal results. Doing a side by side comparison w/Bing, I do not see Bing as revoluntionizing the search engine world as thier ads state. In fact, Google’s I’m Feeling Lucky is a “decision maker” by skipping the results and showing you the best match page right from the get go. Maybe they should relabel the I’m Feelling Lucky button to the Bing-killer or maybe I just haven’t spent enough time on Bing.