Apparently Google is experimenting with removing some ads for viewers that don't interact with the ads anyway.

http://googlewatch.eweek.com/blogs/google_watch/archive/2006/09/15/13225.aspx

TonyB

From the article: "Google's ad serving technology has long been lauded for its customer-driven approach. When Google serves an ad on a page, it doesn't always place the ad with the most expensive bidding price at the top of the ad column. Instead, Google evaluates several external factors, such as search term relevance and customer behavior, in placing ads."

This is of course bogus. The ad which Google places at the top is the one they think will be the most profitable, not the one they think is most useful for the customer.

Naturally, the "most profitable" ad is not necessarily the one with the most expensive bidding price, because it might have a lower click-through rate.

A blogger who writes something called "GoogleWatch" should understand the basics of what they are writing about.

Haha Good point Roger, have you seen the other stuff this guy talks about.

Big jokes (and sometimes rip offs from here)

http://googlewatch.eweek.com/watch/google/default.aspx

Hmm, actually, both the eweek author and Roger is correct. It so happens that on Google's search engine, the ads that are most profitable are usually the more relevant one to customers. To put it another way, Google will lose money over time if customers don't find the ads relevant.

I love Philipp's suggestion that Spam should only be sent to those that click on it.

Tony