Google Selling #1 Position

[peter_d]

Well, as far as the Australian Consumer and Competition Commission is concerned, anyway. They are suing Google for "misleading consumers".

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22393393-2,00.html

GOOGLE has been selling off the top rankings on its search engine results to commercial partners, rather than sorting them by relevance as it claims to, a Sydney court has heard.

They're talking about the #1 Adwords listing. The consumer watchdog alleges Google does not do enough to differentiate "organic" search results from sponsored links.

Would have thought it was pretty clear myself....

[kaykays]

For a webmaster, or a person familiar with adsense and adwords,
the advertisements and Search results are clear enough.
But a casual user does not distinguish between Ads and
search results, and they greatly outnumber webmasters.

[Alfredito]

I dont understand, Whats their problem?? it said above the Ads - "sponsored" for god sake !! The way i see it, google have a full right to put anyone he want in the top adwords position.. wanna be there? - pay more for your clicks !!

[bond007]

Originally Posted by kaykays

For a webmaster, or a person familiar with adsense and adwords,
the advertisements and Search results are clear enough.
But a casual user does not distinguish between Ads and
search results, and they greatly outnumber webmasters.

There are for sure users that are confusing ads with the organic search results. It will be interesting to have some statistics regarding how many users had clicked intentionally on these ads and how many were actually tricked by them. Of course these stats are unavailable.

[Birdie]

Originally Posted by peter_d

Well, as far as the Australian Consumer and Competition Commission is concerned, anyway.

For crying out loud!! I am in Australia and can't believe that the ACCC is wasting tax payer $ on this. There are bigger fish for them to go after, like the oil companeis!