Pay-Per-Click Search Engines... Ethical or Not?

option · #1 02-09-2002, 10:18 PM

Read this article. What do you think?

http://www.clickz.com/article.php/970571

venomx · #2 02-10-2002, 01:01 AM

Just another guy thinking EVERYthing should be free.

davidb · #3 02-10-2002, 01:32 AM

It is perfectly ethical. Acually I am suprised ppc has lasted as long as it had. This is one of the quickest ways to advertise in search engines, I mean it is not too different then yahoo taking money to add your site faster to their database. Remember, no one wants to wait 3 months to be added to a search engine.

Chicken · #4 02-10-2002, 02:23 AM

Why not? Just like hostdirectories have top 10 hosts (if you pay), and search results land you at the top (if you pay). Wouldn't it be great if all the search engines were like this? Everytime you searched for something, wouldn't you feel great if you knew that the results were all paid, disregarding revelance? I know I would.

(If you can't tell, I'm more for Google's clear style of pink background, labled sponsor links).

davidb · #5 02-10-2002, 02:28 AM

I honestly cant tell if chicken is being sarcastic.

As for top ten hosts. Paying for a spot in that, that is not ethical, you are paying for someone to say something you are not. But honestly if you use pay per click search engines, depending on what you are looking for, you would acually get what you are looking for faster right? I mean no one(well mabey someone) is going to pay 25 cents a click on a subject that is totally unrelated to their site.

northernscum · #6 02-10-2002, 04:54 AM

Chicken is being sarcastic. And I'd agree -- the only reason PPC search engines exist is because they have real search engines to partner with.

mahinder · #7 02-10-2002, 05:13 AM

in my opinion Pay-Per-Click Search engines are not ethical, they change the meaning of term search engine.

Search engine's crewel web sites on internet and return results on the basis of certain criteria's like link popularity and web site contains, but companies who pay them are placed on top of results which is not ethical.

I have seen many search engines who directly gives you links for there advertisers on top without mentioning they are paid listings, example: AltaVista. just type web hosting and it will give you results like this

http://www.altavista.com/sites/searc...ing&pg=q&kl=XX

in above case they must mention that links given on top are paid advertisements (like google do and place words advertisements or sponsors).

By doing this kind of business practice they are not only spooling good web sites but also cheating user from getting true results.

for example if bran X is totally horrible company which do not provide any support at all. there market reputation is also very bad but they do have lots of money to pay there advertising billing and when ever any user type 'GOOD HOST' in search engine there name comes on top.

now I think this is unfair. placing advertisement on search engines is ok but displaying them as a part of results is not ethical and must be stopped or these web site should name them self as AD ENGINES and not search engines or directories and make there intensions clear to the users.

excuse me for my English.

GordonH · #8 02-10-2002, 07:29 AM

Hello
PPC search engines are only useful in that they supply data to search engines.
That data is always identified as a "sponsored link" so there should be no confusion.

I am not sure what the difference is between PPC and paying someone to keep submitting, optimising, cloaking your web pages to get to the top of the results.

Research has shown that you really need to be in the top 5 results to get any benefit from being in a search engine and the only reliable way of doing that is to pay for it.
This may seem unkind or unfair, but it does keep irrelevant results out of the listings.
After all, who is going to pay money to have an unrelated site displayed under "web hosting"?

Gordon

Incognito · #9 02-10-2002, 10:58 AM

Pay per click search engines are here to stay.

Until recently many search engines and directories were free. However, they have all found advertising will not cover their costs. Some have started charging for all commercial listings. Others are pay per click. Even google is testing pay per click for their sponsored listings to the side.

The reason pay per click is growing exponentially is that the traditional engines need revenues and if they put Overture, for instance, at the top and then earn on each click, they can gain significant revenue dollars.

The people I feel bad for are those who worked hard and spent extensively for rankings and now find that there are three sponsored listings before the search/directory listing even starts.

deltaesoluti · #10 02-10-2002, 11:24 AM

What other ppc search engines besides Overture are there? Any as popular as Overture?

Walter · #11 02-10-2002, 11:57 AM

As far as I know the most popular is Overture, but there are dozens other ones...
You can find a comprehensive list on http://www.payperclicksearchengines.com

Chicken · #12 02-10-2002, 12:03 PM

Yes I as being sarcastic (guess I should lay it on a bit heavier next time). I don't think pay for anything is wrong, it is the way the world works. I guess it stems from what people think of when they say, "Search Engine". What it does, or what it is supposed to do.

On that note, search engines have always returned irrelevant links to search terms, so maybe they've never really lived up to the original purpose anyhow? Claiming you can use a particular search engine to find what you are looking for and mixing in advertising is similar to what many (not all) many hosting directories do.

http://google.com/search?hl=en&q=web+hosting
I can tell which ones are paid.

http://www.altavista.com/sites/searc...ing&pg=q&kl=XX
If you look closely, the first 5 out of 15 results displayed are paid (wouldn't know it or even think about it if you weren't paying attention), and the remaining 10 might be either. I don't know. Are they search listings? More ads on the bottom, then you can get to page two.

Anwhoooo... I think the question is more, what is a search engine, than it is ethical to have paid listings. Same as what is a host directory (many are just paid host listings). Nothing wrong with that and knowing that, I wouldn't use certain directories if I needed hosting.

Ohhh, and this isn't about ALL hosting directories, I think everyone knows which ones I'm talking about.