Comments on: An Ad-Supported Model With Teeth? http://thenoisychannel.com/2009/11/15/an-ad-supported-model-with-teeth/ Sat, 11 Feb 2012 00:39:47 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Daniel Tunkelang http://thenoisychannel.com/2009/11/15/an-ad-supported-model-with-teeth/comment-page-1/#comment-4885 Daniel Tunkelang Tue, 17 Nov 2009 01:55:10 +0000 http://thenoisychannel.com/?p=2788#comment-4885 I guess my point on the honey vs. vinegar is that Google (and the other web search engines) count on users to proactively click on ads--which is certainly less coercive than pre-roll ads and there variants. Moreover, the availability of ad blockers--for both display ads and text ads--has not led to significant adoption or countermeasures. I'm not a fan of ad-supported models, even if they pay my salary and generally support most of the online services I use. But, as I've said before, I'm enough of a realist to know that online consumers feel entitled to "free" services and undervalue the attention tax they pay for them. And yes, far more on this topic in the comments for the post Jeremy linked to. I guess my point on the honey vs. vinegar is that Google (and the other web search engines) count on users to proactively click on ads–which is certainly less coercive than pre-roll ads and there variants. Moreover, the availability of ad blockers–for both display ads and text ads–has not led to significant adoption or countermeasures.

I’m not a fan of ad-supported models, even if they pay my salary and generally support most of the online services I use. But, as I’ve said before, I’m enough of a realist to know that online consumers feel entitled to “free” services and undervalue the attention tax they pay for them.

And yes, far more on this topic in the comments for the post Jeremy linked to.

]]> By: jeremy http://thenoisychannel.com/2009/11/15/an-ad-supported-model-with-teeth/comment-page-1/#comment-4884 jeremy Mon, 16 Nov 2009 22:46:25 +0000 http://thenoisychannel.com/?p=2788#comment-4884 @Raza: By the way, check out our conversation about this topic from a few months ago: http://thenoisychannel.com/2009/07/31/sigir-2009-day-3-industry-track-vanja-josifovski/ @Raza: By the way, check out our conversation about this topic from a few months ago:

http://thenoisychannel.com/2009/07/31/sigir-2009-day-3-industry-track-vanja-josifovski/

]]> By: jeremy http://thenoisychannel.com/2009/11/15/an-ad-supported-model-with-teeth/comment-page-1/#comment-4883 jeremy Mon, 16 Nov 2009 22:15:30 +0000 http://thenoisychannel.com/?p=2788#comment-4883 @Raza: I have an ongoing hope that one day there will be a search engine that I can pay for. I really think that if I were paying real money, and the search engine were accepting real money, the overall experience would be quite a bit different than it currently is. Different how? I don't know for sure. But I have a hunch that it would be. And that I would be willing to pay for it. I realize that at times I can be a hopelessly naive idealist. So I'm not holding my breath. Still, I have to at least wonder, and ask the question. Oh, and thanks for taking my comment in the right spirit...the "chicken" name calling was indeed intended more for comedic effect than anything else. :-) And I did end up having chicken for lunch today. @Raza: I have an ongoing hope that one day there will be a search engine that I can pay for. I really think that if I were paying real money, and the search engine were accepting real money, the overall experience would be quite a bit different than it currently is. Different how? I don’t know for sure. But I have a hunch that it would be. And that I would be willing to pay for it.

I realize that at times I can be a hopelessly naive idealist. So I’m not holding my breath. Still, I have to at least wonder, and ask the question.

Oh, and thanks for taking my comment in the right spirit…the “chicken” name calling was indeed intended more for comedic effect than anything else. :-)

And I did end up having chicken for lunch today.

]]> By: Raza http://thenoisychannel.com/2009/11/15/an-ad-supported-model-with-teeth/comment-page-1/#comment-4882 Raza Mon, 16 Nov 2009 21:37:17 +0000 http://thenoisychannel.com/?p=2788#comment-4882 @jeremey, wow! apart from being funny your point was really interesting. But I was wondering what other "different business models" are there that the "not-so-chicken" people in this space can adopt? @jeremey, wow! apart from being funny your point was really interesting. But I was wondering what other “different business models” are there that the “not-so-chicken” people in this space can adopt?

]]> By: jeremy http://thenoisychannel.com/2009/11/15/an-ad-supported-model-with-teeth/comment-page-1/#comment-4880 jeremy Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:14:17 +0000 http://thenoisychannel.com/?p=2788#comment-4880 <i>Google’s approach, however, follows the aphorism that honey catches more flies than vinegar</i> I get what you're saying, but I would hardly call ads "honey". The organic results are supposed to be the honey. Google's search result ads are certainly not totally sour like vinegar, I agree. At best, I would say they're like a popular asian-inspired dish: Sweet and sour chicken. Sweet, because there is indeed an attempt to make them relevant. Sour, because no matter how relevant you make them, a truly awesome search engine should have been able to find those same results/ad landing pages organically; it's only because it didn't that the user had to look to the right-hand side column. And chicken, because it seems everyone in this space is too chicken to develop a different business model, one that isn't reliant on splitting the user's attention between two different types of relevance, "ad" and "organic". :-) I'm hungry now... Google’s approach, however, follows the aphorism that honey catches more flies than vinegar

I get what you’re saying, but I would hardly call ads “honey”. The organic results are supposed to be the honey. Google’s search result ads are certainly not totally sour like vinegar, I agree. At best, I would say they’re like a popular asian-inspired dish: Sweet and sour chicken.

Sweet, because there is indeed an attempt to make them relevant. Sour, because no matter how relevant you make them, a truly awesome search engine should have been able to find those same results/ad landing pages organically; it’s only because it didn’t that the user had to look to the right-hand side column. And chicken, because it seems everyone in this space is too chicken to develop a different business model, one that isn’t reliant on splitting the user’s attention between two different types of relevance, “ad” and “organic”.

:-)

I’m hungry now…

]]>